GM Canola Trials Begin in WA

Jennifer: Over the last few weeks, country towns throughout Western Australia have been celebrating the onset of Spring. I have enjoyed heading out to Quairading, Mukinbudin, Narrogin and Tambellup to attend the annual Agricultural Society Shows in these towns. Making the long hours behind the wheel much more enjoyable were the picturesque golden canola crops, visible as far as the eye could see. Interestingly, as I found out today, the crops I was admiring could well have been genetically modified.

GM canola trials began recently in Western Australia at twenty different locations across the State. This includes seventeen farmer trials and three research trials, which aim to establish whether the GM canola can be successfully segregated from non-GM canola throughout the supply chain. One research site is located in Geraldton, 430 kilometres north of Perth; another is located at Esperance, on the south-west coast.

The GM herbicide-tolerant canola to be trialled in WA is called “Roundup Ready”, and is tolerant to the “Roundup” herbicide and glyphosate. Two genes from a soil bacterium have been introduced into “Roundup Ready” to render the canola plant herbicide-tolerant. Four herbicide-tolerant canola varieties have been available to Australian farmers since 1993. Two of these varieties are non-genetically modified.

The GM canola harvested at the WA trial sites will most likely be sold overseas, however a moratorium in Western Australia prevents its commercial production. GM canola has been commercially cultivated in the USA and Canada since 1996, and its hybrid varieties make up 60 percent of all the canola grown in these countries.

In 2008, the New South Wales and Victorian governments approved the cultivation of 10 000 hectares of GM canola. Moratoriums were subsequently lifted in these states. However, major Australian canola consumers, including Flora, ETA and Meadow Lea, have since declared a boycott of GM-canola.

Filed under: Awareness, Genomics

Darwin’s Experiment in the WA Outback

Jennifer: Charles Darwin’s great grandson has invested $300 000 in a disused cattle station north-east of Perth. Chris Darwin’s donation to the Conservation Council of WA and Bush Heritage Australia enabled the purchase of the land, which is Australia’s only internationally recognised “biodiversity hotspot”. The property, named the “Charles Darwin Reserve”, is located in a sharp transition zone between the wheatbelt and arid Austin region.

The reserve is the location for the Charles Darwin Observatory Project. The project, launched on August 25, was developed to initiate long-term research into plant and animal survival in Australia. It will examine the effect of climate change on Western Australia’s flora and fauna over the next thirty years.

A two-year survey of the wildlife and vegetation on the reserve has recently been completed, establishing which species are especially vulnerable and therefore key indicators for shifts in climate. The short term aim of the project is to establish a biological baseline and basic infrastructure to facilitate long-term monitoring of biological and ecological responses in wildlife to climate change. The results of such long-term monitoring will be used to improve climate change modelling and will be instrumental in developing biodiversity conservation strategies.

According to the Conservation Council, less than one percent of published research on the impact of climate change on global biodiversity is from the southern hemisphere. The launch of the Charles Darwin Observatory Project bodes well for biodiversity conservation in Australia, in the face of anthropogenic climate change.

Filed under: Awareness, Environment, Futures

COMS2009: Nanotechnology in Europe

Kristin: I’m on my way to COMS2009. the annual commercialisation of micro and nano systems conference presented by MANCEF. Last year I attended the conference in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and blogged and twittered some of the things that attracted my interest. This year I intend to do the same from the conference venue in Copenhagen Denmark.I also have two presentations: on CleanFutures in the clean technologies section and one with Francesca Calati of La Trobe University in the education section on AccessNano. Many thanks to the Perth Convention Bureau for providing some sponsorship towards my attendance at the conference.

This visit to Europe will also see me visit contacts in The Netherlands and The United Kingdom to look at European approaches to public engagement around emerging technologies, specifically nanotechnologies. The outcome of these visits, plus some desk-based research will be a report for the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science & Research and will hopefully contribute to Australia’s enabling technologies strategies around public engagement.

