Biomedical Art Pictorial • Dolphin Social Lives • Plagiarism by Peer Reviewers • Seafaring Spiders

Volume 38 | Number 6
NOV/DEC 2017 | $9.95

Reconstructing
Neandertal Life
Fossilised dental calculus reveals a
surprising level of sophistication

Antarctic Clues to the Origin of Viruses

The Light Bulb Moment for the Infant Brain
The Global Collapse of the Oncology Market
Questionable Evidence for Brain Training Programs

Gravitational Waves from Colliding Stars • Why Termites Swapped Trees for Mounds
A gift that will be
valued through to
next Christmas

Stuff some science under the Christmas tree this year. Get access to past editions and
additional online content with every subscription purchased at austscience.com

MAIL ORDER FORM Payment details: ❏ Cheque ❏ Visa* ❏ Mastercard* ❏ Money Order
‡
TAX INVOICE
Make cheques payable to Control Publications Pty Ltd. *A 2% surcharge applies to credit card transactions. Six issues per year.
Control Publications ‡
ABN 46 006 591 304

❏ $55 individuals ❏ $90 schools ❏ $140 institutions (6 issues/year) Prices include GST. Card No. __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ Expiry: __ __ __ __

Name/Address .................................................................................................. Cardholder Name ....................................................................... Signed ......................................................

................................................................................................................................
POST TO: Control Publications, Box 2155, Wattletree Rd PO,VIC 3145
...................................................................... State ............. P/code .............. FAX TO: (03) 9500 0255 ONLINE: www.austscience.com 386

Subscribe at www.austscience.com
@austscience facebook.com/austscience
 CONTENTS

FEATURES
14 Neandertal Life Reconstructed
One Bacterium at a Time
Laura Weyrich
Fossilised dental calculus is revealing that Neandertals weren’t the
oafish brutes we’ve long considered them to be.

18 The Light Bulb Moment for Brain Development

Geoffrey Goodhill & Lilach Avitan
Some elegant experiments in zebrafish have revealed how sensory
experience during infancy can have long-lasting effects on the brain. 14
20 Brain Training: Show Me the Evidence!
Tejal M. Shah & Ralph N. Martins
Many computer-based brain-training programs promise to improve
cognitive capacity and delay age-related issues such as Alzheimer’s
disease, but how credible is the evidence behind these claims?

22 Along Came a Spider

Sophie Harrison
Genetic studies reveal that trapdoor spiders colonised Kangaroo Island
after surviving a remarkable rafting journey from South Africa.

24 Cathedrals in the Desert

Nathan Lo 18
Termite mounds populate the northern Australian landscape like
miniature skyscrapers, yet genetic analyses reveal that the first termites
that rafted to our shores originally built their nests in trees. Why did
they do this?

27 The Global Collapse of the Oncology Market

Martin Ashdown
A new approach to cancer treatment promises the use of fewer drugs
and shorter treatment periods, leading to a “big short” of stocks that
profit from oncology.

30 The Art of Science

The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute has created an exhibition of
gorgeous images revealing biological processes such as a mammary 27
gland during lactation, deadly parasites that resemble neon flowers,
and what happens when you grow a lung in a laboratory.

32 The Secret Life of Dolphins

Heidi Pearson & Gabriel Machovsky-Capuska
New underwater camera technology has captured the social lives of
wild dolphins for the first time, revealing how deep and for how long
they dive, how they nurture their young and even how they play with
objects in the ocean.

36 A Plasmid Goes Viral

Rick Cavicchioli & Susanne Erdmann
No one really knows how viruses evolved, but scientists looking for
Antarctic viruses from extremely cold and salty lakes have discovered
new clues. 30
NOV/DEC 2017 | |3
CONTENTS

conSCIENCE
39 Appropriate Behaviour?
Plagiarism by academic reviewers is hard to prove, and even harder
to punish.

NEWS & COLUMNS

5 Up Front
Australia’s space industry has been adrift in a vacuum of national
6 neglect for more than 20 years, but that is about to change.

6 Browse
A round-up of science news from our shores.

40 Neuropsy
A popular fictional theme, psychogenic amnesia is a possible
consequence of stress or trauma.

41 The Fossil File

The Cambrian explosion of animal diversity, evident at the Burgess
Shale fossil site is fertile ground for philosophers to ponder.

42 Expert Opinion
Elon Musk provided an update on his quest to colonise Mars at the
8 International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, where he
described a reusable rocket to overcome cost barriers and an
ambitious schedule to land cargo missions on Mars by 2022.

44 The Bitter Pill

The Chinese government is behind efforts to promote Traditional
Chinese Medicine despite its lack of evidence.

45 The Naked Skeptic

The same sex marriage survey repeats the statistical mistakes of
most opinion polls.

46 EcoLogic
Collaborative wildlife gardening programs engage residents to
manage their land and achieve landscape-focused conservation
11 goals.

47 Lowe Tech
The re-establishment of an Australian space agency is expected to
generate billions of dollars after decades of neglect of the sector.

48 Out of this World

New research supports the view that meteorites kickstarted life on
Earth, and Australian astronomers have measured how a galaxy’s
spin affects its shape

49 Quandary
Botched executions provide a timely warning that assisted suicide
does not necessarily lead to a peaceful death.

50 Australasian Sky
39 Your maps of the night sky for November and December.

4| | NOV/DEC 2017
UP FRONT

Lost in Space
Australia’s space industry has been adrift in a vacuum of national
neglect for more than 20 years, but that is about to change.
It’s an exciting time for anyone who dreams of worlds beyond our own. Since the www.austscience.com
EDITOR/PUBLISHER: Guy Nolch
last issue of Australasian Science we’ve seen Cassini’s heroic death plunge through
Saturn’s rings and the detection of gravitational waves released from the collision of
two neutron stars (see p.6). Australian astronomers have played their roles in these COLUMNISTS: David Reneke, Ian Lowe,
Peter Bowditch, Michael Cook,
John Long, Tim Hannan
events by collaborating with international colleagues and hooking into the data gener-
ated by phenomenal new observing facilities abroad and in space.
Australia may also be gearing up as a key player in the development of astronomy PATRONS: Australasian Science is
projects as large as the Square Kilometre Array, but Dr Lee Spitler of Macquarie supported by Nobel Laureate Professor
Peter Doherty and renowned science
broadcaster Robyn Williams, representing
University says the wider space industry “has largely been operating as a grassroots move-
ment across a small number of companies, university groups and the defence sector”. excellence in science and its communication.
In space no one can hear you scream, and Australia’s space industry has been
abandoned in a vacuum of government indifference for two decades. EDITORIAL CONTACTS
In 1987 the Labor government created the Australian Space Office to coordinate Control Publications P/L, Box 2155,
and commercialise the sector. Some of the big plans floated were a space port on Cape Wattletree Rd PO, VIC 3145, Australia
Phone: (03) 9500 0015
E-mail: science@control.com.au
York and the re-establishment of the Woomera rocket launch facility. However, only
9 years later the incoming Howard government dismantled the ASO. Web: www.austscience.com
Since then it’s estimated that the space industry has grown by 10% per year and is Twitter: @austscience
now worth $420 billion each year globally – but only $3–4 billion per year in Australia. Facebook: facebook.com/austscience

ADVERTISING: Steve Austin

This is despite Australia’s history as the third country to construct and launch a satel-
lite 50 years ago, and important observing roles in NASA’s Apollo program. Even Email: advertise@control.com.au
now a radio dish just north of Perth tracks every European Space Agency launch and For rates see austscience.com.au/ads
sends instructions to ESA’s fleet of spacecraft.
DISTRIBUTION:
Gordon & Gotch Ltd
After being lost in space for 21 years, the Coalition government has now announced
plans to re-establish a national space agency. However, the formal details of the
proposal remain nebulous. The government won’t determine the space agency’s PRINT POST APPROVED PP 331379/0032

charter until next March, when a review of Australia's space industry capabilities, ISSN 1442-679X *RRP $9.95 incl. GST

Australasian Science is published six times

chaired by former CSIRO chief Dr Megan Clark, tables its report.
per year. The opinions expressed in this
Even then, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said the agency will be “small”.
We’ll have to wait until next May’s federal Budget to find out how much he’s prepared publication are those of the authors and
to back the space industry to contribute to the government’s “Ideas Boom”. do not necessarily represent those of the
While the space industry will be holding its breath until the government breathes publisher.

some oxygen into the existing vacuum of support for the sector, they’re excited by the CONTRIBUTIONS
opportunities that will soon be within reach. For a start, the space agency would be The Editor welcomes original articles of
able to coordinate Australian expertise, establish formal agreements with other nations, interest to the general public written by
qualified writers on fields within their
expertise. Writers’ guidelines are at
and establish initiatives encouraging education and training, research, innovation
http://www.australasianscience.com.au
and business development.
Not only will our brightest lights be able to shoot for the stars, but STEM students /writers-guidelines. Prospective authors
will see opportunities to launch exciting and stable careers in the space sector without should submit a summary to the Editor
having to move abroad. prior to submitting a manuscript.

© 2017 Control Publications Pty Ltd

Guy Nolch is the Editor and Publisher of Australasian Science.

Cover Story
(ABN 46 006 591 304). All rights reserved.
Authorisation to mechanically or
electronically copy the contents of this
publication is granted by the publisher to
users registered with Copyright Agency Ltd.
Fossilised dental calculus is revealing that Neandertals were

Special requests should be addressed to

more sophisticated than we give them credit for (see p.14).

Control Publications Pty Ltd.

Credit: Camilo Maranchón García /123RF

@austscience facebook.com/austscience
NOV/DEC 2017 | |5
BROWSE Compiled by Guy Nolch

be at the top of your game to play in this space. It is

intense, time-critical science.”
The team used CSIRO’s Australia Telescope
Compact Array to monitor the gravitational wave

Credit: LSCSonoma State UniversityAurore Simonnet

event for more than 40 hours over several weeks. The
results are included in a Science paper, with follow-up
observations by other international teams published
in several science and astronomy journals simulate-
neously.
Dr Christian Wolf said his team at the Australian
National University used the SkyMapper and 2.3-
metre telescopes at the ANU Siding Spring Observa-
tory as part of the search for other signals from the
neutron star collision. “We saw the light from a fire-
ball blasting out from the neutron star collision into
space in the hours and days afterwards,” he said.
“SkyMapper was the first telescope to report the colour
of the fireball, which indicates the temperature of the
fireball was about 6000°C – roughly the surface
temperature of the Sun.”
Prof Matthew Bailes of the ARC Centre of Excel-
lence for Gravitational Waves (OzGrav) – a collabo-
ration of Australian universities participating in the
LIGO Scientific Collaboration – said: “Never before
have we seen where in the universe gravitational waves
came from; the subsequent avalanche of science was
virtually unparalleled in modern astrophysics”. The
research has been published in Physical Review
Letters, Nature and Astrophysical Journal Letters. 
Prof Susan Scott, who is Leader of the General
Relativity Theory and Data Analysis Group at ANU,
said gravitational waves would unlock many secrets
of the universe. “This discovery of neutron stars
An artist’s impression of the two neutron stars colliding.
colliding is just the beginning. We want to one day
look back to the beginning of time – just after the Big Bang, which
we can’t do with light.
Gravitational Waves Detected “This is the first time that the collision of two neutron stars
has been detected, and this is the closest and most precisely located
from Two Stars Colliding gravitational wave signal we’ve received. It is also the loudest grav-
Australian astronomers have confirmed the first-ever detection itational wave signal we’ve detected.”
of gravitational waves produced by the collision of two neutron Neutron stars are the densest stars in the universe, with a radius
stars about 130 million light-years away in galaxy NGC 4993. of about 10 km. Scott said neutron star mergers were likely to be
The explosion was detected by NASA’s Fermi gamma ray tele- the site where much of the universe’s heavy metals such as gold, plat-
scope about 2 seconds after the gravitational wave was detected inum and uranium are produced. “With this discovery we have
by the US-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Obser- the opportunity to learn so much more about neutron stars, which
vatory (LIGO) and Europe-based Virgo Collaboration. have been quite a mystery to us,” she said.
Visible light and gamma-ray emissions allowed astronomers to “Unlike black holes, neutron star collisions emit other signals
pinpoint the location of the collision. The first follow-up detec- such as gamma rays, light and radio waves, so astronomers around
tion was optical about 11 hours after the event, and was observed the world were able to observe the event through telescopes. This
by a number of groups worldwide. X-ray emissions were detected is an amazing time to be a scientist.”
9 days later and radio waves after 15 days. Prof David McClelland of the ANU Research School of Physics
A/Prof Tara Murphy of The University of Sydney, who led and Engineering is leading a team that is developing new compo-
the radio astronomy follow-up in Australia, said she was in the nents and techniques for the LIGO detectors. “Using quantum
United States when the gravitational wave discovery was announced mechanical techniques, we will make the largest optical sensors
on LIGO’s private email list. “We immediately rang our team in ever built even more powerful. We will then detect many more
Australia and told them to get onto the CSIRO telescope as soon gravitational waves from cataclysmic events in space, involving
as possible, then started planning our observations,” she said. “We black holes, neutron stars and things not yet known. All of this
were lucky in a sense in that it was perfect timing but you have to paints an incredibly bright future for the field.” 

