Academic gets new take on old treasure 8/11/2014

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Archaeologist Liesel Gentelli has borrowed techniques used by the police gold stealing squad to identify Spanish silver coins from old ship wrecks.

The Kalgoorlie Miner 8 November 2014

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]

Tenganan: Home of Bali’s rarest textiles 14/11/2014

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Very few women still practise this art

A double ikat weaver at her loom

TEXT AND PICTURES BY GEOFF VIVIAN

Tenganan in southeast Bali is one of the villages that preserves a pre-Hindu “Bali Aga” culture that may be thousands of years old.

Indonesia's rarest textiles

These are Indonesia’s rarest textiles, produced in just one Bali village.

A feature of this is the double-ikat weaving, requiring warp and weft threads to be meticulously tie died before the weaver puts them together.

Tenganan is the only place in Indonesia that still produces double ikat, and in this story I explain how you can get to Tenganan and visit a double ikat weaver.

inBali [read this story]

Amino acids key to new gold leaching process

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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.

Kimberley frogs prove vulnerable to lungworms 19/9/2014

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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

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.

Bat wing practice maximises flight efficiency 13/8/2014

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AUSTRALIAN bats developed a high-speed flying technology some 50 million years before aircraft engineers.

Click on this image to read the story

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]

Travelling dunes encroach on infrastructure, and reveal geological pattern 16/4/2014

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Recent research shows sand dunes in the Mid-West could easily engulf roads and buildings.

Guardian News 4 July 2014 p 35

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]

 

Two-spray strategy outmanoeuvres crop weed 15/3/2014

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The wild radish, a troublesome pest in wheat crops, is developing resistance to many herbicides.

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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.

He’s a Mason Master 22/8/2012

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Gordon Marshall is an Aboriginal man and a freemason.

From The Koori Mail 22 August 2012 Photo - Geoff Vivian

From The Koori Mail 22 August 2012 Photo – Geoff Vivian

He has been Worshipful Master of The Derby Lodge seven times, and is now the Worshipful Master of Roebuck Lodge in Broome.

He appeared this week as a guest on The Mary G Show, where the “hostess with the mostest” congratulated him.

Anyhow, this was a good opportunity to share a Koori Mail story I wrote two years ago.

 

Iconic flying saucer in mothballs – 12/12/2008

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Whatever happened to the “space ship” that once stood at the entrance to Willeton’s Burren Dah estate?

willetonfuturo - Examiner 2008 12 12Originally acting as a sales office for the estate, it later served as the subdivision’s entry statement.

It featured on a Jebediah album cover, and in its later days was said to be the site of some late night teenage parties.

When I tracked it down in 2008 it was lying in bits in someone’s backyard. The site’s then occupant, Dennis Jensen MHR, claimed no knowledge of its whereabouts.

Originally published in The Examiner 12 December 2008 p 9.