And in my spare time, I’m looking forward to connecting with futurists in Copenhagen, Paris and London, as well as meeting up with friends.

Filed under: AccessNano, Awareness, Events, Nanotechnology, conference, public science , AccessNano, cleanfutures, coms, education, mancef, mancef-coms

We need science to sustain urban landscapes

Kate:  A series of talks where the public could interact with international experts in ecology was a highlight of this years Science week celebrations in Brisbane.  I attended a public talk on the Science of Sustaining Urban Landscapes involving scientists attending the 10^th International Congress in Ecology (INTECOL) that coincided with science week.

Understanding the ecology of urban landscapes is important. Most people on the planet now live in cities and cities often cover areas with high biological diversity. Cliff Dorse presented experience from Cape Town which contains half of South Africa’s biological diversity and 20% of Africa’s plant species. People in cities depend on ecological services (like clean air and water) that natural areas within city landscapes provide. Reserves and wildlife in cities are where most of us are exposed to ‘nature’. So urban sprawl results in both loss of biological diversity and our opportunity to experience natural areas. Darryl Jones (Centre for Innovation in Conservation Strategies, Griffith University) spoke of an ‘extinction of experience’ that is occurring with increased urban density.

It may not surprise you that city planning has mostly not been informed by good ecological science. City shapers (mostly developers and engineers) have usually not had much training or interest in biology. However, it may surprise you to learn that there isn’t enough knowledge about urban biology because ecologists have until recently not been interested in studying it. Mark McDonnell (Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology) described ecologists as being mostly “nerdy types” who want to learn about nature in ‘natural areas’. Urban landscapes have at times been deemed too degraded, and interactions between people and wildlife in cities too ‘unnatural’, to warrant attention.

Dr McDonnell reports that the situation is changing however with studies of the field of urban ecology undergoing a rapid expansion. Cliff Dorse described experience from Cape Town where good ecological science is informing city planning. Extensive mapping of vegetation types within the city has been used to set conservation targets based on research. This is being aligned with the city planning process to shape the city growth around a conservation network.  Interestingly the map based planning tools used were developed in Australia but have yet to be used to plan biodiversity conservation in cities here. We need both to encourage more ecologists to study our urban landscapes and to insist that our city planning is shaped by ecological science.

Filed under: Awareness, Environment, Events, conference, public science , brisbane, city planning, ecology, Environment, INTECOL, public science, Science Week, sustainability, urban ecology

Endings and Beginnings

Kristin: Regular visitors to our blog will have noticed a design change. After two years of Ingenuity@Bridge8 it was time for renewal. We were also all conscious that our Bridge8 website desperately needed refreshing, but did not want a site that didn’t allow regular updating and interaction. This will be our new home.

Another factor has played a part. After 6 years, NanoVic and NanoVentures Australia will close at the end of August, which means that the Blog@NanoVic site and the work we have done on the NanoVic website will disappear. I’ve been busy transferring many of our NanoVic blogs to this site, and you can find them by clicking on the “nanovic” tag. The articles from the NanoVic website will gradually be reviewed and updated and posted to AZoNano so that the information remains available. Some of my favourite blogs include Lisa’s blog on making nano Obamas, our revision of Peter Binks’ blog on the nanotechnology in the iPod Nano, and Sarah’s memories of food poisoning. Plus we manage to reference both Jessica Abla and Pamela Anderson in nanotech contexts!

Our more recent posts have expanded our nanotech focus to include sustainability and science communications, partly due to the interests of our new Bridge8-ers Kate and Jennifer, but partly also due to our broad interests and varied projects. Primarily though all our research and exploration returns to the question of emerging science and technologies and the interaction with social, environmental and economic factors in the creation of innovative futures.

Filed under: Awareness, Blogging, Environment, Innovation, Leadership, Nanotechnology, People, Politics, Science , australianfuturist, Environment, Futures, Innovation, nanotech, science communication