Indigenous rangers have been working with WA’s department of food and agriculture to eradicate an exotic plant.
Ornamental rubber vine, which first escaped from a garden, is threatening the purple-crowned fairy wren’s habitat.
This story first appeared in Science Network WA on 24 September 2014 [read this story]. The Kimberley Echo republished it on 4 December 2014.
Archaeologist Liesel Gentelli has borrowed techniques used by the police gold stealing squad to identify Spanish silver coins from old ship wrecks.
Click on this image to read the story
The WA Museum allowed her to study deformed lumps of silver from six ships wrecked off the west coast before the days of the Swan River Colony.
Ms Gentelli identified silver dollars from far-flung mints in Mexico, Peru, Spain and the Netherlands from the time when Spanish silver was the world currency.
She switched majors from archaeology to forensics to pursue this major project for her PhD studies.
This story first appeared in Science Network WA on 5 October 2014. The Kalgoorlie Miner republished it on 8 November 2014.
Science Network WA [read this story]
Gold refineries may soon be able to quit using toxic cyanide to process ore.
This chemical is dangerous to work with and without careful disposal, bad for the environment.
Instead, a scientists says they can try an organic chemical that is one of life’s “building blocks” – the amino acid glycine.
It is cheaper than cyanide and can be re-used.
Glycine can also be used to extract copper.
First published in Science Network WA [read this story]. Republished in The Kalgoorlie Miner on 1 November 2014.
HOPES of using a parasite as a new biological control for cane toads have been dashed, as it has proven fatal to one of the Kimberley’s tree frog species.
Click on this image to read the story
University of Sydney herpetologist Rick Shine says lungworm infected and killed splendid tree frogs during laboratory trials.
“Not only did the parasite infect the frog and find its way to the lungs but it killed the frog very quickly,” Professor Shine says.
“[This happened] much more quickly than it affected the cane toads.”
This story first appeared in Science Network WA [read this story]. The Kimberley Echo republished it on 9 October 2014. I am planning another story about how the parasite passes from toad to frog which I will post when available.
AUSTRALIAN bats developed a high-speed flying technology some 50 million years before aircraft engineers.
Click on this image to read the story
A zoologist and an aerodynamics engineer have found several bat species employ the same principle used in a stealth bomber.
This is a story about flat-plate aerodynamics in bats, published in Science Network and republished in The Pilbara Echo.
Science Network [read this story]
Recent research shows sand dunes in the Mid-West could easily engulf roads and buildings.
Guardian News 4 July 2014 p 35
The strange phenomenon begins when a dune become separated from the beach, and begins to travel inland as prevailing winds blow it along.
It may end up many kilometres from the coast before it runs out of sand.
In the meantime it engulfs anything lying in its path.
Science Network WA [read this story]
The wild radish, a troublesome pest in wheat crops, is developing resistance to many herbicides.
Agricultural scientist Grant Thompson’s solution to the problem involves even more herbicides.
In a series of trials, he has found spaying one herbicide on the seedlings and another chemical on the plants a few weeks later keeps their seeds out of the crop.
This story first appeared in Science Network WA [click here to read]. The Midwest Times republished it later – the date on this image is wrong.
While most of the easy-to-find iron ore has been pegged out in the Kimberley, scientists say there should be plenty more in the Yilgarn goldfields.
The Kalgoorlie Miner 3 May 2014 p 21
In the dim and distant past the region was largely submerged under shallow seas, where layers of iron oxide and silica formed banded ironstone. Later, tremendously hot washes of water and carbon dioxide rose up from the bowls of the earth, turning it into what we call iron ore.
Most of this is now buried under layers of soil and other sediment, but outcrops here and there have similar chemical signatures that scientists can now detect with hand-held devices or even from satellites.
Science Network [read this story] This Kalgoorlie Miner also republished this story.
Scientists say wastewater treatment by Broome Shire and the Department of Water is causing toxic algae blooms in Roebuck Bay.
Click on this image to enlarge it
A blue-green algae has been troubling Broome residents for 14 years.
Lyngbya causes bad skin irritations, and can kill small animals.
Scientists say it blooms in Roebuck Bay every wet season, thanks to the nutrients it gets in the runoff from the first rains, groundwater pollution, and the practice of dumping treated sewage water on local parks.
Science Network WA [read this story]
Broome Advertiser republished this story on 19 June 2014 – P13.
Human occupation sites, such as caves, often carry a natural record of tens of thousands of years of history in the layers of dirt on the floor.
Click on this image to read the story
Archaeologists have often missed some of the most interesting artefacts lost or discarded by cave dwellers because they are so tiny.
An archaeologist tole me they typically sift the soil from an occupation site through 6mm and 3mm sieves on site, and then examine the dirty gravel.
She says they get a much better result when they “wet sieve” in the laboratory as it is easier to find artefacts in clean gravel.
Science Network WA first published this story. The North West Telegraph and the Pilbara News republished it.