Date Posted: 09-May-2012

KOALAS FACE EXTINCTION

Koalas in eastern Australia are being classified as vulnerable and added to the threatened species list.

Koala numbers have dropped by 40 per cent in Queensland and by a third in New South Wales over the past 20 years.

Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke says it is not a national listing because there are large koala populations in South Australia and Victoria.

"In Victoria and South Australia, koalas have actually been in such high numbers they've been eating themselves out of habitat. There's what you call population control measures going on there ... like sterilisation", he said.

"But in places like NSW and Queensland, their numbers have been taking a massive hit".

Burke says a species is usually not considered endangered if it is bountiful in some locations.

"On a species as iconic as the koala, I really don't think I could have credibly said to the Australian people, 'oh don't worry, you might not have any more in Queensland the way things are going, but you can go to South Australia if you want to see one' ", he says.

The Australian Koala Foundation says the protection does not go far enough and the Federal Government has underestimated the danger koalas face.

Date Posted: 08-May-2012

BERRIES STOP BRAIN DECLINE

Those who eat blueberries and strawberries experience slower mental decline with age than peoiple who consume fewer of the flavonoid-rich fruits, according to a US study.

Based on a survey of more than 16,000 women who filled out regular questionnaires on their health habits from 1976 through 2001, the findings showed that those who ate the most berries delayed cognitive decline by up to 2.5 years.

Every two years from 1995 to 2001, researchers measured mental function in subjects over age 70, according to the study published in the Annals of Neurology.

"We provide the first epidemiologic evidence that berries may slow progression of cognitive decline in elderly women", says Elizabeth Devore, a doctor with Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.

"Our findings have significant public health implications as increasing berry intake is a fairly simple dietary modification to test cognition protection in older adults".

Devore adds that the findings are of particular importance to the aging population, which is on the rise.

The number of Australians aged 65 and older grew 26 per cent from 2000 to 2010, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Robert Graham, an internist at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital who was not involved with the study, says eating more berries is a good idea for people of any age.

"Large epidemiological studies, such as this one, add to the basic science research that the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of berries have a beneficial role in age-related cognitive decline", says Graham.

Date Posted: 07-May-2012

HEADSET TO READ MINDS

Researchers are working on headsets that read your brain waves and translate them into action ? either in a computer game, or controlling a robot or a wheelchair ? without the use of any other body part.

Brain activity can be detected because the billions of neurons in every human brain communicate with each other via electrical charges.

Although each individual charge is tiny, says Geoff Mackellar, research manager at Australian technology company Emotiv, together they produce enough electrical currents flowing around the brain for us to measure.

Measuring electrical brain activity isn't exactly new; scientists have been poking around in our grey matter with electrodes since the early 20th century. Today, doctors use a technique called electroencephalography (EEG) to diagnose disorders such as epilepsy and brain damage.

What is new is translating these brain waves into action. Emotiv is one of the groups doing this, they have developed a headset designed to allow you to control a character in a video game, using only your mind.

Like an electroencephalograph, it detects the type and location of the activity occurring in your brain.

"We've got 14 [electrodes] around the head? so we can see quite fine changes in the frequencies and intensities [of brain waves] coming out of specific parts of the brain", says Mackellar.

The twist to this device is you can think of a specific thought or visualisation, and Emotiv's software allows you to attach that thought to a particular activity on screen.

For example, if you want your video game character to jump, you think about jumping or come up with a mental image that represents jumping. You then tell the system that this particular thought pattern means 'jump'. From then on, when the headset detects you thinking this specific mental pattern, your character will jump.

Each of your thoughts has a particular signature ? defined by its frequency, intensity and location ? and this allows the device to differentiate between different thoughts, like jump, push, pull, and so on.

This device is one example of what's known as a brain computer interface or BCI.

Gaming is just the first step; researchers hope to use BCIs to control robots, and improve the way we interact with technology in general ? for example a computer that can read and respond to our moods.

Neuroscience labs around the world are also developing this technology to help people with limited or no mobility gain independence, for example allowing a paraplegic person to control the movement of a wheelchair or lighting in their house with their thoughts.

The biggest hurdle facing researchers is improving the accuracy of BCIs in reading brain activity, and their ability to cut out excess brain 'noise', particularly if they are designed to allow a wheelchair user to negotiate unpredictable and dangerous environments like a busy city street.

Of course, the human element ? the user ? can be unpredictable too, and Mackellar says it does take a bit of training to get the hang of this technology.

"In a way, it's like learning how to move a muscle, or how to play a piano piece. Initially, you have to really put a lot of concentration into it, and then eventually it becomes more like second nature".

Date Posted: 06-May-2012

SCIENCE BREAKTHRUGH IDENTIFIES GENE MUTATIONS THAT CAUSE PRIME CANCERS

Scientists in Melbourne say they have made a discovery that will help tens of thousands of Australian women who have a genetic predisposition to breast cancer.

For the vast majority of breast cancer cases, the genetic link has been impossible to explain, but the discovery of a new gene mutation is likely to help identify people at risk of breast cancer and potentially other cancers.

Melbourne woman Gerda Evans, 63, was the second of her three sisters to be diagnosed with breast cancer.

"Within a couple of years we had four breast cancer diagnoses in the family; one with a first cousin and mine and Doone's and then sometime later, Joanne's", she said.

"So it became evident to us that there was something likely genetic going on".

Her sister, Doone Lamb, 70, was the first to be diagnosed. She says the lack of scientific evidence behind the genetic link has led to some uncertain times.

"I think one of the hardest things for me was when I had a recurrence 10 years later and I really didn't want to tell them because it was maybe that they would think that they would have a recurrence as well, so that was very difficult," she said.

