Bianca Nogrady

Enzyme loss linked to age related muscle wasting

May 5, 2023No Comments

From Nature Middle East, 22 March 2023: Deficiency of an enzyme vital for the integrity of the membranes that encase muscle fibres is behind age-related muscle wasting and an inherited genetic disorder that causes severe neurological and muscle problems, researchers have found.In humans, genetic mutations affecting the function of the enzyme phosphatidylethanolamine cytidyltransferase (PCYT2) lead … Continue reading Enzyme loss linked to age related muscle wasting

The plain truth about North America’s horse history

May 5, 2023No Comments

From Nature Middle East, 6 April 2023: Horses have long held a special place in the culture, spirituality and day-to-day lives of North America’s Indigenous people, such as the Lakota and Comanche of the American southwest and Great Plains.Until recently, horses were thought to have been introduced to North America by European colonisers. Now, an … Continue reading The plain truth about North America’s horse history

Climate freeloaders are destroying the planet

March 24, 2023No Comments

From WIRED UK, 23 March 2023: Alaska isn’t supposed to be an inferno—but its summers are now so warm that apocalyptic wildfires are almost inevitable. In June 2022, lightning strikes set the drought-stricken land ablaze, winds whipped up flames, and long curtains of fire soon ripped through previously untouched tundra, pushing plumes of thick smoke … Continue reading Climate freeloaders are destroying the planet

What now?

March 6, 2023March 6, 2023No Comments

I’ve just listened to the first Longform podcast interview with legendary science journalist Ed Yong, which took place in the first weeks of the pandemic in New York, when the honks and rumbles of ordinary traffic had been replaced by the banshee wails of sirens, and temporary morgues were being set up in New York’s … Continue reading What now?

Hyperauthorship: the publishing challenges for ‘big team’ science

March 2, 2023March 2, 2023No Comments

From Nature, 27 February 2023: The existence of the Higgs boson was first posited in a trio of papers in 1964. Two of those were authored solely by UK theoretical physicist Peter Higgs and the other was co-authored by his US and Belgian counterparts Robert Brout and François Englert. Nearly half a century later, the … Continue reading Hyperauthorship: the publishing challenges for ‘big team’ science

Lack of data hinders long Covid response

February 20, 2023No Comments

From The Saturday Paper, 18 February 2023: In historical accounts of the 1918 influenza pandemic, references can be found to people experiencing exhaustion, nervous complications, apathy and depression for weeks, even months, after they recovered from infection. And reports of persistent, chronic fatigue-like symptoms have emerged following the major respiratory disease outbreaks of the past … Continue reading Lack of data hinders long Covid response

New Zealand faces a future of flood and fire

February 20, 2023No Comments

From WIRED, 17 February 2023: New Zealand is grappling with two consecutive extreme weather events—massive flooding followed by a cyclone—that have claimed at least 12 lives and left hundreds of thousands of people without power. The high winds and waters of Cyclone Gabrielle have washed away coastal roads on the north island and left bridges … Continue reading New Zealand faces a future of flood and fire

Australian floods lead to spread of mosquito-borne disease

December 31, 2022No Comments

From The Lancet Infectious Diseases, June 2022: Mosquito-borne Japanese encephalitis is spreading across Australia in the wake of record rainfall. Read more (subscription required).

‘Game-changing’ gender quotas introduced by Australian research agency

December 28, 2022No Comments

From Nature, 17 October 2022: In an attempt to achieve gender equity, Australia’s leading health and medical research funding organization plans to award half of its research grants for its largest funding programme to women and non-binary applicants, starting next year. The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) announced the move last week. It … Continue reading ‘Game-changing’ gender quotas introduced by Australian research agency

Pandemic’s cancer backlogs receive treatment from AI innovation

December 28, 2022No Comments

From Nature, 12 October 2022: The COVID-19 pandemic has stretched health-care workforces around the world to their limits, as illness and burnout extract a toll from clinicians, nurses and staff. The need for innovations that can reduce workloads is pressing and has intensified interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics as potential technologies to help … Continue reading Pandemic’s cancer backlogs receive treatment from AI innovation