6| | NOV/DEC 2017
Evidence that Climate Change Caused Thylacine’s
Mysterious Loss from Australia’s Mainland
Researchers from the Australian Centre
for Ancient DNA (ACAD) at The
University of Adelaide have concluded
that climate change from about 4000 years
ago, in particular more drought-prone
seasons caused by the onset of the El Niño
Southern Oscillation, was the likely main
cause of thylacine extinction on the
Australian mainland.
The ACAD study, published in
the Journal of Biogeography, also reported
evidence from ancient DNA extracted
from fossil bones and museum specimens
that a large and genetically diverse popu-
lation of thylacines lived in western regions
of Australia right up to their extinction
from the mainland around 3000 years ago.
“The thylacine was a marsupial carni-
vore, now infamous for its recent human-
driven extinction from Tasmania following
the arrival of Europeans and their bounty-
hunting schemes,” says project leader
A/Prof Jeremy Austin.
“Thylacines once lived across most of A thylacine fossil jaw bone from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Credit: Jeremy Austin, University of Adelaide
the Australian mainland, but by the time
Europeans arrived in the late 1700s they were found only in
Tasmania. They became extinct about 150 years later, with the
last of the species dying in Hobart Zoo in 1936.
“But the reasons for their disappearance from mainland Australia
and continuing survival in Tasmania has remained a mystery.”
Climate change, increased human activity and the introduction of
the dingo are the three main causes debated.
SUBS
The researchers generated 51 new thylacine mitrochondrial
DNA genome sequences from fossil bones and museum speci-
mens – the largest dataset of thylacine DNA to date. This provided @ aus CRIBE
the first genetic evidence that mainland thylacines split into eastern
tscien
and western populations in southern Australia before the last ice
age peak of about 25,000 years ago. ce .com
“We wanted to understand why thylacines went extinct on the
mainland but survived in Tasmania,” says lead author and PhD
student Lauren White. “The ancient DNA tells us that the main-
land extinction was rapid, and not the result of intrinsic factors such
as inbreeding or loss of genetic diversity.
“We also found evidence of a population crash, reducing Get full online access plus
numbers and genetic diversity of thylacines in Tasmania around
the same time,” Austin says. “This mirrors what happened with additional content when
another carnivorous marsupial, the Tasmanian devil, which still
lives in Tasmania. Unlike the devil, however, it appears that the you subscribe online at
population of thylacines was expanding at the time of European austscience.com
be

arrival.
Ado
wski/

“Tasmania would have been somewhat shielded from the

zpile

warmer, drier climate because of its higher rainfall, but it appears

jaros

that this population was also affected by the El Niño event before
starting to recover.”

NOV/DEC 2017 | |7
 Australia’s Giant Flightless
Fowl’s Far-Flung Family
Australia’s giant mihirungs (Dromornithidae) were flightless
fowl that included some of the most massive birds in the world,
such as the horse-sized Dromornis stirtoni, which tipped the scales
at 650 kg. But what were they related to?
In a new analysis published in Royal Society Open Science,
palaeontologists from Flinders University and Argentina have
revealed that these birds share their evolutionary roots with the
giant Gastornis species in the Northern Hemisphere. Together
they form a major lost branch on the evolutionary tree of fowl:
chickens and ducks.
This group lived in Australia from 55 million years ago until
becoming extinct about 50,000 years ago. When the last one
died an entire taxonomic order, and some of the most spectac-
ular birds ever to have lived, disappeared.
How did giant birds disperse across both hemispheres? The
scientists suggest that small flying birds gave rise to giant flight-
less fowl twice – once in Australia and again in the Northern
Hemisphere. “They form a neat parallel to how we now under-
stand the ratites (emu, ostrich and kin) evolved,” says study leader
Chickens and ducks share their evolutionary roots with the
A/Prof Trevor Worthy of Flinders University.
650-kg Dromornis stirtoni. Credit: Brian Choo “At the base of the family tree of giant flightless ratites on
each continent we now know there was a small flying bird like a

tinamou. These dispersed across the oceans, settled on a conti-
nent, evolving into huge and flightless birds. One became moas
in New Zealand, another the ostrich, and yet another the emus
and cassowary in Australia. Now we see that the giant fowl share
a similar history.”
Despite their great size, the mihirungs and their Northern
Hemisphere relatives were gentle giants.  “Mihirungs were herbi-
vores, just like typical ducks and geese,” says co-author Prof Mike
Lee of Flinders University and the South Australian Museum.
“Despite a 500-fold increase in body size, they retained the diets
of their much smaller ancestors,” he says.  
The team found other surprising relationships. Vegavis, which
was previously interpreted as a modern duck from dinosaur-age
Or subscribe by mail rocks in Antarctica, was found to be much more primitive, in
line with its great age. “This helps bring the fossil history and

MAIL ORDER FORM

that inferred from DNA closer together,” Worthy says.
Moreover, the extinct flamingo ducks (Presbyornithidae),
TAX INVOICE
whose existence in Australia was only recently recognised, were
❏ $55 individuals ❏ $90 schools ❏ $140 institutions (Six issues/year) Prices include GST
Control Publications
ABN 46 006 591 304
also found to be more primitive than previously believed, and
Name/Address ............................................................................................................................... are shown to be the distant cousins of modern geese and ducks.
............................................................................................................................................................. “This makes sense because they evolved long before typical water-
............................................................................................ State ................ P/code ................... fowl and bear little similarity to them,” says co-author Warren
Payment details: ❏ Cheque ‡
❏ Visa* ❏ Mastercard* ❏ Money Order Handley, a PhD student supervised by Worthy.
Make cheques payable to Control Publications Pty Ltd. *A 2% surcharge applies to credit card transactions.Ten issues per year.
‡

However, in a surprising twist the team found that the largest

Card No. __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ Expiry: __ __ __ __ flightless bird of South America, Brontornis, is not remotely
Cardholder Name ....................................................................... Signed ...................................................... related to fowl, as some recent studies had advocated. Instead, this
POST TO: Control Publications, Box 2155, Wattletree Rd PO,VIC 3145
300 kg giant was actually a slower relative of the terror birds
FAX TO: (03) 9500 0255 ONLINE: www.austscience.com 386
(Phorusrhacidae), which replaced dinosaurs as the supreme preda-
tors of South America during the Cenozoic era.
“Perhaps the terror birds meant there was no place for sluggish
be
do giant fowl in South America. Only the fast-running rheas and kin
r/A
ylo
Ta could live with them,” says co-author Dr Federico Degrange of the
rt
ua
St
Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra in Argentina.
Forensics Unearth
Kimberley Massacres
For almost a century, the people of the Kutjungka region
in the south-east Kimberley of Western Australia have
passed on the testimony of massacres of their ancestors at
Sturt Creek. Now Flinders University, CSIRO and other
researchers have found scientific evidence that the bodies
of Aboriginal victims were frequently incinerated following
the event.
Working with the oral testimony of the descent group,
which originated from Riwarri, the sole adult survivor of
the massacre, archaeological surveys defined two distinct
sites containing thousands of bone fragments. X-ray diffrac-
tion analysis of 16 bone fragments confirmed that the frag-
ments had been subjected to extreme temperatures of
600°C for more than 80 hours, 650°C for more than 20
hours, 700°C for more than 4 hours and 800°C for more
than 1 hour.
“The oral testimonies were that people were shot and
burnt,” says Dr Pamela Smith of Flinders University Archae-
ology. “The XRD analysis from CSIRO provided the key
evidence, because those bone fragments had been subjected
to intensely hot fires over a very long time. There had to be
people there maintaining those fires and temperatures for a
long period. That was the evidence of human intervention.”
Macroscopic and microscopic examinations of some
of the bone samples found strong pathological and archae-
ological evidence that the bone fragments were human in
origin, although the evidence was not conclusive.
The results of the investigation were published
in Forensic Science International.
This painting illustrates the massacre event. It shows Aboriginal prisoners chained between two trees. The four figures (two left and two
right) hold guns. The footsteps end at the well and goat yard, and both contain fragmented bone. The white line and black stones on either
side of the creek (Sturt Creek) represent the “milky” coloured water of Sturt Creek and the black stones along the banks are what artist Daisy
Kungah described as purrkuji, the jupilkarn (cormorants) in the Dreamtime. Credit: Launa Yoomarri and Daisy Kungah painting under the direction of Clancy and Speiler Sturt (sons
of Riwarri). Permission to reproduce the painting was given by the artists at a meeting with the Custodians at Billiluna, August 2010. Source: Kuningarra School, Billiluna Aboriginal Community, Western Australia

Nanopatch Delivers Polio Vaccine Better than a Syringe

Efforts to rid the world of polio have taken another significant step muscle, resulting in a more efficient vaccine delivery system. The
with a fresh study showing that the Nanopatch™ – a microscopic ease of administration, coupled with dose reduction observed in this
vaccine delivery platform first developed by University of study, suggests that the Nanopatch could facilitate inexpensive
Queensland researchers – combats poliovirus more effectively than vaccination of inactivated poliovirus vaccines.”
needles and syringes. Dr David Muller of the Australian Institute for Biotechnology and
Head of UQ’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, Nanotechnology said effectively translating the dose could
Prof Paul Young, said the breakthrough provided the next step in dramatically reduce the cost. “A simple, easy-to-administer polio
consigning polio to history. “Polio was one of the most dreaded Nanopatch vaccine could increase the availability of the IPV vaccine
childhood diseases of the 20th century, resulting in limb and facilitate its administration in door-to-door and mass
disfigurement and irreversible paralysis in tens of millions of cases,” vaccination campaigns. As recently as 1988, more than 350,000
he said. “This most recent study showed the Nanopatch enhanced cases occurred every year in more than 125 endemic countries.
responses to all three types of inactivated poliovirus vaccines (IPV) “Concerted efforts to eradicate the disease have reduced
– a necessary advancement from using the current live oral vaccine.” incidence by more than 99%. Efforts are being intensified to
Prof Mark Kendall said the Nanopatch “targets the abundant eradicate the remaining strains of transmission once and for all.”
immune cell populations in the skin’s outer layers, rather than The research has been published in Scientific Reports.

NOV/DEC 2017 | |9
 Scorpions Adjust Venom to Predators and Prey
Scorpions can fine-tune their venom to “Exposure to a simulated predator appeared to decrease relative
suit different predators and prey, a production of toxins that would work on insects, while generally
study published in Proceedings of increasing the production of a section of the venom profile with
the Royal Society B has reported. activity towards mammalian cells,” said co-author Dr Tobin North-
Dr Jamie Seymour of The field.
Australian Institute of Trop- Seymour believes this is the first time researchers have reported
ical Health and Medicine at that venom chemistry in organisms can change in response to a
James Cook University said threat. “It implies a re-routing of nutritional or energetic resources
that varieties of scorpion by the scorpion to increase relative production of different venom
toxin worked better fractions which are responsible for toxicity to invertebrates,” he said.
depending on whether they Seymour said the finding opened up the potential for improve-
were used to protect them- ments in anti-venom design.
selves from predators or kill prey.
A typical scorpion predator
would be a small mammal, while
its prey was usually an insect.
“Scorpions contain three sepa-
rate subtypes of toxins that are
effective against mammals only,
insects only, and both,” Seymour said.
The venom produced can
be thought of as
a cocktail of the
different toxins. “The
question was whether the ‘recipe’ for
this cocktail is fixed or can adapt in
response to different environments and
predator–prey interactions.”
The research team kept Australian rainforest scor-
pions under different conditions. One group was given
live crickets, another was given dead crickets, and a
third group was subjected to the threat of a stuffed mouse to simu-
late a predator threat. After 6 weeks, scorpions exposed to the
simulated predator exhibited significantly different venom chem-
istry compared with those not exposed to predators.

