Scientists in the news this week: July 24, 2020

Professor Kerry Wilkinson has started working closely with Cassegrain Wines on a project which will look into researching the impact of smoke taint from bushfires on grapes and ways to cope with this in the coming years. Professor Wilkinson featured extensively in the news across media channels including:

• Australian Financial Review
• The Advertiser
• The National Tribune
• Mirage News
• ABC radio
• 4BC News Talk
• 3WM Horsham
• Mount Barker Courier
• Food & Drink Business

Dr Peter Boutsalis featured in The Land for giving a presentation focused on the research into the resistance to certain herbicides in ryegrass. 

Dr Boutsalis highlighted that in some cases of herbicide resistance there are other factors such as the environment or poor application to blame. Dr Boutsalis also discussed various strategies available to reduce the problem, such as the double-knock strategy where ‘glyphosate followed by paraquat works best when paraquat is sprayed two to five days after first glyphosate spray’.

Dr Katja Hogendoorn continues to be in the news, this week on ABC Radio and The Islander, discussing the green carpenter bee (Xylocopa aerata) which has faced a significant increase in the risk of extinction following the bushfires on Kangaroo Island. To help save the species, new nesting stalks are being built for these bees across the Island. 

Professor Christopher Preston continues to be featured in the news, this week in Stock Journal, where he is mentioned for giving advice to growers on how they can optimise the impact of new products for ryegrass control. 

The collaborative project led by Associate Professor Matthew Denton that produced a nitrogen reference manual for the Southern Cropping Region continues to be covered in the news, this week in Yorke Peninsula Country Times – Kadina.

Animal and veterinary sciences

Researchers have found that bacteria in humans that has grown resistant to antibiotics has potentially made its way into wildlife, including bats, penguins, sea lions and wallabies, as reported in The Guardian.

The research was led by Associate Professor Michelle Power of Macquarie University with a team which included Dr Wayne Boardman. Dr Boardman states bacteria and the genes associated with them that are being passed from humans to animals can also have the potential to evolve and come back into the human population.

Biological sciences

Soil scientist Professor Robert Fitzpatrick contributed to an expert brief published by The Australian Academy of Science. The brief focused on the crucial need for more work to occur to help Australian soil recover from bushfires. This news was published on the websites Australian Academy of Science and Scimex. 

Subsequent news stories included a Q&A published by Cosmos which also appeared online via TECHregister

Professor Fitzpatrick spoke with ABC Riverland in more detail about the bushfire impact to soils and went into detail about how the soils on Kangaroo Island and in the Adelaide Hills differ. It’s suggested that further research is required and soil plans for regional South Australian communities would be advantageous.

As if space wasn’t dangerous enough… Vikrant Minhas from the Research Centre for Infectious Diseases is the author of a Conversation article which highlights research from space flight missions has shown bacteria become more deadly and resilient when exposed to microgravity.

There is continued coverage of project EchidnaCSI (Conservation Science Initiative) which aims to gather important information on how last summer’s bushfires affected Echidnas. 

EchidnaCSI is covered in The Islander, where Professor Frank Grützner explains the initiative, the nature of Echidnas and the peak breeding season of echidnas. Professor Grützner also urges people to use either the EchidnaCSI app to record echidna sightings, to upload Echidna sightings to Living Atlas of Australia or email them at echidnacsi@adelaide.edu.au.