Academy Fellow and renowned immunologist and pandemic expert Professor Peter Doherty didn't mince his words when asked about climate change recently.

“Climate change is the greatest threat that humanity has faced in the modern era. Each and every one of us as a human being needs to do what we can both on the COVID front, and on the climate change front,” he said.

So how can we design the best possible future in the face of the great challenge of climate change?

Professor Doherty was one of the keynote speakers discussing this question at the recent Sustainable Shine Dome Symposium titled ‘Possible Futures’. It was the final event in a series of three symposia on heritage values and sustainability. The event focused on broad challenges and practical issues in the Australian response to climate change, lessons for a carbon active future, and specific findings and recommendations for the Shine Dome.

The event aimed to spark further inspiration for sustainable cultural heritage research in response to the climate change crisis.

In conversation with the Academy's Secretary Education and Public Awareness, Professor Hans Bachor, Professor Doherty explained how climate change and future pandemics are connected.

“There are many aspects to it as we have issues with, for instance, food production, in particularly developing countries, with climate change. That means people turn more to wild animals as a source of food … and people are moving more into forested areas and into areas where you can be at greater risk of contacting wild animals, which will carry novel pathogens,” Professor Doherty said.

It’s evident that human health and the health of the environment are connected in so many ways. Projects like the Sustainable Shine Dome enable people to focus on ways to improve lives by drawing on lessons from the past.

Ross Harding from Finding Infinity spoke about the potential for future buildings and cities, framed around work his company is doing overseas and in Australia.

Catherine Forbes from GML Heritage and May Ngui from GHD also reported on the discoveries, recommendations and next steps arising from the research carried out as part of the Sustainable Shine project.

The Sustainable Shine Dome is a joint project of the University of Canberra and the Australian Academy of Science and the object of an Australian Heritage Grant 2019–20 to preserve and promote the Shine Dome’s national heritage values. Find out more about the Sustainable Shine Dome project.

Watch the video below of the Possible Futures symposium, part of the Sustainable Shine Dome series.

Young people will again have the chance to explore science through art! Building on from last year’s success of scienceXart, the Australian Academy of Science is this year giving primary school students the chance to put thought into their food and create a plate, learning about the science of nutrition along the way.

In celebration of the United Nations International Year of Fruits and Vegetables, the 2021 competition theme is ‘scienceXart: food for thought’. This art competition calls on primary school students to design a plate of food and get inspired to sink their teeth into the science of what they eat.

scienceXart is hosted by the expert members of the Academy’s National Committee for Nutrition and supported by Dieticians Australia, an organisation of over 7500 dietetic and nutrition professions striving to build healthier communities. Together they aim to highlight the inherent creativity of the nutrition sciences to young people. The competition has been created in consultation with the Academy's education team.

About the competition

scienceXart: food for thought is open to primary school students studying in Australia, with submissions made using photos of the creative works.

The challenge is to design a plate of food that tells a story. It could be a story about the nutritional value of the meal, how the food on the plate was grown or created, or simply fun ways to consume fruit and vegetables.  

Students can create the plate however they want, from a drawing to craft supplies or even with real foods, fruits and vegetables! The possibilities are endless. Once they’ve created their plate, students write a description in 100 words or less about the science behind their plate and the story it tells. Then, snap a picture and submit the photo to the competition website for the chance to win an awesome prize pack for their entire class. 

Not only will students get to the opportunity to think about our food and flex their creative muscles, but they’ll also be celebrating the United Nations International Year of Fruits and Vegetables with others around the world.  

The competition is great for learning in the classroom or at home and has been designed to align with Australian curriculum learning outcomes. There are also activity plans for all age groups to integrate the competition into the classroom.  

Find out more about the challenge, the prizes, and how to get involved at scienceXart: food for thought.

The ‘scienceXart: spot the maths’ competition in 2020 received nearly 1000 amazing entries from school students across Australia, where students ‘spotted the maths’ in their everyday lives. See a gallery of the 2020 scienceXart winners.

Defence science and innovation is not only critical to maintaining Australia’s military capability but its multi-disciplinary applications are increasingly becoming crucial to the safety and security of the broader community.

Through collaboration with researchers, academia and industry, facilitated by Defence Science and Technology Group’s National Security Science and Technology Centre, research into real-world Defence needs and challenges are being translated into real-world commercial and community applications.

