News & Events 2006

A selection of news headlines relevant to Science & Engineering appear below.

October 2006
Reptiles' burning question
Bushfires that sweep through the remnant vegetation of South Australia's peninsulas may represent either salvation or doom to the native reptile inhabitants.

September 2006
Bird species at risk
When a bird species disappears, its function as a pollinator goes too. In Australia, birds are the prime pollinators (a role held by insects in Europe and North America), so their absence poses threats to entire functioning ecosystems, with obvious implications for everything from fire risk to flooding.

September 2006
A greenprint for parks
Postgraduate students from Flinders are providing some long-term vision for the sterling work of the volunteers who help to maintain and upgrade the State's conservation parks.

Four students from the School of Biological Science's postgraduate Biodiversity courses have recently completed a restoration plan for Scott Creek Conservation Park, in the southern Mount Lofty Ranges.

September 2006
Machines that think - and talk
Interaction between humans and machines is set to move to a higher level through a new $3.4m research program involving researchers at Flinders University and the University of Western Sydney (UWS).

August 2006

Science and Mathematics Bonus Points Scheme

Effective for 2006/7 entry onwards, Science and Mathematics Bonus points will be allocated to students studying selected Science and Mathematics subjects in Year 12 who apply for entry to a Science and Engineering degree at Flinders.

August 2006

Flinders University Open Days

Flinders University Course and Careers Open Days for 2006 were held on Friday 18th August and Sunday 20th August.

August 2006
Cheap Water in the Wind
New science, in the form of nanotechnology, may finally realise the age-old dream of crops in the desert.

August 2006
Biotech Graduate spends time with NASA
A 2004 Flinders' Biotechnology graduate, Benjamin Blythe, has recently spent time with NASA in New York.

June 2006

On the trail of megafauna

A party of scientists led by Flinders University's Associate Professor Rod Wells has headed off to the Lake Eyre Basin, looking for new insights into the development of Australia's marsupials.

May 2006

Cell line lets tuna off the hook

Collaboration between Flinders University and CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory has delivered the world's first continuous southern bluefin tuna (SBT) cell line.

The cells, which have been successfully grown for more than 50 generations, are now considered to be 'immortal', and will enable a range of laboratory research projects to be conducted on tuna flesh without using live fish.

April 2006

Giving pollutants curry

A 3,500 tonne pile of waste soil, originally laden with concentrated toxins and pollutants gathered from grease traps at industrial sites, petrol stations and food and catering outlets around Adelaide, has just been given a clean bill of health.

While the hard work of neutralising the toxins fell to billions of microbes, Flinders Bioremediation and scientific adviser Dr Richard Bentham gave the bugs a substantial helping hand.

March 2006
50 years of surging stormwater
After pulling together 50 years' worth of statistics, Dr Jeremy Wilkinson, a researcher in the Flinders Research Centre for Coastal and Catchment Environments (FRC3E), has found that the steady increase of Adelaide's discharge of stormwater and sewerage into the Gulf St Vincent can be directly linked to the city's urban sprawl.

February 2006
State award for graduate
A passion for the marine environment has brought public recognition for Flinders graduate Heidi Bartram, who was recently chosen as 2005 Young South Australian of the Year.

Click on the image to find out the  Discovery Challenge answers, and the new name for our robotic dog.

More news articles relevant to University study can be found at:

• 'The Australian' newspaper Higher Education web site
• DEST web site (Department of Education, Science & Training)

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