Earth’s Magmatic Heart May Be Beating

New information about the youngest plutonic rocks found on the “Our ability to distinguish two closely-spaced magmatic pulses
Earth will help to pinpoint the timing and recurrence of major becomes much more difficult the longer we look back into history,
magmatic pulses beneath the planet’s surface, according to a study but this discovery now allows us to investigate these instances that
published in Scientific Reports. otherwise might have been left unanswered.”
The research suggests that plutons – the crystallised remnants of Spencer said Japan is an ideal location for this research because
magma chambers deep underground – form every 700,000 years the magmatism seen in the Hida Mountains falls within a similar
within the Hida Mountains of central Japan. This suggests that the
time scale as other volcanic systems around the world. “It has been
next big magmatic pulse may already be happening.
over 700,000 years since the last major magmatic activity in the
Lead researcher Dr Christopher Spencer of the WA School of
area, and this work may indicate that more magmatism is forming
Mines at Curtin University said the research provides critical
insights into understanding how volcanic systems are connected to deep in the Japanese crust at this very moment,” he said.
pulses beneath the Earth’s surface. “The Hida Mountain range in “By analysing the timing and speed of the magmatic pulses deep
Japan contains the youngest exposed plutonic rocks on Earth, and beneath the surface of the volcanoes, we are able to understand how
provided us with a unique opportunity to assess the different these systems work from top to bottom. The more we know about the
characteristics of the tempo of magmatism, or the movement of tempo of magma formation deep within the volcanoes, the better we
magma, deep in the Earth,” he said. can understand the nature of volcanic activity around the world.”

10 | | NOV/DEC 2017
Cats Kill More Than One Million Australian Birds Per Day
Feral cats kill 316 million birds and pet cats kill 61 million birds Australia’s Acting Threatened Species Commissioner, Sebas-
in Australia every year. More than 99% of these casualties are tian Lang, added: “Our knowledge of the impacts of cats on threat-
native birds. ened mammals was a major stimulus for our first-ever national
The estimates, published in Biological Conservation, are based on Threatened Species Strategy, which prioritised actions to control
results from nearly 100 studies of cat density across the country, and feral cats. This new research emphasises the need to continue
another set of nearly 100 studies that assessed cat diet nationally. working to reduce the impact of cats on our native biodiversity.”
Lead researcher Prof John Woinarski of Charles Darwin
University said that while previous research has looked at
the impact cats are having on Australia’s mammals, this is
the first nationwide assessment of the impact of cats on
Australia’s birds. “Everyone knows that cats kill birds, but
this study shows that, at a national level, the amount of
predation is staggering, and is likely to be driving the ongoing
decline of many species,” Woinarski said.
The study also found that the highest rates of cat preda-
tion on birds is on Australia’s islands and in remote arid
Australia, where the number of birds killed by cats each
year can reach 330 birds per square kilometre.
In a second study, the research team also looked at which
bird species are at most risk from cat predation. They found
records of cats killing 338 native bird species – almost half
of Australia’s native bird species.  This included 71 threat-
ened bird species.
“We found that the birds most likely to be killed by cats
are medium-sized birds, birds that nest and feed on the ground,
and birds that occur on islands or in woodlands, grasslands and
shrublands,” Woinarski said. “For Australian birds, cats are a
long-standing, broad-scale and deeply entrenched problem
that needs to be tackled more effectively.”

Stellar Shell Explosion

Triggers Star Death
International astronomers believe they may have observed a
precursor explosion that warns observers that a supernova is taking
place.
Within a day of witnessing this “red optical flash”, the researchers
discovered a Type Ia supernova named MUSSES1604D. Type Ia
supernovae arise from the thermonuclear explosion of white-dwarf
stars that have cores of carbon and oxygen.
Follow-up observations carried out by eight telescopes around
the world showed that this supernova phase is marked by a bright
flash about half a day after the explosion of a type Ia supernova.
The astronomers found that the early-phase light, colour and
spectrum of the supernova could be perfectly explained by a stellar
shell explosion in which the accumulation of helium at the surface
of the white dwarf first ignites. Shock waves generated by this
precursor event then propagate inward to ignite carbon burning
in the core of the white dwarf.
The observation is the first robust proof of a stellar shell explo-
sion, which was first proposed in the early 1980s but had not been
witnessed until now.
“Learning more about type Ia supernovae will help us chart the
expansion of the Universe,” said Prof Jeremy Mould of Swinburne The small flash at the bottom right of this bright galaxy preceded
University, who was co-author of the report published in Nature. the observation of a supernova explosion.

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 11
 Climate Is Driving Migration
New Zealand researchers have shown that not only are the effects
of climate change influencing people’s decision to migrate, it is
actually a more important driver than income and political
freedom at the origin country.
Traditionally, research looking into the drivers of migration
focuses on economic differences, such as wages and the costs of
migration. It has only recently included climate factors. 
Dr Dennis Wesselbaum of The University of Otago and
Masters student Amelia Aburn of Victoria University of
MeTro is applied directly to the wound and activated with light. Wellington looked at migration flows between 16 OECD desti-
nation countries and 198 origin countries over 35 years. This is
the first time data about various potential driving forces of migra-
Elastic Surgical Glue Seals tion, including climatic factors, has been studied over a long time
Wounds in 60 Seconds period.
Wesselbaum amassed data from each country on significant
A highly elastic and adhesive surgical glue that quickly seals weather events and temperatures and data on immigration from
wounds without the need for common staples or sutures could 1980 to 2014, then modelled immigration flows over that time
transform how surgeries are performed. to determine patterns and identify significant factors.
The highly elastic nature of the MeTro glue makes it ideal for That work showed events like storms, floods, heat waves and
sealing wounds in body tissues that continually expand and droughts have different effects on migration. In particular, temper-
relax, and are therefore are at risk of re-opening, such as the ature rise is having a major influence in immigration decisions;
heart, lungs and arteries. The material, described in Science intuitively, people are moving away from the negative effects of
Translational Medicine, also works on internal wounds in hard- climate change.
to-access areas or where staples and sutures have been Wesselbaum has also shown that single or unforeseen events,
required because the surrounding body fluid hampers other such as storms, can have a long-lasting impact on a country’s
sealants. immigration figure. Most interestingly, after an increase in temper-
MeTro sets in just 60 seconds once treated with UV light. It atures, migration decreases for roughly 4 years before it increases
has a built-in degrading enzyme that can be modified to for about 10 years.
determine how long the sealant lasts – from hours to months – This presents an important but tight window of opportunity
to allow adequate time for the wound to heal. The liquid or gel- for policymakers, as the speed of the policy response is crucial in
like material has quickly and successfully sealed incisions in the limiting the effects of shocks from such events in origin coun-
arteries and lungs of rodents and the lungs of pigs, without the tries, and therefore the effects on migration.
need for sutures and staples. “Both developed and at-risk countries need more planning
MeTro combines the natural elastic protein technologies and policy to prepare for what is likely to be a growing trend of
developed by co-author Prof Anthony Weiss of The University of people wanting to move from countries experiencing climate
Sydney with light-sensitive molecules developed by co-author change,” Wesselbaum said. “Climate refugees have yet to be recog-
Prof Ali Khademhosseini of Harvard Medical School. nised officially by international law and included in the UN
Weiss likened the process to silicone sealants used around refugee convention, but the predicted 2–3°C rise in global temper-
bathroom and kitchen tiles. “When you watch MeTro, you can see ature will see climate refugees rather sooner than later.
it act like a liquid, filling the gaps and conforming to the shape The discussion paper is at http://tinyurl.com/y88m7uzz
of the wound,” he said. “It responds well biologically, and
interfaces closely with human tissue to promote healing. The
gel is easily stored and can be squirted directly onto a wound or
Alcohol-Related Crashes
cavity. Are Less Likely Near Pubs
Khademhosseini said that “MeTro seems to remain stable Motor vehicle crashes are more likely to be alcohol-related if they
over the period that wounds need to heal in demanding are further away from on-premise alcohol outlets such as bars
mechanical conditions, and later it degrades without any signs and pubs, according to research by the Curtin-Monash Accident
of toxicity. It checks off all the boxes of a highly versatile and Research Centre (C-MARC).
efficient surgical sealant with potential also beyond pulmonary The research, presented at the 2017 Australasian Road Safety
and vascular suture and staple-less applications,” he said. Conference in Perth, found that a crash was more likely to involve
Elastagen Pty Ltd is commercialising the technology, and alcohol as the distance to on-premise alcohol outlets increased.
Weiss said that the next stage for the technology is clinical Lead author Dr Michelle Hobday of C-MARC said the
testing. “We have shown MeTro works in a range of different research “suggests that police enforcement, including random
settings and solves problems other available sealants can’t. breath testing, should take place closer to residential areas, partic-
We’re now ready to transfer our research into testing on ularly in the early hours of the morning, as well as near areas
people.” containing large numbers of alcohol outlets.”

12 | | NOV/DEC 2017
Lift Less, Gain More
The belief that lifting heavy weights is necessary to build muscles is being
challenged by evidence that resistance training at low loads with blood
flow restriction (BFR) can increase muscle size and strength.
“BFR, also known as Kaatsu training, involves performing exer-
cise with a restrictive cuff placed around the exercising limbs,” said
Mr Charlie Davids of The University of Queensland’s School of
Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences. “This reduces the
amount of blood and oxygen delivered to the exercising muscles,
leading to an accumulation of metabolic by-products, such as
lactate, causing some parts of the muscle to fatigue quickly while
others compensate.”
Davids said that BFR has potential implications for the injured
and elderly, who “often possess musculoskeletal conditions that
limit their ability to achieve significant gains in muscle size and Reduced training stress may mean a greater number of training
strength with normal resistance exercise. The low loads typically sessions can be performed in shorter periods.
used with BFR mean that the muscles and joints are subjected to
lower levels of stress, which may accelerate the recovery from increases in muscle size in as short as 2 weeks.”
musculoskeletal injury, or allow elderly people to combat the Davids is investigating the responses of healthy individuals to
natural decline in muscle mass that occurs with ageing.” BFR training in an effort to translate the practice to clinical domains.
Davids said that BFR was also showing promise for healthy “There is a lack of consensus among scientists, practitioners and
individuals and athletes. “The reduced training stress may mean a coaches as to how this novel exercise method can be adapted to cater
greater number of training sessions can be performed in shorter for the goals and health considerations of various populations,” he
periods,” he said. “Training sessions could potentially be increased said. “We want to address this gap by assisting with the formulation
to twice daily, which has been demonstrated to produce marked of evidence-based guidelines for BFR resistance exercise.”

Hot Crocs Can’t Hide Long However, the hot-water crocodiles could only remain under
water for 9 minutes after a single tap on the back, and the more
When frightened, young crocodiles will dive and remain submerged threatened animals only stayed down for 28 minutes.
until the threat has passed. However, the length of time they can Rodgers also measured the animals’ heart rates and oxygen
stay submerged is limited by their metabolic rate, which is expected consumption to try to understand why the hot-water animals’
to rise as water temperatures increase due to climate change. refuge tactics were so impaired, and found that the crocodiles that
Prof Craig Franklin of The University of Queensland measured had adapted to water at 34°C were unable to lower their metabolism
how long scared juvenile crocodiles could remain submerged at as much as the cooler crocodiles. They were burning through
both current river water temperatures and the temperatures that oxygen at a faster rate, forcing them to return to the surface sooner
crocodiles are predicted to encounter in 2100 to find out how than their cooler cousins.
these reptiles may fare in the future. “This finding suggests predator avoidance dives may be short-
After adapting the young crocodiles to current (28°C water) ened if water temperatures continue to increase in marine and
or future (34°C) climate scenarios for 2 months, co-worker Dr freshwater habitats,” warn Rodgers and Franklin, who are concerned
Essie Rodgers startled the animals with a gentle tap on the back and that crocodile youngsters will become more vulnerable to preda-
timed how long they remained submerged. The crocodiles that tors as they are likely to have to surface more frequently if the
were adapted to current climate conditions were content to remain temperature continues rising.