"But you know they've been fine".
Genetic sequencing
Audio: Genetic breast cancer discovery (PM)

Using information from thousands of Australian families over 20 years, an international team of researchers has been trying to determine what causes some families to be at a higher risk of breast cancer than others.

Using the latest genetic sequencing technology, the scientists discovered a new mutation in the breast cancer risk gene XRCC2, which predisposes women to breast cancer.

Melbourne University Professor Melissa Southey says the finding will help manage the risk of breast cancer for families with a strong history of the disease and no known genetic cause.

"It is particularly frustrating for families that are relying on their family history alone to be able to advise them about what best strategies are for them in terms of cancer management", she said.

"To look forward to a time where we can estimate individually a woman's risk based on her genetic makeup and other environmental exposures is really where we're heading and this really does advance the research heading in that direction".

Professor Southey and her team used a new genetic technology called massively parallel sequencing. It enables the sequencing of large amounts of DNA at a high speed.

She says her team is using the method to identify mutated genes found in other cancers.

"A study of all cancers will benefit from this new technology," she said.

"My laboratory is running very similar studies in colorectal cancer and prostate cancer, but really any complex human disease analysis of the genetic aspects will be very gratefully enhanced by applying this genetic technology".

The breast cancer study has been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

Date Posted: 05-May-2012

LEFT HAND SELECTION

A new mathematical model can predict the proportion of left-handed people in sports such as boxing and golf.

Mathematician Mark Panaggio and PhD supervisor Dr Daniel Abrams report their findings today in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

"Our model gives the first quantitative explanation for the distribution of handedness within many professional sports", says Panaggio.

Only about 10 per cent of humans are left-handed and previous work has suggested this "population-level handedness" can be explained by the competing pressures of competition and cooperation.

Panaggio and Abrams hypothesised that this idea could also explain the observation that the proportion of left-handed people seemed to differ in different types of sport.

For example, there seemed to be more left-handed boxers and fewer left-handed golfers.

They used this idea to develop the first model of its kind that could predict the handedness fractions in a given population.

Date Posted: 04-May-2012

COMPANIES TO MINE ASTEROIDS

USA Planetary Resources claims full rights to go to any asteroid in space and make use of its resources including rare cosmic water and precious metals.

"We as a US company certainly have " asserts Planetary Resources co-founder Eric Anderson.

"It is a stated goal of the US government to enable and promote commercial activities and economic activity in space", he says.

However, asteroid mining may be at odds to the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty, the legal framework for international space law.

The United States is among more than 100 countries that have signed the treaty.

Article 2 of the treaty states: "Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means".

The issue of private property in space has been a topic that people have been discussing on and off, particularly over this past decade with the advent of more commercial space entities, says Bigelow Aerospace attorney Michael Gold.

"The UN treaty in essence forbids private ownership of celestial property. According to the treaty, you could not arrive on the Moon or an asteroid and claim it for ownership, at least as a country. Things get a little more confusing when you talk about ownership by a company, but I think most lawyers would tell you that they are one in the same and that whether it's a corporation or a nation you cannot, according to the treaty, claim private celestial property", says Gold.

"Any nation can pull out of that treaty with a year's warning, so I think it would be wrong or misplaced to either criticize or slow-roll development efforts, such as what Planetary Resources is proposing, due to the treaty if for no other reason than the United States can pull out at any time and therefore not be bound by the treaty", adds Gold.

Legal justification to mine asteroids likely would follow technical capability.

"It is my belief that in the end, capability will trump law," stated Gold.

Planetary Resources will have decades to work out any legal kinks. The company, based in Bellevue, Washington, is developing a line of low-cost observatories that would be put into orbit around Earth and sold to commercial, educational and research entities for a variety of purposes including remote studies of near-Earth asteroids.

Ultimately, Planetary Resources will send a prospecting spacecraft to a targeted asteroid to inventory its contents and test extraction techniques.

"We have a long view. We're not expecting this company to be an overnight financial homerun", says Anderson.

Date Posted: 03-May-2012

SLUDE LAKE REVEALS OLDEST HUMAN ANCESTOR

After two decades of examining a microscopic algae-eater that lives in a lake in Norway, scientists have declared it to be one of the world's oldest living organisms and human's remotest relative.

The elusive, single-cell creature evolved about a billion years ago and did not fit in any of the known categories of living organisms - it was not an animal, plant, parasite, fungus or alga, they say.

"We have found an unknown branch of the tree of life that lives in this lake. It is unique", said University of Oslo researcher Dr Kamran Shalchian-Tabrizi.

"So far we know of no other group of organisms that descends from closer to the roots of the tree of life than this species", which has been declared a new genus called Collodictyon.

Scientists believe the discovery may provide insight into what life looked like on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago.

Collodictyon lives in the sludge of a small lake called ?s, 30 kilometres south of Oslo.

It has four flagella - tail-like propellers it uses to move around, and can only be seen with a microscope. It is 30 to 50 micrometers long.

Like plants, fungi, algae and animals, including humans, Collodictyon are members of the eukaryote family that possess cell nuclei enclosed by membranes, unlike bacteria.

Using the characteristics of Collodictyon, scientists can now infer what prehistoric eukaryotes looked like, says Tabrizi - probably a single-cell organism with finger-like structures that it used to catch microscopic prey.

"They are not sociable creatures," says co-researcher Professor Dag Klaveness, who bred millions of the tiny organisms for the study.

"They flourish best alone. Once they have eaten the food, cannibalism is the order of the day".

They have not been found anywhere but in Lake ?s.

"It is quite fascinating that we can still find these kinds of organisms after so many years," says Tabrizi.

"It has been outside our living rooms for millions of years and we haven't seen it."

Collodictyon was first found in the lake about 20 years ago by University of Oslo scientists who recognised it was unusual but "didn't know how important it was", he adds.