One outstanding example is Defence's ground-breaking biometrics research which is being used to combat serious crimes.

Defence scientist Dr Dana Michalski is the Lead for several programs of work, including those in Child Identification and Post-Mortem Identification within Identity Intelligence.

She is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide, where she supervises honours and PhD students, and is the Australian Research and Development (R&D) Lead for the Five Eyes Digital Forensics to Combat Child Exploitation Program. Her research has been adopted by agencies around the world.

Her roles involve directly communicating with Defence and national security agencies to ensure her and her team conduct research and development to help identify some of the most vulnerable members of society.

Renowned for tackling the challenging cases for facial recognition by optimising ways to identify children, her team have moved into another challenging area: identifying the dead.

“Again, facial recognition technology was never really developed with this use case in mind. But deep learning methods and access to appropriate datasets makes this a real possibility, it’s exciting,“Dr Michalski said.

Dana’s team is multidisciplinary, providing an edge to tackle the whole facial identification process. Her team evaluates the performance of commercial facial-recognition systems, using images from the agencies’ own data sets and then suggesting improvements. This optimisation process enables the authorities to get the most out of the technology they have invested in. Her team also develops novel technologies where technologies don’t exist to help with the identification process.

While advances in technology have enabled law enforcement agencies to make significant breakthroughs, the human element cannot be ruled out.

 “We aim to make the whole identification capability better, rather than just enhancing the technology,” Dr Michalski said.

Her team also tests human face-matching specialists who manually compare faces. They found there is a 20 per cent drop in performance when matching images of children versus images of adults.

“Identifying children is particularly challenging because their faces change so much as they develop,” Dr Michalski explains.

They are currently developing an evidence-based training program to enhance performance.

The team also provides advice on how to capture appropriate images for various use cases, to ensure the technology and human face-matching specialists can be as accurate as possible.

Building capability in these challenging areas has been made possible by collaborating across agencies, industry and academia.

“We can’t do this work alone,” Dr Michalski said.

“It’s about working closely with others to make the impossible possible, with the end goal to safeguard Australians as much as we can”.

This partner story was provided by the Department of Defence, Platinum Event Partner of the Academy’s flagship event, Science at the Shine Dome 2021.

Image adapted from Pixabay, CC0

Humanity’s move into space is gathering momentum. It’s widely predicted we could feasibly see lunar settlements as soon as the 2030s and crewed missions to Mars just a decade later. But significant hurdles remain—not least, how to ensure a sustainable supply of many survival essentials: food, water, medicines and minerals. University of Adelaide research is meeting the challenge.

Adapting crops to thrive in space

An Adelaide team, led by Professor Matthew Gilliham, is adapting space-ready plants to enable astronauts to grow their own high-quality food.

“We’re working with a variety of crops to accelerate growth, increase nutrient efficiency and density, use less water and minimise waste,” says Matthew.

Another key focus is identifying ideal gene combinations to cope with microgravity.

“Weightlessness creates major problems,” he says. “For example, water doesn’t move down the soil profile, and can starve plants of oxygen by enveloping tissues.”

Producing stable “space smoothies”

Adelaide’s Professor Volker Hessel and his team have developed technology that will enable astronauts to rapidly produce nutritious fortified beverages.

“We’re using a space-proven method known as microfluidics to create stable nanoemulsions,” explains Volker.

“The personalised approach we’ve developed allows production in minutes, compared to hours for conventional batch technologies.”

Identifying extraterrestrial resources

The University of Adelaide is heavily involved in the multi-party Seven Sisters consortium, which will send nanosatellites and exploration sensors to the Moon in 2023 to search for water and minerals.

 “Our involvement centres around the development of large arrays of wireless geophysical sensors for real-time seismic and heat-flow data mapping and analysis.” says University team leader Professor Graham Heinson.

In related work, Adelaide’s Professor Nigel Spooner is leading an Australian Space Agency-funded project testing the use of “novel fluorescence” sensing technology for real-time identification of minerals critical for extraterrestrial manufacturing.

Shielding medicines from cosmic rays

Another Adelaide space science project is the development of cosmic-ray-stable pharmaceutical compounds. Also led by Professor Volker Hessel, the University team’s approaches are currently being tested inside and outside the International Space Station (ISS) in the first Australian-led NASA-ISS experiment.

This partner story was provided by The University of Adelaide, Gold Event Partner of the Academy’s flagship event, Science at the Shine Dome 2021.