Give the gift of science

submerged for 18.5 minutes, extending to more than an hour if they The research has been published in the Journal of Experimental
felt particularly harassed after performing four consecutive dives. Biology.

Put under a tree this Xmas

xangai/Adobe

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 13
 Neandertal Life
Reconstructed One
Bacterium at a Time
LAURA WEYRICH
Fossilised dental calculus is revealing that Neandertals
weren’t the oafish brutes we’ve long considered them to be.

ur vision of Neander- clubs and fur cloaks. Other research also

O tals often includes a

grunting, club-touting,
beastly individual who
may or may not be
covered in fleas. The Neandertal is likely
wearing furs from the animals it killed
and is probably looking a bit confused.
suggested that they may have been canni-
bals, which painted a picture of a mean,
oafish lifestyle.
Despite these decades of research, this
is the equivalent of saying that we know
all humans today because we know they
ate meat, carried cell phones and wore
sleep. This matrix, otherwise known as
dental calculus, can preserve microor-
ganisms, diseases and other dietary and
environmental microparticles in the
But is that how Neandertals really were? blue jeans. This shows almost nothing mouth for thousands of years. In fact,
New evidence from bacteria preserved on about how humans live their daily lives, dental calculus preserves as well as bone
their teeth suggests otherwise. and says absolutely nothing about their in most cases. So wherever there’s an
culture, beliefs or behaviours. ancient skeleton, there’s a good chance
Why Are Neandertals that there will also be an accompanying
Portrayed as Oafs? DNA from Oral Bacteria fossil record of the bacteria and food that
Decades of research have worked to Paint a New Picture was once present in the mouth of an
unhinge this perception, but in many We now have a new tool to learn more ancient person.
cases only reinforced it. Researchers about ancient hominids and how they We can sequence the DNA preserved
assumed that the Neandertal diet would once lived – by looking at the bacterial from these micro organisms and
be a healthy mixture of meat and gath- gunk that sticks to their teeth. The slimy, microparticles in dental calculus to under-
ered food items, but when they used gross feeling that seems to grow on your stand more about ancient humans.
isotopes to examine the major food teeth after you consume a sugary drink Perhaps the most telling evidence
groups for Neandertals, the results is actually millions of bacteria growing preserved in dental calculus is the oral
suggested they were as carnivorous as in response to the sucrose that you just bacteria. These incredibly diverse oral
polar bears! When researchers looked at ingested. bacterial communities (referred to as
artifacts to learn more about their daily If you don’t brush your teeth – as microbiota) are extremely adaptable and
lives, they found tools used for hunting many of our ancestors and cousins did – can rapidly respond to changes in their
large game, further suggesting that Nean- the bacteria in your mouth become microenvironment, such as changes in a
dertals were running around with spears, locked in a calcified matrix when you human’s diet, environment, hygiene,

14 | | NOV/DEC 2017
 The cmplete jaw of Spy II, with small and thin dental calculus
deposits that provided usable DNA sequences.
Credit: Royal Belgian Institute of Nature Sciences

Two distinct types of microbiota could be observed within

the Neandertals and hunter-gatherers. The type of microbiota
found in El Sidron Neandertals was shared with ancient gath-
erers and chimpanzees, while the type found in Spy Neander-
tals was shared with individuals who largely based their diet
around hunting. In fact, it was the Spy Neandertals that were
as carnivorous as polar bears.
This split in the microbiota suggests that Neandertals may
have been living very different lifestyles, and that these may
have corresponded to differences in diet.

Could Neandertals Have Been Vegetarians?

The difference between meat-eating or simply gathering plant-
based foods appeared to separate two groups of Neandertals. To
explore the diet and its contributions to oral bacterial diver-
sity further, we looked at DNA from the microparticles that
were also preserved in Neandertal dental calculus. These
microparticles often correspond to dietary sources, although
they can also be non-dietary fragments, such as rope that was
cut using the teeth.
In the Spy Neandertals, we found evidence of meat-eating
that corresponded with previous isotope findings. We found
DNA corresponding to woolly rhinoceros (which went extinct
health, or even medicine. By sequencing bacterial DNA, in Europe about 38,000 years ago), wild sheep (perhaps like
researchers can now use ancient oral microbiota to understand the mouflon sheep that are still present in Europe today) and
more about past human lifestyles, diet and health. mushrooms.
In a recent study published in Nature (http://tinyurl.com/
ya5us67p), we applied this new technique to Neandertal dental
calculus to learn more about Neandertal’s diet, lifestyle and
behaviour. Two Neandertals from Spy Cave in Belgium, two
Neandertals from El Sidron Cave in Spain, and one Neandertal
from Brueil Grotta in Italy were chosen for this project. Not all
Neandertals have dental calculus, and some Neandertals used
hygienic practices of tooth-picking to help remove calculus
from their teeth. We also selected a wide range of ancient
humans and historic apes for comparison.

Neandertals Shared Bacteria with

Ancient Humans and Chimpanzees
The DNA revealed that Neandertals contained a unique set
of oral microbiota that is not shared today with modern humans.
Neandertal oral microbiota was shared with chimpanzees and
ancient human hunter-gatherers from both Europe and Africa.
This finding suggests that Neandertals, humans and chim-
panzees once shared a similar set of oral microbiota, and that
El Sidron Tunnel of Bones, where 12 Neandertal specimens dating
the microorganisms that once lived in the human mouth co- around 49,000 years ago have been recovered.
evolved with humans over millions of years. Credit: Antonio Rosas/Paleoanthropology Group MNCN-CSIC

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 15
 as mushrooms. Knowledge of
which types of foods to gather,
such as edible mushrooms rather
than poisonous ones, would
have been passed down from
generation to generation.
Neandertals would have
needed a way to interact and
share this knowledge with their
young ones. This also means that
they did not spend all of their
days touting clubs and chasing
after large game; they likely spent
some days holding a basket and
gathering mushrooms and nuts
from a forest floor.
A dental calculus deposit on the rear molar (right) indicates that this El Sidron Neandertal
was eating poplar, a source of aspirin, and had also consumed mouldy vegetation including
While the idea that we can
Penicillium fungus, a source of a natural antibiotic. Credit: Paleoanthropology Group MNCN-CSIC identify specific food sources
from Neandertals is incredibly
exciting, it is also still early days
for this new methodology.
Further research needs to be
done to verify and authenticate
these findings.
For example, we know that
Neandertal bones were once
coated with varnish when they
were taken out of the ground –
a practice that often helped
preserved the bones to later
showcase them in museums.
Hundreds of years ago, when
these bones were being dug up
by archaeologists, much of this
varnish was made from animal’s
hooves, typically goat hooves.
As a result we cannot be sure
Spy I Neandertal teeth showing dental calculus deposited as rind on tooth enamel. DNA from the that the sheep DNA identified
dental calculus revealed that this individual had been eating woolly rhinoceros, mouflon sheep and in Spy Neandertal dental
mushrooms. Credit: Royal Belgian Institute of Nature Sciences
calculus did not correspond to
In contrast, there was little evidence for meat-eating in the the DNA present in the varnish, but we can be sure that the
El Sidron Neandertals; DNA corresponding to pine nuts, mush- woolly rhinoceros was not used to make varnish because the
rooms and even moss were identified, suggesting that their diet animal became extinct more than 38,000 years ago in Europe.
at the time may have been much more vegetarian than their We also know that DNA from bacteria and larger mammals,
Spy cousins. such as humans, can also be shared, so identifying dietary DNA
Regardless of these differences, the evidence suggests that that corresponds to mammals can be difficult. Dental calculus
Neandertals were very much in tune with their environments samples are more than 95% bacterial, which leaves very few
and knew where to collect certain foods. The results also suggest DNA sequences that correspond to food. Microbial DNA
that even though previous research suggested they were only sequences can also integrate into sources of food DNA, further
eating meat, Neandertals were eating plant-based foods such complicating matters.

16 | | NOV/DEC 2017
 Sequencing DNA from other bones in the cave and from
any known dietary sources may provide more clarity, but for
now, inferring dietary or non-bacterial information from the
DNA in calculus is tough business.

Neandertals and Humans Swapped Bacteria

The bacteria in Neandertal mouths can also tell more nuanced
stories about a Neandertal’s life beyond their diet, health, tradi-
tions and daily behaviours. By looking at the genetic mutations
in individual bacteria in Neandertals, we can track their evolu-
tionary history and give evidence to support the origins of
specific bacteria in the human body.
Several studies have used genomic mutations in microor-
ganism to identify when ancient outbreaks occurred, or to iden-
tify the ancient causes of plagues. In this study, one of the El
Sidron Neandertals had large amounts of a unique oral micro-
organism, Methanobrevibacter oralis, present in his mouth. We
compared the mutations in the M. oralis genome from Nean-
dertals with those in modern humans, and found that Nean-
dertals obtained this oral microorganism about 120,000 years ago.
Neandertals and humans likely diverged about 700,000 years
ago, so Neandertals must have obtained this microorganism
much later in their evolutionary history; this strain of M. oralis
may not have been present in Neandertals since their origins.
While highly speculative, this suggests that Neandertals may
have obtained M. oralis from either humans or shared envi-
ronmental sources. We know that modern humans can transfer
oral bacteria by sharing food, caring for others or even kissing. The Spy Cave site in Belgium, from which several Neandertal
skeletons were excavated in 1886. Credit: Royal Belgian Institute of Nature Sciences
While it’s easy to let the imagination run wild and assume
Neandertals and humans must have been kissing, it’s just as We also identified another change in the microbiota from
easy to assume they may have drank from the same water source. ancient humans to today. The evidence also suggested that
It is interesting to note that the origin of this oral microor- more recent events, most likely since the Industrial Revolu-
ganism in Neandertals is also about the same time as the earliest tion, have also impacted our microbiota. While researchers are
cases of interbreeding between Neandertals and humans. unsure what has caused these recent changes, processed food,
Whether or not Neandertals and humans were kissing during pollution, and antibiotics are all likely candidates.
interbreeding remains to be seen, but it’s certainly enough One thing is for sure, Neandertals had much healthier
evidence to start examining these interactions closer. Analysing mouths than modern humans. They contained fewer disease-
more microbial genomes from Neandertals and ancient humans causing microorganisms and had pearly whites analogous to
may provide the clues we need to understand how intimate the gods. Their superb oral health is likely because of their
Neandertals and humans were with one another. healthy diet, which lacked most of the sugar and refined carbo-
hydrates that we now eat on a regular basis today. Even if they
What Does Knowing More About were grunting and hunting meat on some days, they certainly
Neandertals Mean for Me? knew how to interact with their environment, pass on knowl-
If Neandertals and ancient human hunter-gatherers once shared edge to their offspring, and even potentially how to interact
a microbiome, what happened to that microbiota in humans with humans in a positive way.
today? The study also verified an early finding that modern Despite the clubs and fur cloaks, we can imagine that they
human oral microbiota was drastically impacted during the were healthier than us. Would you live like a Neandertal today,
onset of agriculture about 7500 years ago in Europe, when if it meant you wouldn’t have to go to the dentist?
readily available carbohydrates became the major food source Laura Weyrich is an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for
and lifestyles became more sedentary. Ancient DNA, The University of Adelaide.

