Jean Balchin • Jul 21, 2017 •
Leaps and strides in digital data acquisition and storage has lead to the phenomenon of electronic mortality, where digital data — from medical records to genomic information — can exist, and be accessed, for a potentially infinite period. Consequently, there are major ramifications in a variety of different areas. In particular, health research relies of large data sets. All over the … Read More
Alison Campbell • Jul 21, 2017 •
Chickenpox “parties”. They had their day – and that day was before the chickenpox vaccine came on the scene. Because chickenpox can be much worse in teens and adults, back in the day it did make sense to contract the disease in early childhood. In fact, it was almost unavoidable, given the epidemic nature of this virus. But a vaccine … Read More
Guest Work • Jul 20, 2017 •
Jennifer Lavers, University of Tasmania and Alexander Bond, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds A few weeks ago, the world woke to the story of Henderson Island, the “South Pacific island of rubbish”. Our research revealed it as a place littered with plastic garbage, washed there by ocean currents. This was a story we … Read More
Guest Work • Jul 20, 2017 •
Originally posted on Royal Society Te Apārangi’s Past and Future series where, as part of 150th anniversary celebrations, early career researchers are invited to share discoveries in their fields from days gone by or give us a glimpse into where their research may take us in the future. By Lillian Ng, Department of Psychological Medicine, The University of Auckland In … Read More
Public Health Expert • Jul 20, 2017 •
Dr Melissa McLeod and Professor Tony Blakely Nationwide Colorectal Screening in New Zealand: a tricky balance of improving overall population health and addressing inequalities In this blog we will discuss a paper recently published in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention [1] by the BODE3 team, which modelled a nationwide colorectal cancer (CRC) screening programme for New Zealand. We … Read More
Guest Work • Jul 19, 2017 •
James Dyke, University of Southampton By continuing to delay significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, we risk handing young people alive today a bill of up to US$535 trillion. This would be the cost of the “negative emissions” technologies required to remove CO₂ from the air in order to avoid dangerous climate change. These are the main findings … Read More
Jean Balchin • Jul 19, 2017 •
Using the gene-editing technique CRISPR, a UNSW Sydney-led team of scientists has introduced a beneficial natural mutation into blood cells, switching on production of foetal haemoglobin. This advance could eventually lead to a cure for sickle cell anaemia and other blood disorders. Sickle Cell Anaemia Cells in tissues need a constant, steady supply of oxygen to function properly. Normally, … Read More
Guest Work • Jul 19, 2017 •
Gina Ravenscroft, University of Western Australia; Nigel Laing, University of Western Australia, and Royston Ong, University of Western Australia The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recently recommended obstetricians, gynaecologists and other related health care providers offer pre-pregnancy carrier screening for genetic diseases to all patients. Pre-pregnancy carrier screening involves testing healthy adults … Read More
Guest Work • Jul 19, 2017 •
Ralph Holz, University of Sydney Most people have never heard of the software that makes up the machinery of the internet. Outside developer circles, its authors receive little reward for their efforts, in terms of either money or public recognition. One example is the encryption software GNU Privacy Guard (also known as GnuPG and GPG), and its authors … Read More
Guest Work • Jul 18, 2017 •
Peter Stratton, The University of Queensland and Michael Milford, Queensland University of Technology Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to revolutionise our lives, drive our cars, diagnose our health problems, and lead us into a new future where thinking machines do things that we’re yet to imagine. Or does it? Not everyone agrees. Even billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, … Read More