For more information on the University of Adelaide’s research, visit: ua.edu.au/research

A new QUT-US research partnership aims to develop a proof-of-concept for drought resistant bioenergy crops within five years that could lead to our greater use of renewable fuels.

QUT will help advance crop resilience research through a strategic partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), a US Department of Energy laboratory.

Plant biotechnologist researcher Professor Sagadevan Mundree, director of the QUT Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy (CAB), commenced a five-year joint appointment in July as Senior Scientist in PNNL’s Environmental Molecular Science Division of the Earth and Biological Sciences Directorate.

He will work with PNNL scientists to improve understanding of the role of plant microbe interactions in drought tolerance and stress resistance, and to develop approaches to enhance plant productivities and nutrient acquisition that ensure economic feasibility of bioenergy crops. 

“Ultimately, we want to ensure that, within a certain timeframe, we can switch to renewable sources of energy,” Professor Mundree said.

Professor Sagadevan Mundree, director of the QUT Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy, will work with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists to help ensure drought and stress tolerance in future bioenergy crops.

“Bioenergy crops are specifically grown for biomass, not food. Our first challenge is to ensure we have a reliable, sustainable source of biomass feedstock like switchgrass or sweet sorghum that can be processed to produce renewable energy and fuels.

“We don’t want to compete with food crops, so we should have dedicated crops as biomass sources, and that's what PNNL has been focused on.

“By increasing the stress tolerance of the plant, we could move bioenergy crops away from prime areas for growing food crops and start to use small, marginal land.”

For the past 25 years, Professor Mundree has worked on enhancing stress tolerance in plants to develop resilient food crops that he will now extend to bioenergy crops.

He has a rich history of working with extremophiles—organisms that can survive in extreme environments like intense temperatures and highly acidic environments—including the Australian resurrection grass.

“We have identified some unique strategies of the native Australian resurrection grass which grows in the outback and can tolerate extreme environmental stress,” Professor Mundree said.

“This plant uses a number of strategies that we could use in our work, and we can advance our understanding of these using PNNL’s capabilities and world-class expertise in plant systems biology, microbiome science and multi-omics measurement technologies.”

This story was provided by QUT, a Major Event Partner of the Academy’s flagship event, Science at the Shine Dome in 2021.

A new report launched today by the Australian Academy of Science has found that the impact of COVID-19 on women in the STEM workforce across the Asia-Pacific region has heightened the challenges and barriers they face in progressing their careers.

A survey conducted as part of the report found almost half of the women surveyed with caring responsibilities do not have access to flexible work, despite 60% of them saying flexible arrangements could better support their working conditions.

The survey included responses from 1109 individuals, including 865 women, from 31 Asia-Pacific countries and economies. This survey provides new evidence of the extent and impact that COVID-19 has had on the STEM workforce across the region.

The report calls for STEM-related organisations across the Asia-Pacific to embed more flexible workplace cultures and to recognise that for those working in STEM research, flexible measures of work productivity are needed, especially in terms of publication records.

The worsening of gender inequity in the STEM workforce across the region has been brought about by changes in lifestyle and the blurring of boundaries between the spheres of work and home, along with increased domestic and caring responsibilities.

The report found the pandemic has also impeded work productivity, increased precarious and insecure work arrangements, and reduced access to research facilities and workplaces due to lockdown arrangements.

These new conditions have had a significant impact on individual wellbeing, with the survey finding 50% of survey respondents reporting negative mental health impacts in relation to work or home life.

Despite the impacts of the pandemic, the survey found personal passion for their work (59%) and work fulfillment (46%) are the main reasons why women are likely to remain in STEM. 72% reported that their short-term career expectations were to remain in the STEM workforce.

Chair of the report’s Steering Committee, Emeritus Professor Cheryl Praeger, said the report has revealed that the pandemic continues to profoundly affect the lives and day-to-day activities of women in the STEM workforce at every level.

“Different parts of the Asia-Pacific region have different capacities to respond to these negative impacts. Regional collaboration, together with supportive workplaces and communities, can minimise gendered impacts of the pandemic on the STEM workforce.

“Solutions are offered in the report for all parts of STEM, particularly the need for flexibility in workplaces for all genders, and flexibility in grant applications and delivery,” Emeritus Professor Praeger said.

