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Category: Science communication
Shape-shifting sea snakes – a dynamic story of powerful selection pressures and rapid evolution
Evolutionary biologists are tasked with understanding the great diversity of organisms around us. For all we have discovered about the natural world, there is still so much yet to be understood. Researchers at the University of Adelaide‘s Environment Institute are using comparative approaches to understand how phenotypic diversity evolves by the process of natural selection, […]
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Prof. Hugh Possingham featured on ABC Late Night Live
Last week, incoming Chair of the Environment Institute Advisory Board, Prof. Possingham was featured on back to back ABC radio programs. Prof. Possingham spoke with Ian Dunt about the political landscape with Dr. Peter Burnett, to consider what is at stake when Australia’s key piece of environmental legislation is reviewed. Listen now on ABC Late […]
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Researchers develop new eDNA techniques to detect the rare Australian endemic Blind Cave Eel
University of Adelaide researchers have designed a new way to locate the Blind Cave Eel, paving the way to locate fauna in future. Groundwater is the largest source of unfrozen freshwater on Earth and can be extremely vulnerable due to overexploitation. Far from being a sterile habitat, groundwater is home to a wide variety of […]
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Professor Hugh Possingham announced as new Chair for Environment Institute Advisory Board
Chief Scientist at The Nature Conservancy, Professor Possingham, joins the Environment Institute. We welcome Professor Hugh Possingham as the incoming Chair of the Environment Institute Advisory Board. Prof. Possingham was born in Adelaide and completed a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Applied Mathematics at the University of Adelaide in 1984. He was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship […]
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Call for entries with Virtual Three Minute Thesis (3MT) for 2020
The 3MT is a skills development activity that challenges Higher Degree by Research students to explain their research project to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes.. 3MT is a chance to practise research communication in a short format to a non-specialist audience with minimal presentation material. This years competition will be held in a virtual format (video […]
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‘Good intentions’ Murray-Darling Basin water program drains even more water from the system
A new report has found irrigators using a program designed to cut down on water use, have ended up taking more out of the Murray Darling river system. Australia is more than halfway through implementation of the Murray Darling Basin Plan and as at the start of 2019, has spent over $6 billion in buybacks […]
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The evolution of colour vision in sea snakes
Research from the University of Adelaide has revealed the evolution of colour vision in front-fanged snakes following their transition from terrestrial to fully marine environments. This research also provides the first evidence of where, when and how frequently the species have adapted their ability to see in colour. Today, the journal Current Biology published the […]
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New tools support integrated management of River Murray flows and floodplain infrastructure
Infrastructure built along the River Murray during past ten years helps sustain critical floodplain ecological communities by recreating some of the natural inundation regime that would have occurred prior to development. The benefits of providing these floodplains events are relatively well known, but until recently it wasn’t clear what effects infrastructure was having on the […]
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Regional SA kids consider naming new wasp species after coronavirus
An exciting find by Ramco Primary School proves there are still many wasp species yet to be discovered. Dr Erinn Fagan-Jeffries has spoken to ABC News and ABC Radio about a project she leads which focuses on discovering and documenting native Australian wasps. As part of this project she visits primary schools and trains students to catch insects using […]
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Humans coexisted with three-tonne marsupials and lizards as long as cars in ancient Australia
When people first arrived in what is now Queensland, they would have found the land inhabited by massive animals including goannas six metres long and kangaroos twice as tall as a human. A/Professor Lee Arnold has joined a national team to study fossil bones of these animals for the past decade. Their findings, published in Nature […]
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