NewsBite

Research

September

From left: Danielle Wood, Peter Varghese, Frank Lowy, Linda Jakobson, John Daley.

Australia’s ‘brain boxes’ are a growing source of covert power

These research and advocacy institutes are on the rise. But to get the funding, they need to be seen.

  • Emma Connors

August

CSIRO chief Professor Doug Hilton, says the agency needs to be able to draw in skills from across the agency “with minimal friction”.

Plan to cut 500 jobs from CSIRO ‘threatens research’

A CSIRO plan to cut $100 million in costs threatens industry collaboration and the government’s Made in Australia ambitions, industry leaders say.

  • Tom Burton

This special paint could save lives from bushfires

New paint technology developed at UNSW to help fire-proof homes is a joint winner in the Higher Education Awards research commercialisation category.

  • Alexandra Cain

How medical research is failing women

For years, the process for developing and testing new drugs has focused disproportionately on male bodies — to the detriment of female patients.

  • Sarah Neville
Chief scientist Cathy Foley said she was surprised by the level of consensus around what the community was looking for from science.

Aussie innovators pushed to focus on five ‘missions’

New priorities, outlined by Science Minister Ed Husic, include the net zero transition, supporting healthy communities and “elevating” Indigenous knowledge systems.

  • Updated
  • Tom Burton
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Professor Anne-Louise Ponsonby: “These findings will now feed into safety regulations for plastic exposure in pregnancy.”

Bees’ royal jelly may ease autism’s sting

Researchers have found that a component of royal jelly, the secretion from honeybees, can counter one form of autism.

  • Jill Margo

June

Humans typically struggle to see patterns in complex high-frequency transactions, but computers can be trained to identify networks and suspicious transactions.

Why people with cancer don’t get the full benefit of clinical trials

Australian researchers say regulators should mandate the requirement to share data.

  • Jill Margo
Universities have been “disingenuous” about how much overseas student revenue is spent on research.

‘Very wealthy’ unis ‘disingenuous’ about foreign student fees

Universities are richer than they claim and spend less of their overseas student revenue on research than they say.

  • Julie Hare
The AI race has extended to the world of finance academia, and a group of University of Sydney analysts have staked an early claim.

ChatGPT can make human-like judgments, pick good stocks, researchers say

Earnings season looms – and expect to see more fund managers and brokers using AI to analyse information. ChatGPT could be a game-changer, according to some academics researching how it can analyse results.

  • Anthony Macdonald
Adam Taras, with supervisor Dr Don Dansereau, completed the research as part of his Honours thesis.

Aussie experts can stop your smart-device cameras spying on you

When photos snapped by a robot vacuum cleaner of a woman on the toilet went viral, the smart home sector knew it had a problem; Aussie academics claim to have solved it.

  • Alana Piper

May

Rebates are expected to increase by $2.6 billion over five years.

R&D tax incentive to blow out by $2.6b

Tax breaks for companies and superannuation payments for veterans and public servants have overshot expectations, adding billions in costs to the budget.

  • Joanna Mather
“There is no reason to assume that T. rex had primate-like habits,” says zoologist Kai Caspar of Heinrich Heine University in Germany.

Like a chicken or a baboon – just how smart was T. rex?

If the long-extinct giant wasn’t scary enough, imagine if it was as clever as a primate – but not every zoologist is on board with the idea.

  • Will Dunham

April

Professor Raymond Dolan is a leading neuroscientist  and a professor of neuropsychiatry at University College London.

Why this leading brain expert doesn’t do the same thing every day

Neuroscientist Raymond Dolan says people who continue to have an exploratory goal-directed life appear to be less susceptible to disorders like dementia.

  • Jill Margo
“[Australia is] on the cusp of turning back the  incidence of [breast] cancer, that has been going up and up,” Professor Kelly-Anne Phillips says.

How countries like Australia could prevent one in four breast cancers

While a global report has found up to a quarter of breast cancers in high-income countries can be prevented, Australia’s program is already under way.

  • Jill Margo
Melbourne Law School has been promoted in a new ranking which is inconsistent with what students say.

Melbourne Law School improves ranking despite students’ year from hell

A new league table of universities by subject area has bumped Melbourne Law School up a place to 10th, calling into question the validity of many rankings.

  • Julie Hare
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March

Bowel cancer is a common form of cancer in Australia and is becoming more prevalent in younger people.

Multivitamins can help survival from bowel cancer

A study examining the dose-related influence of multivitamins on non-metastatic colorectal cancer is believed to be the first of its kind.

  • Jill Margo
Tanya Monro: “I’d always loved maths. From a very young age I saw it as patterns and beauty.”

Meet Australia’s version of James Bond’s Q

After a stellar career as an academic researcher, Professor Tanya Monro now heads Canberra’s top-secret Defence Science and Technology Group.

  • Julie Hare
Main Sequence managing partner Bill Bartee, is making long-term bets on science-based start-ups.

CSIRO backs its long-term VC bet despite nil returns

The CSIRO’s VC fund has not returned a dollar to public coffers despite receiving $175m from taxpayers over seven years, but insists it is on track.

  • Nick Bonyhady
“ We can’t be sure that hearing loss causes dementia because there could be other explanations..,” says professor Dawes

No proof hearing aids reduce the risk of dementia, experts say

While hearing aids are enthusiastically promoted for reducing dementia risk, experts say the evidence for this has not been objectively appraised.

  • Jill Margo
Taiwanese researchers provided the first population evidence for a causal link between herpes and Alzheimer’s.

How this virus may increase your risk of developing Alzheimer’s

Serious research is under way on whether treating this virus with antiviral medication could reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s.

  • Jill Margo

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/research-jar