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Submission + - 3D model of Australia's Great Barrier Reef & Choral Sea

Submitted by brindafella
brindafella writes: Research from James Cook University's Dr Robin Beaman has aggregated data into a new high-resolution bathymetry model of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea, called gbr100. The 100 metre-resolution gridded bathymetry dataset covers an area of about 3,000,000 km2, from the Gulf of Papua to northern New South Wales, and easterly into the deep Coral Sea. There is also a really interesting colour poster (909kB PDF) to download.

Submission + - Lowell Observatory pushes to name an asteroid "Travyon" (azdailysun.com)

Submitted by Flash Modin
Flash Modin writes: The observatory where Pluto was discovered is pushing to name an asteroid after a black teenager killed in a controversial confrontation in Florida last year.

William Lowell Putnam III says his family is identified with the cause of African American rights, and thus an asteroid named after Trayvon Martin is perfectly appropriate. Putnam is the sole trustee of the observatory, which was founded by Percival Lowell during his search for canals on Mars.

Astronomers at the observatory discovered the asteroid in 2000, but it has not been formally named.

Putnam has already asked the Minor Planet Center once to designate the asteroid "Trayvon," but they told him the designation was "premature." Now that there's been a verdict, the observatory is reapplying in hopes the naming body will see things different.

Submission + - 2013 Winners - Eureka Prizes - Australian Museum

Submitted by brindafella
brindafella writes: The 2013 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes reward excellence in 17 fields, covering: research and innovation; leadership and commercialisation; science communication and journalism;and school science.

Significant among the prizes were:

CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science — Winner: Professor Frank Caruso, University of Melbourne — This international nanotechnology expert has won the CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science for his leadership in developing nanotechnology-enabled materials for biomedical applications.

Macquarie University Eureka Prize for Outstanding Young Researcher — Winner: Dr Kerrie Wilson, University of Queensland — Targeted spending provides more bang for the buck when it comes to protecting threatened species, according to new guidelines developed by the University of Queensland’s Dr Kerrie Wilson.

Australian Museum University of Sydney Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Prize – Secondary — Winner: The Spectacular Spider, Brandon Gifford, Casino High School, NSW — A mini-documentary about spiders has won final-year school student Brandon Gifford the 2013 Australian Museum University of Sydney Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Prize for secondary students. It’s his third win in a row.

Submission + - Open Source Photometry Code Allows Amateur Astronomers To Detect Exoplanets

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Have access to a telescope with a CCD? Now you can make your very own exoplanet transit curves. Brett Morris, a student from the University of Maryland, has written an open source photometry application known as Oscaar. In a recent NASA Press Release, Morris writes: "The purpose of a differential photometry code – the differential part – is to compare the changes in brightness of one star to another nearby. That way you can remove changes in stellar brightness due to the Earth's atmosphere. Our program measures the brightness change of all the stars in the telescope's field of view simultaneously, so you can pull out the change in brightness that you see from the planet-hosting star due to the transit event." The program opens up exoplanet-observing to amateur astronomers and undergraduate students across the globe.

Comment I was flabbergasted (Score 2) 87

by brindafella (#44745987) Attached to: World-First: Woman Becomes Pregnant After Ovarian Tissue Graft

There was a time when Slashdot was for people to bring interesting and informative things, or to ask good questions and get good advice. (That is why I bothered to submit this report of a world-first procedure.)

And, then people like you came along.

READ what the story is about; watch and listen to the video.

Comment You did not even read it. (Score 1) 87

by brindafella (#44745961) Attached to: World-First: Woman Becomes Pregnant After Ovarian Tissue Graft

Oh, no. I posted this so that people like you could READ it, and make sensible comments.

To make it easier, get REAL CLOSE to the screen, so the letters are bigger.

Her ovaries were REMOVED, SECTIONED (cut into slices) and FROZEN. AFTERher cancer treatments, the SLICES were RE-IMPLANTED in her ABDOMEN (the part behind the BELLY-BUTTON) and, with FURTHER TREATMENT, then the ovary cells RE-ACTIVATED. EGGS were REMOVED AND FERTILISED, and were IMPLANTED in her WOMB. She has TWO BABIES growing inside her, now.

Now, go and read the longer version, at the links. There is also video, if you can't be bothered reading any more.

Submission + - Woman with cancer, re-implanted with ovarian tissue, is pregnant with twins. (abc.net.au)

Submitted by brindafella
brindafella writes: A world first! When Australian woman, Vali, was diagnosed with cancer, and treated, she was not looking at a good outcome. Yet, TWO cancer treatments later, she is pregnant with twin girls. Her ovaries were sectioned and frozen before the cancer treatment. She has had her own flesh implanted outside her pelvis. Eggs were gathered, IVF techniques used later with her male partner, and her uterus is now carrying two viable girls due to be born in about 3 months. Melbourne IVF's Associate Professor Kate Stern has explained the process today.

Submission + - What happens when a gorilla retires? Another zoo.

Submitted by brindafella
brindafella writes: The head gorilla at Australia's most prestigious zoo, Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney, is about to be retired. Kibabu is a 'silverback' and, at age 36, is about to be taken away from his family and retired. His replacement is a 12-year-old silverback from France. It's a natural thing in the wild, but Kibabu is not going to be in a fight that he loses to a younger male. He'll just go. His new home in retirement will be another zoo, about 150km away, at Mogo.

Submission + - Australia's latest and best computer - a Japanese god

Submitted by brindafella
brindafella writes: Australia's latest and best computer has been unveiled at the Australian National University in Canberra, within the National Computational Infrastructure's National Facility. Raijin is named after a Japanese god of lightning and thunder, but the name also sounds like "raging" so some geek humour may be involved. It has: 57,472 cores in the compute nodes; approximately 160 TBytes of main memory; Infiniband FDR interconnect; and, approximately 10 PBytes of usable fast filesystem (for short-term scratch space). The brand name is Fujitsu. Peak performance is approximately 1.2 PFlops. It runs CentOS 6.4 Linux distribution (based on RHEL6.4).

Submission + - Geophysics finds 280 new-old craters on the Moon (curtin.edu.au)

Submitted by brindafella
brindafella writes: Data fusion has found 280 new (old) craters on the Moon, by taking gravity data from and observations from images and creating a new insight into the Moon's past. Curtin University (Western Australia) researchers led by Professor Will Featherstone says>/a> they first looked for craters on the far side of the Moon, which cannot be seen from Earth. Then, the technique was applied to the face visible from Earth. This research on the 280 new lunar craters will soon be published in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Planets.

Comment Spiritual / Religious and Scientific approaches (Score 1) 181

by brindafella (#43507975) Attached to: Interviews: Ask Freeman Dyson What You Will

Professor Dyson,

In accepting the Templeton Prize for "an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works", you are marked for having a spiritual / religious side at a level of excellence/standing that is internationally recognised. What has this recognition meant to you, compared to your scientific achievements or insights?

Comment APC (Score 1) 363

by brindafella (#43478771) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What Magazines Do You Still Read?

APC (used to be called "Australian Personal Computer) is cutting-edge and is good to have in printed form, even though it has an online presence at www.apcmag.com, too. The editor recently floated the idea that its cover DVD might end soon, with all the good stuff being as downloads.

Before going into the chair at the Blood Bank, I select to read:
National Geographic
Australian Geographic

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