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 17
 The Light Bulb Moment
for Brain Development
GEOFFREY GOODHILL & LILACH AVITAN
Some elegant experiments in zebrafish have revealed how
sensory experience during infancy can have long-lasting
effects on the brain.

he brain develops through fish in agarose under a microscope and

T a combination of innate
and environmental factors.
The initial patterns of
wiring are specified genet-
ically, but this provides only a rough starting
framework. From there, neural activity is
required to refine these patterns. Using the
watching the neurons glowing. This makes
it possible to observe hundreds or even
thousands of neurons simultaneously.
Our focus has been on a brain region
called the optic tectum. This is the main
part of the zebrafish brain that processes
visual information coming from the eyes.
A zebrafish head viewed from
front-on (main picture) and from
above (inset) showing neurons in
a slice of its brain labelled with a
fluorescent calcium indicator.
zebrafish as a model, we have now discov- While the tectum is active in response to
ered more about how this process works. visual stimulation, during the early life of
Neural activity in the brain is generated the zebrafish it also displays large amounts neurons were in which groups, we turned
in two ways. Most obviously it is caused of spontaneous activity. to “community detection” algorithms
by sensory inputs such as sights, sounds We examined this spontaneous activity recently proposed in an area of mathe-
and smells. However, it can also be gener- every day from 4–9 days post-fertilisation matics called graph theory. Inspired in part
ated spontaneously within the brain (dpf). Our first finding was that the by the huge amounts of data now available
without an external stimulus. It’s as if the amount of activity changed with age. From about online social networks, these algo-
brain is internally rehearsing the kind of 4– 5 dpf, spontaneous activity increased rithms determine the form of “communi-
input patterns it expects to encounter from in frequency. However, it then declined, ties” in such networks. Treating neural
sensory stimuli. until by 8 dpf the frequency was back to 4 firing just like a social network, we used
How does this spontaneous activity dpf levels. these algorithms to discover that the
change over development, and how is it When recording from hundreds of number of communities, and the number
affected by the sensory environment? It’s neurons simultaneously, there is much of neurons within each community, also
obviously hard to study this in humans, but more to be discovered about their activity peaked at around 5 dpf.
zebrafish offer an attractive alternative. patterns than just frequency. We there- It thus appears that 5 dpf is a particularly
Unlike humans, zebrafish grow very fore looked at the activity correlations important moment in the development of
quickly. Within only 5 days of the egg being between neurons, and this told us which the zebrafish’s optic tectum. This is exactly
fertilised, when they are only a few millime- pairs of neurons tended to fire together. when they start to hunt for food.
tres long, they are mature enough to begin This allowed us to extract the “func-
hunting fast-swimming paramecia. tional connectivity” of the tectum (i.e. Sensitivity to Visual Stimulation
Larval zebrafish are also transparent, which neurons might be connected) based Is the development of this spontaneous
and their neurons can be genetically labelled on the fact they had correlated patterns of activity purely driven by an intrinsic genetic
with a fluorescent calcium indicator. When activity. Just like the frequency of activity, program, or does it also depend on the
a neuron fires, calcium flows into it so that we found that this functional connectivity visual stimulation the zebrafish receives
labelled neurons glow brighter when they peaked at 5 dpf and then declined again. early in life? To answer this question we
are active. However, we also noticed that large performed two different kinds of manip-
We can therefore study brain activity groups of neurons tended to fire together ulation of the visual input. First, we raised
in the zebrafish by simply embedding the as “neural assemblies”. To determine which one group of fish until 6 dpf in the dark.

18 | | NOV/DEC 2017
 tively brief moments when particular parts
of the brain are unusually sensitive to the
inputs they receive. Unless it gets the right
inputs at those times it will not wire up
properly, even if the input is later corrected.
A seminal example is the 1960s
discovery that briefly blocking input to a
cat’s eye during the critical period causes
a permanent vision deficit in that eye, while
blocking visual input after the critical
period has no long-term effect. These find-
ings in cats changed the way that children
with vision problems early in life are treated
by doctors.
It was previously thought that the
zebrafish brain developed according to a
more rigid genetic program. However, our
work shows that, like mammals, their brains
are also sensitive to environmental inputs
early in life. The relative ease with which
neural activity can be imaged in the young
zebrafish brain thus provides an exciting
opportunity to study brain plasticity in
Second, we raised another group of fish move quite quickly. We know from more detail than is possible with cats or
until 6 dpf on a normal light-dark cycle previous work that zebrafish catch humans.
but in a “featureless” environment where paramecia primarily through their visual
they saw no visual contours, just diffuse sense. The Future
light. We then imaged spontaneous activity At 6 dpf each fish was placed in a dish There are many questions we would now
in the tectum as before. in the light with 50 paramecia – the first like to address. For instance, is the plas-
Both manipulations caused changes to time they had seen paramecia or tried to ticity we have observed really a “critical
the structure of spontaneous activity. Dark- catch their own food. After 2 hours we period” phenomenon and, if so, how long
rearing caused a loss of functional connec- counted how many paramecia remained, does this critical period last? Are the
tivity and fewer neural assemblies. In telling us how many had been eaten. changes in brain wiring observed with
contrast, functional connectivity increased Fish that had received normal visual altered input reversible? If so, what are the
after featureless rearing (i.e. it did not refine, inputs before 6 dpf ate about half of the most effective kinds of visual input to
as occurs in normally reared fish). paramecia. However, fish reared in the achieve this?
Thus normal visual inputs are essential dark until that point ate hardly any, even An essential part of our approach to
for the appropriate refinement of activity though they were hunting under exactly this work has been the application of
patterns in the optic tectum. the same conditions as the normal fish. advanced mathematical and statistical
Remarkably, this deficit persisted to 9 methods to extract the maximum amount
Behavioural Consequences dpf even though both sets of fish received of information from our data. Indeed,
While we showed that dark-rearing during the same normal visual input from 6–9 several people in the team originally came
early life changed subsequent brain activity, dpf. Thus, dark-rearing causes a profound from backgrounds in mathematics, physics
a key question remaining was whether this and long-lasting change in the ability of or computer science. We believe this kind
also had an effect on the behaviour of the the fish to catch prey using visual cues. of interdisciplinary approach will be
fish. increasingly important for unravelling the
We investigated this using a very simple Critical Periods highly complex rules governing brain devel-
assay for the ability of the fish to hunt A large body of previous research has shown opment and function.
Geoffrey Goodhill is Professor of Neuroscience and
paramecia. This is a challenging task, since that the mammalian brain exhibits critical Mathematics at The University of Queensland. Lilach Avitan is
a Research Fellow at the Queensland Brain Institut, The
paramecia are single-cell creatures that periods in its development. These are rela- University of Queensland.

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 19
 Brain Training:
Show Me the Evidence!
TEJAL M. SHAH & RALPH N. MARTINS
Many computer-based brain-training programs promise to
improve cognitive capacity and delay age-related issues such
as Alzheimer’s disease, but how credible is the evidence behind
these claims?

espite greater efforts to maintain brain func- programs that claimed to have scientifically proven

D tion well into late life, the challenge of helping

older adults to maintain or improve memory,
judgement, learning, executive functions and
processing speed remains a challenge. The high
prevalence of age-related degenerative diseases such as
Alzheimer’s disease makes the need to resolve this challenge
more pressing. A 5-year delay in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease
benefits. We found that 11 of the programs had
no clinical trials or empirical evidence, demon-
strating that their claims of effectiveness were not
scientifically proven. The products of the remaining
seven companies were then classified into three cate-
gories based on the strength of the evidence of their
effectiveness. We assessed both the quantity and quality
can save Australia $13.5 billion by 2020 and $67.5 billion by of clinical studies.
2040. As drug trials have been ineffective to date, attention has Trials were regarded as “well designed” if they were
been directed towards lifestyle strategies and interventions that randomised clinical trials with a control group. They were clas-
prevent or delay the onset of neurodegenerative diseases. sified as being of high, moderate or poor quality as rated from
Among these approaches is evidence-based research into the one to ten on a check list. Trials with a score greater than six
use of computerised brain-training software, which has spawned are deemed high quality; trials with scores between five and six
a multi-billion dollar computer-based brain health and fitness were rated as moderate quality; and those with a score less than
industry that claims it can promote and maintain healthy brain five were considered as poor quality.
ageing. However, most of the software programs often lack the • Level 1 programs had at least two well-designed randomised
supportive data required to validate their efficacy. We have controlled trials, one of which had to be of high quality. The
therefore conducted a review to help give clinicians guidance brain-training programs BrainHQ and Cognifit met the
when advising their patients and to help consumers decide criteria for Level 1.
which programs are strongly evidence based and therefore more • Level 2 programs had only one high-quality randomised
likely to be beneficial for healthy brain ageing. controlled trial. Cogmed, BrainAge 2 and My Brain Trainer
We scrutinised 26 peer-reviewed studies that examined the were classified in Level 2.
effectiveness of seven computerised brain-training programs • Level 3 had only one moderate/poorly designed randomised
for healthy older adults aged over 50. We found that at least controlled trial. Dakim and Lumosity were in Level 3.
some of the commercially available brain-training programs Programs that were rated as Level 1 (BrainHQ and Cognifit)
can promote healthy brain ageing. mainly involved exercises that were auditory and/or visually
stimulating and were used in the clinical trials. For example,
Grading Brain-Training Programs in one of the auditory stimulation exercises, the user is required
We looked at the scientific evidence behind these exercises and to listen to a sound frequency sweep that begins low and rises
the purpose for which they are recommended (e.g. to promote upward or begins high and then descends, and then determine
healthy brain ageing, or for dementia or other neurological whether they go up or down. Another exercise required users
diseases) and the principle behind the design of such exercises. to identify a synthetically generated syllable (e.g. “ba”) from a
We focused our investigation on studies directed at healthy confusable pair (e.g. “ba” vs “da”), whereas some other exercise
brain ageing. We identified 18 computerised brain-training involved identifying details in a verbally presented story.

20 | | NOV/DEC 2017
 We found that 11 of the programs
had no clinical trials or empirical
evidence, demonstrating that their
claims of effectiveness were not
scientifically proven.
• is recommended for your specific purpose, such as healthy
Other sets of brain ageing, rehabilitation, learning and concentration;
exercises • is scientifically validated for your specific purpose
involve visual • is adaptive and engaging;
engagement. • is continuously challenging;
For instance, • features audio and/or is visually interactive; and
during a road tour • provides feedback about your progress.
exercise, the user Programs that train the brain to be more responsive using
stops to see roadside specific tasks and increasing levels of difficulties are thought to
attractions. However, to reach help rewire neural pathways according to the neuroplasticity
them the user principle.
fa

must spot cars

bi
ob
er

Brain Training Benefits

ti.

in the centre of
it/
Ad
ob

their vision while There is now sufficient evidence to support the notion that
e

also identifying road the human brain is plastic in later life and can benefit from
signs on the edges of the properly designed brain-training programs. It’s possible comput-
screen. Overall, the difficulty erised exercises that are adaptable and continuously challenging
level increases if the user performs may help the brain to rewire lost connections that are linked with
the exercises correctly, but the difficulty level is decreased if the dementia later in life. However, whether computerised brain-
user performs the exercises incorrectly. training programs can help prevent dementia onset remains to
In one of the Cognifit exercises named Morning Time, windows be determined. Thus, longitudinal prevention clinical trials are
are arranged randomly on a screen and are opened momentarily, needed to address this important question.
one after the other. The task is to follow the exact sequence in Evidence concerning how or where these software programs
which the windows were opened. The task evolves as the user affect plasticity in brain cells or connections within the brain
remembers longer sets. This task is designed to train memory. is lacking. Assessments using specific biological markers of
Thus, in order for the brain to be exercised effectively, the Alzheimer’s disease (or other neurodegenerative diseases) such
activities are required to be novel, well-tailored to the indi- as blood markers and brain imaging would considerably enhance
vidual, and continuously challenging. Programs that currently clinical validation of brain-training programs and assist in
lack supportive evidence may also be effective, given that they addressing whether these programs actually promote neuro-
are mostly based on the same neuroplasticity principle. However, plasticity. This would also enable greater understanding of the
they could target specific cognitive domains, and thus need to connection between computerised brain exercises and human
be empirically validated in independent clinical studies. cognition, and provide an insight into new therapeutic path-
ways.
Features of Effective Brain-Training Programs Regardless of whether new neural pathways are established,
Brain-training programs feature different exercises that target some mental exercises may work simply by increasing blood
specific cognitive domains such as memory, reasoning, processing circulation in the brain, similar to physical exercise. Thus,
speed and executive functions. Many effective exercises are healthy brain ageing may be achieved by maintaining or
designed according to the principle of the brain’s capability to improving cognitive functions via avenues such as brain training.
rewire and reconnect – the neuroplasticity principle. An exer- However, for optimal brain health a holistic approach incor-
cise must be adaptive according to a person’s capability, contin- porating lifestyle strategies needs to be undertaken which include
uously challenging and audio and/or visually interactive. social interaction, exercise, diet and sleep.
Some features to look for in deciding whether a program is Tejal M. Shah is a Research Fellow at Macquarie University. Ralph N. Martins is Director of the
Centre of Excellence for Alzheimer's Disease Research and Care at Edith Cowan University,
right for you include whether the program: and Professor of Neurobiology at Macquarie University.

