Selected CSIRO media mentions for the week commencing 2 August 2021. If you encounter a paywall, request a text version by emailing the article title here.
New research to tackle one of Australia’s most prolific mosquitos, responsible for spreading most cases of Ross River virus, has commenced in the Hunter Region of New South Wales. The three-year project, between the University of Newcastle, CSIRO, the NSW Department of Health and the University of Melbourne, will use genomic sequencing to inform suppression strategies for the Aedes vigilax mosquito – CSIRO media release, 5 August 2021.
A leading CSIRO agronomist has called for scientists to be more honest with farmers about uncertainties around climate change projections, claiming more needs to be done to “rebuild the trust that’s been lost.” CSIRO Agriculture and Food deputy director Dr Michael Robertson made the comments at the Grower Group Alliance’s annual forum in Perth last week, where he spoke about how best to engage with farmers on the thorny topic of adapting to climate change – Countryman, 2 August 2021.
CSIRO scientist Mark Hemer says the study looked at a dozen sites across Australia including an area of southern Tasmania which offered wind speeds of 12 kilometres an hour on average. Sites in Bass Strait, off Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia were also identified as good potential sites to locate offshore wind farms – ABC online, 3 August 2021.
The CSIRO team, led by senior scientist Tony Vuocolo, has conducted over 45 trials in the lab in the last two years to measure the impact of the sheep response on larval growth in vitro. Early CSIRO findings show that some of these candidate vaccines are having effects on the blowfly by stunting maggot growth, with some dying.” – Stock Journal, 2 August 2021.
Continually dumping crushed rocks from a bulk carrier along a Great Barrier Reef shipping route could counteract the acidification of ocean water caused by fossil fuel burning, but would come with unknown side effects on the marine environment and coral reefs, according to a study from Australia’s science agency, the CSIRO – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 4 August 2021.
