Fresh Science

A Perth researcher is using CSI-style paternity testing in the lab to track pollen and measure how much the urban sprawl is affecting plants ability to reproduce. Perth’s famous urban sprawl is causing trouble for trees and plants that depend on birds and other animals to spread their pollen. “In this part of Australia, more…

Kids born to mums who’d taken high doses of fish oil in pregnancy were less likely to have some types of allergies, Adelaide researchers have found. The trial, run by the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), was the largest in the world to look at the effects of Omega-3 – commonly found…

A Sydney researcher has discovered a common, pneumonia-causing bacterium can shed living proteins, and may use this ability as a defence against our immune system. “The process is called cleavage,” says Michael Widjaja of the University of Technology, Sydney. “Bacteria use it to multiply their defences, effectively increasing the number of targets that our immune…

Sufferers of rare mitochondrial disease have new hope with a new method developed at the University of Sydney. The method provides a diagnosis within weeks instead of months or years through a simple blood sample. Mitochondrial diseases are rare and hard to diagnose. They can affect any organ, at any age and are often ‘hidden’…