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 21
Nick Birks, Wildflight Australia Photography

Along Came
a Spider BY SOPHIE HARRISON

Genetic studies reveal that trapdoor spiders colonised Kangaroo Island after surviving a
remarkable rafting journey from South Africa.

piders are not normally associated with oceanic in the first instance that their distributions are related to shifting

S voyages. Indeed, for much of the Southern Hemi-

sphere’s flora and fauna – including that of Australia
– it seems more likely that the current distributions
of many species are a result of their presence on the
ancient supercontinent Gondwana rather than by any remark-
able feats of dispersal. When Gondwana broke into the land
masses that are now known as Antarctica, South America,
continents rather than shifting organisms. Such distribution
patterns are called “vicariant”.
However, advances in genetic techniques mean we can now
investigate the evolutionary relationship between species and
the timing of their separation, and make more robust inferences
about their evolutionary history. In essence, we can use genetic
similarity to calculate how closely related species and popula-
Africa, Madagascar, India and Australia, species that were tions are to each other. As DNA usually mutates at fairly constant
already living on the supercontinent were taken with it – phys- rates, these rates can be used to calculate when two taxa may have
ically “inherited” at the point of separation. diverged, and therefore determine if this timing matches with
Therefore, when we see related groups of organisms with historical events, such as the breakup of a land mass, the creation
poor dispersal ability living on these land masses, we assume of a mountain range, or the formation of a river.

22 | | NOV/DEC 2017
 The Migidae are a family of trapdoor spiders that are often The results of our study left only
called tree trapdoor spiders even though many species within one likely hypothesis: ... that
this family build burrows on the ground. Trapdoor spiders
Moggridgea survived a remarkable
belong to the infraorder Mygalomorphae, which differ from
other spiders by having parallel fangs and four book lungs. journey across more than 10,000 km
While most spiders usually have annual or biannual life of open ocean from South Africa to
cycles, trapdoor spiders are very long-lived, with life cycles in Kangaroo Island.
excess of 10 years having been recorded. Instead of using silk to
create webs to catch prey, they use it to line burrows in the more, disparate populations of Moggridgea on Kangaroo Island
ground, which they use for shelter and as a base for prey capture. itself showed genetic differentiation that was consistent with
As a rule, they also have very limited powers of dispersal; their presence on the island for several million years.
once they have hatched and emerged from the maternal burrow, The results of our study left only one likely hypothesis, and
they usually disperse only a few metres, dig a burrow of their own, it is perhaps the most astonishing of all: that Moggridgea survived
or find a pre-existing niche to form the basis of their burrow. a remarkable journey across more than 10,000 km of open
They will then stay in this burrow for the duration of their ocean from South Africa to Kangaroo Island.
lifespan, widening and lengthening it as they grow. Given trapdoor spiders’ inherent lack of dispersal abilities,
This sedentary lifestyle has led to the logical assumption the most logical way that they could have survived such a long-
that the presence of Migidae in both Africa and Australia is distance journey is via oceanic rafting. This is the term given to
due to vicariance; that is, that ancestral populations were a large mass of earth, vegetation and debris that is washed out
widespread across Gondwana and travelled on the land masses to sea during major flood events. Rafting is already thought to
that then formed Africa and Australia. But is the story more have facilitated trans-oceanic voyages in many groups of organ-
complex than this? isms, including geckos and some primates. However, this is the
We closely examined the evolutionary relationships among first long distance dispersal event to be recorded in a mygalo-
migid trapdoor spiders, including those species found in south- morph spider.
western Western Australia, Kangaroo Island, South Australia, While this was clearly an exceptional feat, several precedents
and those found in South Africa. Surprisingly, our multi-gene by mygalomorph spiders at smaller scales already exist,
evolutionary tree showed that the species from Kangaroo Island supporting the idea that they are indeed capable of dispersal
(Moggridgea rainbowi) is much more closely related to those across bodies of water. Indeed, mygalomorph spiders occur on
from South Africa than to its Western Australian counterparts. the Galapagos Islands, Hawaii and the Comoros. These islands
To further examine this relationship, we compared indi- are all volcanic in origin, which means they have never been
viduals belonging to the genus Moggridgea from Kangaroo connected to continental landmasses; in all such cases, vicari-
Island and South Africa. We conducted rigorous morpholog- ance can be ruled out.
ical and genetic analyses to examine how close this relation- It is also worth noting that trapdoor spiders may be better
ship was, and discovered that M. rainbowi was not only very equipped for oceanic travel than they initially seem, particu-
closely related genetically to African species but also extremely larly in terms of dispersal via rafting. Moggridgea live in secure,
similar in appearance. The degree of genetic and physical simi- silk-lined underground burrows that would provide a water-
larity was so great that we even wondered if it was possible that proof shelter and climate control. They also construct tightly
the Kangaroo Island species had been inadvertently introduced fitting trapdoors that can be sealed shut with silk, further
by sealers who first colonised Kangaroo Island in the 1800s! protecting them from the elements. They have a low metabolic
However, when we employed molecular dating techniques rate and the ability to go for months without food, and dispersal
to estimate how long ago the Kangaroo Island species and of gravid females would lead to the arrival of numerous spider-
African species had split, we found that this hypothesis was lings in any new environment. Finally, they are also somewhat
not supported by our results. Astonishingly, the African and resistant to drowning due to their ability to use stored oxygen,
Kangaroo Island species diverged 2–16 million years ago, much which is a critical survival tactic when their burrows are
(much) later than the separation of Africa from the rest of temporarily flooded during storm events.
Gondwana (~95 mya), and obviously much earlier than human With their minimal sustenance requirements, sealable
arrival on Kangaroo Island. burrows and ability to “hold their breath”, these spiders may
Even when error margins around the estimated divergence actually be the ideal passengers for oceanic rafting.
date were doubled or even tripled, the timing of the divergence Sophie Harrison completed this research as a PhD candidate at the Australian Centre for
Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity, The University of Adelaide. It has been published in
still did not match up with the breakup of Gondwana. Further- PLoS ONE (http://tinyurl.com/ycexqpao).

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 23
 Figure 1. The relatively small size of the trees in the Top End’s savanna environments may not have been able to support
termite colonies, leading them to evolve mounds whose size was not restricted by tree diameter. Credit: Jan Sobotnik

Cathedrals in the Desert

NATHAN LO
Termite mounds populate the northern Australian landscape like miniature skyscrapers, yet
genetic analyses reveal that the first termites that rafted to our shores originally built their
nests in trees. Why did they do this?

n the opening scenes of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Earth. Known as cathedral mounds, these structures reach up

I Odyssey, a 3-metre high monolith mysteriously appears

outside a cave, and causes much bewilderment among
its proto-human observers. If we fast-forward three
million years, the towering termite mounds of northern
Australia inspire  similar  curiosity among those
who behold them. Where did they come from? How long have
they been here? Why are some much taller than others? How
to around 6 metres in height and 2 metres in diameter, and are
built by millions of blind, grass-feeding termites (Nasutitermes
triodiae). There are no architects, no engineers,  no
plans, no foremen. The instructions for building the mound are
literally in the DNA of the colony’s members. Given a
worker N. triodiae stands 3 mm in height, these structures are
the human equivalent of more than four Burj Khalifa-sized
did they evolve? To answer these questions, we are carrying skyscrapers stacked on top of each other, and can survive for
out DNA-based studies on Australian termites and their over- more than 80 years.
seas relatives.  Termites and their nests play a key role in northern Australia’s
Australia has one of the most diverse range of termite mounds ecosystems, and have earned termites the title of “ecosystem
of any continent, and also boasts the tallest mounds on engineers” and “keystone species”. Whereas savanna habitats in

24 | | NOV/DEC 2017
other parts of the world have large mammals to process most We also used what is known as a “molecular clock” to esti-
biomass, termites fulfil this role in northern Australia. In these mate when various branches appeared in the trees over the past
habitats, termite biomass can reach as high as 20 g/m2, making few million years. To do this we used termite fossils of known
them the dominant animal group. Their subterranean tunnelling age, and calculated how fast termite DNA changes. Rates
creates soil structure, enhancing aeration, water infiltration are typically quite slow – in the order of about three changes
and root penetration. Assimilation of nitrogen from the air per 100 DNA nucleotides (C, G, A, T) per million years. We
into protein by the symbiotic bacteria in their guts improves soil were particularly interested to know if termite mounds have
fertility. Termites also act as a year-round food source for many dominated our landscapes prior to Australia’s split from other
other species, from invertebrates to vertebrates. Without them, parts of Gondwana around 55 million years ago, or if they
the northern Australian landscape and its biodiversity would evolved more recently.
look vastly different. 
Termite nests are central to their
biology. The queen and king usually mate
for life, and must be protected from the
outside world. Their offspring, thousands
of which can be produced each day in some
species, must be fed and raised by their
sibling workers. Most offspring will
become workers and soldiers but, once a
colony is established, a select group each
year is raised as winged reproductives.
These will fly out of the nest during
summertime and attempt to start a new
colony of their own with a prince or
princess from another nest.
The function of termite mounds there- Figure 2. Nasute termites have colonised Australia on three separate occasions
fore includes protection from invertebrate between 10 and 20 million years ago. Credit: Toru Miura
and vertebrate predators, storage of food,
and maintenance of a relatively constant internal environment We looked at two particular groups of termites. The first is
that is conducive to colony growth, also known as “home- the genus Coptotermes, which contains Australia’s main pest
ostasis”. The latter aspect has been relatively well-studied in species C. acinaciformis, as well as the northern hemisphere
Australian magnetic termite mounds, whose north–south orien- pest C. formosanus, on which billions of dollars each year are
tation is believed to provide favourable temperatures in different spent on damage and control. We showed that, like many other
areas of the mound throughout the day. Many termite mounds, Australian animals, including goannas, Coptotermes colonised
including those in southern Australia, have internal tempera- Australia from Asia around 12 million years ago. This
tures in the high twenties, even when ambient temperature is followed the collision of the continental plates upon which
well below that.  Australia and South-East Asian countries lie. 
Although the function of mounds has been studied in some Like their Asian ancestors, Coptotermes continued to build
detail, the evolutionary origins of termite mounds have, until their nests inside living trees once they arrived in Australia.
recently, received very little attention. To understand how However, they transitioned to mound-building multiple times
these mysterious structures evolved, and how long they have independently. Although Coptotermes species are also found
been in Australia, we constructed family trees of different in South Africa, South America and Asia, they build mounds
termite species, some of which build mounds and others that only in Australia.
form different kinds of nests. These include nests inside rotten Coptotermes mounds are made with a similar domed struc-
wood, underground in the soil, inside living trees or on the ture and are usually 1–2 metres in height. The outside of the
outside of trees, sometimes up to 10 metres in the air.  mound consists of a hard clay outer wall that can be up to
To work out these family trees, we sequenced the same DNA 30 cm thick. Under this, the mound is filled with thick “carton”
region in each species, and compared the sequences with each made from partially digested wood and faecal matter. This
other. Once we had the trees we could infer how nest types carton layer looks a little like the human brain due to its high
have changed throughout the evolution of the group.  level of reticulation.

