AUSTRALIA is ensuring its long-term food security by sending more than 10,000 seed varieties to Norway’s “Doomsday Vault”. The Australian Pastures Genebank (APG) in South Australia has collected and processed more than 84,000 lots of pasture seed from around the country to be deposited in the plant world’s equivalent of Noah’s Ark. The seed lots will be …. more
Category: News
New honey bee research centre a boost to industry
A NEW Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) led by The University of Western Australia will provide a much-needed boost to Australia’s valuable, but largely untapped honey bee products, by bringing together both industry and academic expertise from across Australia. Dr Liz Barbour, from UWA’s Office of Research Enterprise, said the CRC for Honey Bee Products would …. more
Australia’s southeastern climate revealed back to 1788
RESEARCHERS have extracted climate information from Australian newspaper reports, farmers’ diaries, government documents and private journals, to extend our knowledge of the climate of southeastern Australia back to 1788. The information reveals the changing influence on our weather of El Niño and La Niña events on the region’s rainfall. “We found a real breakdown in …. more
High quality graphene from soybeans
CSIRO Scientist Dr Dong Han Seo, holds a piece of graphene film GRAPHENE is a carbon material that is one atom thick. Its thin composition and high conductivity means it is used in applications ranging from miniaturised electronics to biomedical devices. These properties also enable thinner wire connections; providing extensive benefits for computers, solar panels, batteries, …. more
Dealing with rehabilitation of derelict mines
‘Farmers in particular are increasingly worried about the contamination of surface and ground water supplies used to grow crops or livestock, as the fracking debate shows’ – Professor Naidu THE world’s foremost experts in mine site rehabilitation and clean-up will gather in Singleton, NSW, on December 6-8, this year to discuss the latest and best ways …. more
First glance at Australia’s foreign owned agricultural land register
THE release of the first report from the Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land today, September 7, has been welcomed by Acting Prime Minister and Leader of The Nationals, Hon Barnaby Joyce MP. He said the report showed that at the end of the financial year, 52.1 million hectares of Australia’s total agricultural land of …. more