The report also highlights 20 personal stories from nine Asia-Pacific countries and looks at ways the region can future-proof and enhance a diverse STEM workforce in the Asia-Pacific.

Read the report

This project was funded by the Regional Collaborations Programme, administered by the Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (DISER).

About the survey

A wide range of STEM disciplines and all career stages were represented in the survey responses. Women in chemistry were the biggest group (13%), followed by women in physics and mathematics (12%), and biology (11%). More than 80% of all respondents had attained post-graduate qualification. Women aged 35 to 44 years (37%) were the main age group who completed the survey. Just over 25% of the survey respondents were from Australia. The countries of survey respondents are on page 16 of the report.

Online event—13 July

A free online event was held on 13 July with Professor Cheryl Praeger outlining the research project’s key findings. A panel discussion followed hosted by Australia’s Women in STEM Ambassador Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith and featuring the following STEM experts: Dr Judith Zubieta (National Autonomous University of Mexico), Hazami Habib (CEO Academy of Science Malaysia) and Professor Patricio Felmer (University of Chile). Watch the recording of this event.

World-leading experts will come together for a national roundtable at Australia’s home of science next month to map out Australia’s national priorities for RNA science and research. The one-day invitation-only event at the Shine Dome will be hosted by the Australian Academy of Science, in partnership with the Australian RNA Production Consortium (ARPC).

RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is a molecule that plays a central role in the function of genes. RNA technology is now being used to develop a new class of vaccines, including the mRNA vaccine to protect against COVID-19.

Its success to date has drawn sustained public interest in the technology. It has also triggered significant public and private investment to establish capabilities from research through to clinical and commercial onshore mRNA manufacturing. 

Given the efficacy and flexibility of mRNA-based vaccines, Australia is now working towards developing a sovereign capability to deal with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and future pandemics.

It is clear that applications of mRNA as well as other forms of RNA, such as siRNA, miRNA and gRNA, have huge potential in medicine beyond vaccines, and more broadly in the biotechnology and agricultural sectors. 

Australia must seize this opportunity to create an innovative RNA research and development ‘ecosystem’ and become a strong global player for this disruptive industry, creating and manufacturing high-value RNA-based products here and exporting them to the world.

Australia is well placed in this space with many world-leading experts in RNA science and biomaterials located within our universities and research institutes. As with our past investments in genomics, biologics, stem cells and cell therapies, we need to provide resources and incentives to further promote RNA product discovery, support innovation and creation of new IP. This will also foster establishment of new companies, create new products and provide new job opportunities.

The Academy is hosting a roundtable from 10 am to 2:30 pm on Thursday 29 July, which will bring together experts from the university and research sector, public sector, not-for-profit entities and industry.

The roundtable will:

• identify Australia’s RNA research strengths
• define research priorities and provide guidance on how to build a national RNA technologies ecosystem
• discuss how to build a framework that will create a pipeline of knowledge from discovery to translation, leading to clinical stage and commercial RNA manufacturing in Australia. 

Following the conclusion of the roundtable a full report on the outcomes will be made publicly available.

For enquiries about the roundtable please email Dr Hayley Teasdale (hayley.teasdale@science.org.au). 

International collaboration drives Australia’s scientific output, providing researchers with greater access to the world’s knowledge, expertise, technology, infrastructure and capital.

The Regional Collaborations Programme (RCP), launched in 2016 as part of the Australian Government’s Global Innovation Strategy, supports Australian researchers and businesses to build strong linkages in the Asia-Pacific region by funding multi-partner science, research and innovation activities that deliver innovative solutions to shared regional challenges.

Working closely with the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, the Australian Academy of Science draws on its network of Fellows, its national profile and its international reputation to deliver several Australian Government-funded science programs and initiatives to support international collaboration.

The Academy has delivered two rounds of the RCP, funding 14 projects and five workshops. To date, two projects and workshops have been completed, and Australian researchers have engaged with partners from 32 economies.

The RCP was designed to be flexible, and in response to COVID-19, the Department worked with the Academy to develop a suite of projects to address the global challenge of the pandemic:

• 26 RCP-COVID-19 Digital Grants were awarded to early and mid-career researchers to support digital methods of collaboration to address challenges related to the pandemic.
• A series of webinars on regional science and innovation responses to COVID-19 has brought together experts from across the region.
• A project examining the impacts of COVID-19 on women in the STEM workforce in the Asia-Pacific region, is building on the Rapid Research Information Forum’s report which found that women in STEM in Australia are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.