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 25
 N. triodiae (Fig. 1). Nasute termites get their name from the
snouts on their soldiers, which spray chemicals at their enemies
or competitors (Fig. 2). We compared the DNA of 42 Australian
nasute species with dozens more species from overseas, and
found that this kind of termite has colonised Australia on three
separate occasions between 10 and 20 million years ago.
For one of these colonisation events we can infer that the last
common ancestor of the Australian species constructed arbo-
real nests on tree branches (Fig. 3) because all of their overseas
relatives have this characteristic. These arboreal nesters are
often found in coastal areas, including in Central America and
Asia.
To get to Australia, their nests may have been swept into
the ocean during storm or tsunami events, and have made it
to Australian shores due to favourable currents. Once in
Australia, these termites continued to form nests in trees, and
indeed two species along the eastern coast of Australia still do
this. The arboreal nests of one species, Nasutitermes walkeri,
can be easily seen when walking along Sydney’s foreshore.
During the period in which nasute termites arrived in
Australia, the rainforests that once covered the continent were
receding, and dry woodland, scrubland and desert habitats
began to take over. In response, the arboreal nasutes that had
established themselves in Australia evolved the ability to form
their nests on the ground rather than in trees. Drier conditions
Figure 3. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the first nasute
termites to colonise Australia constructed nests on tree branches. may have made arboreal nest-building impractical, perhaps due
Adapted from Arab et al. (2017) Biology Letters 13, 20160665
to an inability to maintain the right levels of humidity or temper-
Under the carton, often at around ground level but some- ature in nests up in the trees. The formation of mounds may have
times lower, is the nest itself. In some species this is the size allowed better regulation of these environmental variables.
and shape of a basketball, and consists of a vast network of Our analyses indicate that the transition from building nests
chambers, tunnels and galleries made of very thin carton mate- in the trees to building them on the ground happened on
rial that is like brittle paper.  multiple occasions (Fig. 3). In some cases the transition was to
One case of mound evolution involves C. acinaciformis, underground nesting rather than mound-building.
which is a living-tree nester in the south-east of its distribu- The evolutionary pathway followed by these termites there-
tion and a mound-builder in northern Australia. We think fore follows that of humans in some respects. On the basis of
that the relatively small size of the trees in the Top End’s savanna fossil bone analysis, ancestral proto-humans that lived six million
environments may not have been able to support C. acinaci- years ago in Africa are believed to have been tree-dwelling. As
formis colonies, leading them to evolve mounds whose size was was the case for tree-dwelling proto-humans, the descendants
not restricted by tree diameter. of arboreal nesting termites would go on to create large
Building a nest in a mound compared with inside a tree has metropolises featuring millions of individuals, with a relative
additional potential advantages, including a greater ability to size larger than any structure on Earth.
regulate gas exchange in order to maintain homeostasis. This Our work shows that termite mounds have been a part of our
is because a mound is more exposed to air movement through landscape for the past 15 million years or so, and are the result
its outer layer than a nest inside a tree, and can therefore take of ancient colonisation from other areas of the world, partic-
advantage of evaporative cooling. It’s unfortunate that southern ularly Asia. We have shown that ancient Australian termites
C. acinaciformis did not evolve mound-building too, because it were able to adapt and survive in the face of significant envi-
would make their detection and eradication much easier when ronmental change, which has enabled them to become one of
they attack human structures. the dominant animals in the north of the country.
The second group of termites we studied were nasute
Nathan Lo is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the School of Life and
termites, which include the cathedral mound-builders Environmental Sciences at The University of Sydney.

26 | | NOV/DEC 2017
bunhill/iStockphoto

The Global Collapse of

the Oncology Market
MARTIN ASHDOWN
A new approach to cancer treatment promises the use of fewer drugs and shorter treatment
periods, leading to a “big short” of stocks that profit from oncology.

he cancer industry is literally a “growth” industry tionable value while clambering for a stake in the next big thing.

T worth hundreds of billions of dollars per annum.

A lot of people make a living out of cancer, and
each year the market expands: global estimates
predict 6.5 million cancer fatalities this year.
While the industry’s outdated practices haven’t significantly
improved outcomes for patients in decades, they are now being
replaced by a new paradigm of immune-based cancer therapy.
Investment momentum in companies drives their share
prices higher due to the prospect of new products, consider-
able future earnings and a dominant market position. Any hint
of a threat to the status quo will attract the attention of savvy
market operatives who could “short” the share price of exposed
companies, thus snowballing a collapse.

This new therapeutic approach “tweaks” the individual patient’s A New Approach
immune system to destroy the cancer – and it works. In 2008 the US President’s Cancer Panel made several stark
This seismic shift portends the overthrow of a traditional admissions. “The toll of cancer has become simply an awful
business model’s value chain, with potentially broad economic part of life... incidence is rising for several cancers… the most
consequences. If cancer becomes curable, the cancer sector’s intransigent of malignancies remain impervious to treatment...
valuation would collapse along with careers, companies and and both proven cancer prevention and absolute cure remain
downstream effects to other sectors. elusive”. The report went on to say:
Fanciful a few years ago, this scenario is now being played out Despite (President Nixon) declaring a national war on cancer in 1971
with significant aspects of the cancer industry now under assault. and investing many billions of dollars since then to understand and
defeat cancer, our success against the disease in its many forms has
been uneven and unacceptably slow. The reduction in suffering by
In 2014 global pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline off-

patients and their families would be incalculable. The benefit to our

loaded a significant portion of its cancer drug portfolio to

nation in lower health care costs and heightened productivity would

another corporate giant, Novartis, for US$16 billion. Other
be an untold bounty to our economy.
major corporate players are now moving into the new era of
cancer immunotherapy, buying companies at inflated prices.
For instance, Gilead recently purchased Kite Pharmaceuticals These comments had been preceded in 2006 by US health
for US$12 billion. More recently, Australian biotech company economists Kevin Murphy and Robert Topel, who made the
Bionomics announced its exit from cancer drug development. following modelling observation in the Journal of Political
These are all signs of a strategy to dispose irrelevant assets of ques- Economy: “A permanent 1 percent reduction in mortality from

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 27
 cancer has a present value to current and future generations of wrong place by being too cancer-centric in our approach to
Americans of nearly $500 billion, whereas a cure (if one is treatment. This misunderstanding has led R&D down blind
feasible) would be worth about $50 trillion”. alleys and made the effective treatment of late-stage patients
Recent advances in cancer immunotherapy have revealed a elusive, time-consuming and expensive.
profound flaw in our previous understanding of how to success- Such trial reports are also bringing into question the random
fully treat cancer. Rather than focusing attempts on directly and toxic “carpet bombing” of patients and their immune
treating the cancer with extended periods of chemotherapy or systems with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which appear to
have been indiscriminately destroying the very
thing we are now attempting to preserve and
accurately manipulate.

Promising Results
The longstanding cancer-centric therapeutic
business model places the patient on an expen-
sive and toxic “merry-go round” where compa-
nies, medical specialists and others using costly
diagnostic and therapeutic equipment and
drugs “clip the ticket” on each revolution as
the patient is managed into the ground over a
5–10-year period.
However, this global business model’s value
chain is now under assault. The newly gained
insights into the fundamental nature of cancer
immunology may rapidly lead to the use of
fewer drugs and resources over shorter treat-
ment and post-treatment periods.
New immunotherapeutic drugs can have
spectacular clinical effects and deliver complete
responses in a minority of advanced cancer
patients for whom other previous attempts
have failed. The mode of action of these drugs
Tawesit/Adobe is clearly telling us that when these drugs work,
they are manipulating a pre-existing cancer
Trial data are showing that shorter immune response, and not establishing a new response. This tells
us that the immune system is not ignorant of the presence of
courses of chemotherapy or the cancer; rather, the immune system appears to be attenu-
radiotherapy give similar results to ating itself through its normal control mechanisms.
longer standard treatment protocols. These new drugs are guiding us towards the use of our limited
resources more effectively, with potentially massive cost savings.
radiotherapy, this new era of immuno-oncology is attempting The obvious consequence of this profit reduction to the corpo-
to leverage the patient’s own immune system by targeting and rate sector, and reduced distributions to shareholders, will be
disturbing the control mechanisms that the immune system stockmarket downgrades.
normally uses to quell inflammation. These insights have shown Structural cracks are already appearing in the oncology
that limited treatment can achieve complete responses where edifice. Trial data are showing that shorter courses of
all cancer disappears, obviating the need for extended periods chemotherapy or radiotherapy give similar results to longer
of treatments and their associated costs, not only for the patient standard treatment protocols. Obviously, this reduces the debil-
but also under-resourced healthcare systems. itating toxic side-effects of therapy, as well as the expense of
Data emerging from recent cancer immunotherapy trials treatment. Furthermore, trials have shown that patients who
potentially explain the decades of failure in treating this disease were thought to be refractory to a drug can later respond when
effectively. In simple terms, we may have been looking in the retreated.

28 | | NOV/DEC 2017
 Further research has discovered off-target effects of radiation healthcare stocks. These market operatives could then short-
treatment, with distant untreated tumours remarkably disap- sell these exposed stocks, with obvious consequences – a broader
pearing in addition to the therapy-targeted lesions. This is most market sector collapse. There may also be some significant
likely immune-mediated. downstream economic effects into the health insurance and
Similarly, a compound known as PV-10 can cause complete general insurance sectors, with possible changes to actuarial
responses when injected into malignant melanoma lesions. life tables as more patients live longer with and without disease,
Remarkably, nearby uninjected lesions can also regress via or are cured entirely.
immune-based destruction,
not unlike a vaccination
event. PV-10 is actually the
cheap food and fabric dye
Rose Bengal made up as a
10% water solution. This dye
seems to work just as well as
more expensive and more
complicated agents such as
oncolytic viruses.
Further, the recent clin-
ical success of immune
“checkpoint inhibitors”
(which take the brakes off the
immune system) has created
renewed interest in the mode
of action of an older (off-
patent) immunotherapeutic
drug, interleukin-2. This
drug, first introduced in the
early 1990s, is still used to
treat two very different
advanced cancers: melanoma
and kidney cancer. Approxi-
mately 5–10% of these
patients consistently experi- Immunotherapy leverages the patient’s immune system by targeting and disturbing the control
mechanisms that the immune system normally uses to quell inflammation. Credit: royaltystockphoto/Adobe
ence complete responses and
can survive long-term. As these developments unfold we’ll see an increasing number
This shift in scientific and clinical thinking towards cancer of immunotherapy trials and regulatory approvals, more patients
immunotherapy, together with the general public’s awareness responding to treatment or retreatment with a variety of agents,
of reports of high profile cancer patients attaining these remark- more articles discussing the off-target effects of radiotherapy,
able responses (some with limited treatment), is changing our more trials using interleukin-2, and shorter courses of chemo-
expectations of a cure. It’s predicted that this transition, while therapy and radiotherapy performing at least as well as current
expensive now, will rapidly lead to dramatic cost reductions lengthy regimens. Of great interest is the evolving story of how
for primary cancer drugs, surgical procedures and secondary a cheap food and fabric dye, Rose Bengal/PV-10, can cause
maintenance drugs used to manage treatment-related co- complete remissions.
morbidities, infections, nausea and pain. A cure for cancer would be an economic disaster for the
global healthcare market and a boon for government healthcare
The Next Big Short? budgets. This is palpable and imminently on the horizon as,
With the prospect that more patients being successfully treated after decades of research activity without insight, oncology has
or living longer will lead to falling revenues and 5-year sales finally focused on the best rational drug design factory – the
projections across the sector, informed market analysts could immune system.
downgrade longstanding pharmaceutical, biotechnology and Martin Ashdown is a Research Fellow in The University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Medicine. 

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 29
 The Art
of Science
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute has created
an exhibition of gorgeous images revealing
biological processes such as a mammary gland
during lactation, deadly parasites that
resemble neon flowers, and what happens
when you grow a lung in a laboratory.