This story was provided by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, a supporting partner of Science at the Shine Dome

The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us how important biosecurity is: pathogens can enter Australia, become established and spread quickly. Our national biosecurity system safeguards Australia against many different threats affecting our industries and way of life. Some pests can have a significant impact on our physical wellbeing, such as tramp ants, an invasive species with a painful bite that may inhibit outdoor lifestyles. Agricultural diseases can damage plant crops and threaten people’s livelihoods, such as Panama disease tropical race 4, an incurable fungal disease that affects bananas and was detected in Queensland in 2015. We have also witnessed how a highly contagious virus devastated the Australian horseracing industry in 2007 with an outbreak of equine influenza.

Science plays an important role in reducing the threat of pests and diseases causing damage to the economy, the environment and social amenities. The Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis (CEBRA) is a biosecurity risk research hub based at the University of Melbourne undertaking applied research to help prevent and mitigate biosecurity breaches. Together with its funding partners, the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE), and New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries, CEBRA researches practical, custom solutions for contemporary biosecurity risk management problems.

CEBRA’s work has had numerous positive impacts. A profiling approach that CEBRA developed for managing biosecurity risk associated with international passengers, mail and cargo has had a tangible impact on processing efficiency.

“CEBRA’s analysis highlighted the areas of higher and lower risk which enabled the department to better target its activities at the highest risks in order to get the best biosecurity outcomes,” says Tim Chapman, DAWE Biosecurity Animal Division (rt’d). “This was a significant change and improvement from past mass screening practices.”

CEBRA’s research into efficient risk-based inspection regimes and the influence of incentives on importer behaviour enabled the regulator to develop and then expand a compliance-based intervention scheme for a range of plant-product import pathways.

Brendan Woolcott, DAWE Biosecurity Plant Division, Plant Import Operations, said compliance data has increased the efficiency of service delivery without compromising the protection of Australia’s assets.

"The use of compliance data to automatically adjust intervention levels has been a game changer for Plant Import Operations".

CEBRA is also proudly collaborating with the Australian Academy of Science on producing high quality science video communications to tell these stories to the world.

This partner story was provided by CEBRA, Bronze Event Partner of the Academy’s flagship event, Science at the Shine Dome 2021.

UniBank’s commitment to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in the university sector and beyond has seen them continuously support major STEM related events and programs alongside the Academy, including the Women in STEM Decadal Plan, Catalysing Gender Equity 2020, and now Science at the Shine Dome.

UniBank also supports Australian universities with their ‘Three Minute Thesis’ competitions, as well as innovative scholarships created to encourage more women to continue working in STEM related fields.

Since 2018, UniBank has provided a Women in Physics Prize in partnership with RMIT University to encourage and support women in traditionally male-dominated STEM areas of study.

Recent award recipient, Elise Blanchfield, is currently studying physics at RMIT and used her prize to support her study expenses.

 “I already love studying physics and now getting an award for it has motivated me to continue aiming for my best,” she said.

Ms Blanchfield is considering specialising in optics or astronomy and is excited about her future in Australian STEM.

“The award is a huge motivator. Seeing that my hard work and interest in physics was not only noticed, but worth an award, reinforced my enthusiasm.”

“I’m thankful to UniBank for making that possible—I never thought I’d be lucky enough to win one!”

Through actions like this, UniBank has shown that a bank can be both profitable and socially responsible. While big banks invest 0.3-0.6 per cent of profits after tax in the community, UniBank gives 7.2 per cent back to their members.

Advocacy, passion and sustainability are the drivers behind UniBank’s commitment to operate as a world leading ethical business.

UniBank has proudly maintained its status in the business world as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for six years in a row.

Its ‘Feel-Good Wealth’ approach means member money will never be invested in the fossil fuel industry, and money loaned will not be received by environmentally damaging industries.

In addition to strict investment policies, UniBank acts for the environment by ensuring that carbon emissions from their electricity and fuel use are offset to zero.

It's all part of UniBank’s ongoing commitment to being a world-leading socially responsible bank.

When you join UniBank, you can rest assured that your money is managed ethically and responsibly by a member-owned bank with solid credentials, not slogans.

www.unibank.com.au

This story was provided by UniBank, a Gold Event Partner of the Academy’s flagship event, Science at the Shine Dome in 2021.