PROTEIN CAVES
Protein caves (above) is a snapshot from a 3D structure of a
EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
protein called DCLK1, which plays a role in promoting
The green and magenta “tendrils” above show the network
certain cancers. One of these is gastric cancer – the fourth
of blood vessels that are essential for the eye to form. This
most common cause of death from cancer worldwide. The
network must eventually be removed for the eye to function
bright multi-coloured “hills” reveal the protein’s uneven
normally. The cells making up these blood vessels will
surface, and the dark patches in between are its “caves”.
undergo a type of controlled death caused by the green
The caves are an important feature because blocking access
macrophages suspended among the vessels. These scavenger
to these areas – which are used as binding sites to other
cells not only promote the death of the blood vessels, but
molecules – could enable the creation of drugs that disable
also eat the remains. Studying the controlled death and
DCLK1. Researchers at the Hall Institute are working to
removal of cellular debris from the eye enables Leigh Coultas
design a drug that will fit perfectly into one such cave, and
and Stephen Mieruszynski to better understand how blood
eventually stop cancer in its tracks. Credit: Isabelle Lucet and Onisha Patel
vessels live and die, and inform new treatments for disease.
Credit: Stephen Mieruszynski and Leigh Coultas

PARASITE BOUQUET
Toxoplasma gondii is a common parasite that infects
30–80% of people worldwide. It can be particularly
dangerous during pregnancy and for people with weakened
immune systems. The parasite is tiny, and hundreds can fill a
human cell. As the Toxoplasma parasite grows inside a cell,
it forms beautiful patterns that look like flowers, called
rosettes. In this image, you can see that some of the
rosettes look like daisies or sunflowers, while others look
more like tulips and lilies. Simona Seizova is testing new
techniques to disable Toxoplasma parasites. These images
help her to test how effective the techniques are at killing
the parasite as part of the quest to find new treatments for
the disease. Credit: Simona Seizova

30 | | NOV/DEC 2017
 Credit: Casey Ah-Cann
MILKY WAY
This cluster of intricately decorated
spheres (left) is actually a magnified
snapshot of a mammary gland during
lactation. Breast tissue contains
thousands of these little spheres,
which work in unison to produce milk.
The yellow patterns painted across
their surface are tiny muscles that
contract and release, helping to
squeeze milk out into the mammary
ducts. Look closer and you’ll see
purple flecks nestled in and around
the structures. These are immune cells
on high alert for any threats in order
to help keep the breast tissue healthy.
Seeing the mammary gland in such
exquisite detail gives researchers a ROOTS
better understanding of how these This image shows a lung in its very early stages of development. As it
structures form and how breast tissue grows, the neon-coloured “roots” will eventually thin and multiply into
works together with the immune the intricate airway structures that form an adult lung. Casey Ah-Cann is
system in surprising ways to enable growing this lung in the laboratory to investigate which genes impact
milk production. healthy development. She does this by blocking the function of particular
Credit: Julie Sheridan and Edwin Hawkins genes and observing how the organ is affected.

A SPECK-TACULAR WAY TO DIE

Armies of cells that make up the body’s immune system help to
protect it from infection. The bright green masses in the image
on the left are immune cells called macrophages, which form
the body’s first line of defence. Macrophages can detect
bacteria and viruses, and warn other cells of potential threats.
In some cases, like in this image, they consume the threat and
self-destruct. The lone blue ring to the right of this image is a
cell nucleus, and is all that remains after a macrophage has
“taken one for the team”. The adjacent red dot is called an
ASC speck, which indicates that the macrophage called for
back-up in its final moments. Understanding how cells protect
the body helps researchers to design better treatments for
patients with disorders of the immune system, such as arthritis.
Credit: Dom De Nardo

BRAINBOW
The higher cortex is responsible for complex brain functions, such as critical thinking and problem-solving. The colours of the
“Brainbow” in this image each represent a different layer of the higher cortex of the brain during development. The primary colours
have been selected specifically to avoid confusion when colours overlap. Where red overlaps with blue, we can clearly see purple. By
colouring and layering brain tissue, Maria Bergamasco can study the impact of disrupting or altering genes at different stages of brain
development. This will help her to discover what goes wrong in cases where the higher cortex doesn’t function as it should.
Understanding what goes awry in early brain development enables better diagnosis and treatment for people with intellectual
disabilities. Credit: Maria Bergamasco

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 31
 The Secret Life of Dolphins
HEIDI PEARSON & GABRIEL MACHOVSKY-CAPUSKA
New underwater camera technology has captured the social lives of wild dolphins for the first
time, revealing how deep and for how long they dive, how they nurture their young and even
how they play with objects in the ocean.

olphins are one of the most visible, intriguing and and sperm whales. This has provided detailed information

D charismatic creatures of the sea, yet we know very

little about what they’re doing underwater.
Until now…
Our team has developed a tracking device that has provided
the first glimpses of dolphin behaviour from their perspective
about the movement and behavioural patterns of these species.
However, the small body size and fast nature of dolphins
prevented researchers from successfully deploying miniaturised
cameras on them. Our multidisciplinary team developed a
special technique for attaching our cutting-edge C-VISS
and on their own terms. With this information we can better (Cetacean-borne Video camera and Integrated Sensor System)
understand the daily life of dolphins, such as how they interact device to dolphins.
with one another, how mothers raise their offspring, how they
find food, and how they use their habitat. We can also under- A New Dolphin-Tracking Device
stand how these animals might be impacted by threats such as Our video camera was modelled on a system developed to record
coastal development, shipping traffic, vessel noise and interac- the behaviour of seabirds. However, attaching a video camera
tions with fishing gear. Putting all of this together will help us to a dolphin comes with a unique set of challenges that differ
to protect them. from seabirds. For example, while it’s possible to capture a
masked booby to attach the camera, it’s not possible to capture
Studying Wild Dolphin Behaviour a dolphin so we had to develop a specialised pole to deploy the
Dolphins are notoriously difficult to study in the wild. They have device. While it’s possible to tape the camera to the tail feathers
a small body size, are fast-moving and live in groups that can of a seabird, it’s not possible to do the same on dolphins so we
contain 1000 or more individuals. had to develop a special attachment method using suction cups.
Traditionally, dolphins have been observed from small Finally, dolphins dive deeper than boobies so we had to ensure
research vessels that travel alongside the group. However, as that our system was both waterproof and strong enough to
dolphins spend only a small fraction of their time at the surface, withstand the increasing pressure during deep dives.
scientists are unable to see many behaviours and social inter- While the video camera is the central component of our device,
actions. In addition, it’s nearly impossible to follow a single C-VISS contains additional instruments to help us to understand
individual in these large dolphin groups. Therefore, observations dolphin behaviour. A time–depth recorder measures the diving
are often taken at the group level, which may obscure impor- behaviour, allowing us to understand how deep and for how long
tant individualistic behaviour. a dolphin carrying the device is diving. C-VISS also contains satel-
For the past 20 years, researchers have been attaching video lite and VHF transmitters that help us track the dolphin while
cameras to large cetaceans such as humpback whales, blue whales it’s tagged and to recover the device once it falls off the dolphin.

32 | | NOV/DEC 2017
 C-VISS is archival, so it must be recovered to download the
data. The video camera, depth logger and transmitters are held
in a special float that is durable enough to withstand the pres-
sure increases that occur while a dolphin dives, yet light enough
that it is buoyant. When the suction cups detach from the
dolphin, the device floats to the surface, sending a signal to a satel-
lite with the approximate geographic coordinates. Once we
arrive in the area, we use a VHF antenna to find the device.
Importantly, C-VISS is non-invasive and does not harm the
dolphin carrying the device. We conducted a series of trials
with a Pacific white-sided dolphin at the Vancouver Aquarium
and several dusky dolphins in the wild, and we did not detect
any negative impacts of the device on the dolphins. One tagged
dolphin appeared to be so undisturbed by C-VISS that we even
observed it sleeping at the surface!

Meet the Dusky Dolphin

Working with our project partners at the New Zealand Depart-
ment of Conservation, Massey University and the US National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, we spent 2 years
developing, refining and testing the device. We then tagged
eight free-swimming wild dusky dolphins off the coast of Kaik-
oura (Fig. 1), and obtained nearly 9 hours of video footage. The
longest attachment duration was 5 hours while the shortest
attachment duration was 9 minutes. The attachment duration
depends on a variety of factors, including where the device is
placed on the body, the strength of the suction cups and the
dolphin’s behaviour.
Dusky dolphins are bioindicators: any changes we observe
in their distribution, abundance and behaviour indicate larger
changes in the ecosystem. We have been making boat-based
observations of duskies since 2004, and this gives us a good
understanding of their behaviour at the surface. However, we
have always wondered what they were doing underwater.
Kaikoura is a perfect place for studying duskies because
approximately 1000 individuals occur off the coast at any
given time.
During the day, duskies are typically found near the coast
where they socialise, rest and travel in large groups. These groups
can be quite boisterous as individuals perform an amazing array
of leaps including backflips, somersaults, side slaps and belly
flops.
During the night, duskies move away from the coast to feed
on fish and squid in the waters of the Kaikoura Canyon. Once
this midnight feast is over, the dolphins return to the coast in
the early morning hours where they start the cycle over again.

A Day in the Life of a Dusky Dolphin

For the first time we are seeing the behaviour of wild dolphins
from their perspective, and getting an indication of what a day

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 33
 Figure 1. The C-VISS tag is attached to a dusky dolphin with suction cups.

in the life of a dusky dolphin is like. Our video footage has even We are seeing how social individual dolphins are. We can
revealed instances where the dolphin was filming our research quantify this by recording the number of individuals swim-
boat! ming with a tagged dolphin at any given time, and by looking
What have our data revealed? For example, how social are for signs of affection such as flipper rubbing: dolphins show
they? How do mothers care for their calves? What is their habitat friendliness by gently extending their flippers to touch another
like? How deep, how often, and for how long do they dive? dolphin’s flipper or other part of the body.

Figure. 2. Video stills from C-VISS showing mother–calf swimming behaviour. Left: A dolphin calf swims side-by-side with its mother
in the echelon position. Right: A dolphin calf swims underneath its mother in the infant position.

34 | | NOV/DEC 2017
 We are also seeing how mothers care for their calves. A calf
typically swims in one of two positions near its mother (Fig.
2). It will swim beside its mother in echelon position, which
helps the calf to get a “free ride” by riding the pressure waves
created by the swimming action of its mother. A calf will also
swim underneath its mother in infant position. This may
provide protection from predators as the calf is physically tucked
under its mother. Additionally, when viewed from below, the
mother–calf pair looks like one large dolphin (Fig. 3), which may
be a deterrent to predators such as sharks. We are even seeing
intimate behaviours such as calves nursing (drinking their
mother’s milk), which for most dolphin species is virtually
impossible to be seen by researchers on the surface.
We are also seeing how dolphins use their habitat, from kelp
forests to the sandy sea floor to depths beyond the sunlit zone
where the sea becomes dark. We are also seeing how dolphins
interact with their habitat, for example by playing and “wearing”
kelp on their flippers (Fig. 4).
Finally, we can correlate all of these behaviours with data
obtained from our time–depth recorder. This helps us to deter-
mine how behaviour changes according to how deep and for how
long the dolphin is diving.

Future Research Directions

All that we have seen so far is revealing the complexity of the
lives of dolphins, yet we are just breaking the surface with the
power of this new research tool. We foresee several important
future research directions. Figure 3. Video stills from C-VISS showing a dolphin calf swimming.
From below, the mother–calf pair looks like one large dolphin,
Understanding the nutrition of wild marine predators, such which could help to protect them from predators like killer whales.
as dolphins, is a challenge that science has yet to solve. We need (Image quality is a function of video camera resolution.

to know exactly what the food and habitat requirements of

marine predators are. Learning more about their feeding patterns
on a daily basis and what nutrients they contain will be
immensely useful for protecting endangered species.
As we continue to study duskies and other dolphin species,
we can better monitor and understand changes to the marine
environment. As we continue to monitor dolphins and corre-
late fine-scale information on their social, foraging and diving
behaviours with data on how the ocean is changing with respect
to sea surface temperatures, circulation patterns and plankton
abundance, we will have a better understanding of how climate
change is affecting other, less visible marine organisms.
Last but certainly not least, seeing the world through the
eyes of a dolphin will help us to better protect them. The more
we understand about how individual dolphins find food, care
for their young, find mates and avoid predators, the better we
can conserve them by establishing protected areas and developing
policies that limit human interference with these behaviours. Figure 4. A video still from C-VISS showing a dusky dolphin
swimming through kelp and draping it over its head. This is a form
Heidi Pearson is Associate Professor of Marine Biology at The University of Alaska
Southeast. Gabriel Machovsky-Capuska is Loxton Research Fellow at The University of of play behaviour. The dolphin’s head and C-VISS antenna are
Sydney. visible.

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 35
photo5963_fotolia/Adobe

A Plasmid Goes Viral

RICK CAVICCHIOLI & SUSANNE ERDMANN
No one really knows how viruses evolved, but scientists looking for Antarctic viruses from
extremely cold and salty lakes have discovered new clues.

ntarctica is probably the Earth’s most impor- each day, causing nutrient turnover and further microbial

A tant continent for influencing global climate

and ocean ecosystem function. Winds
descending off the continent cool the
surrounding seawater, causing an annual forma-
tion of sea-ice stretching up to 20 million km2 (about 2½ times
the area of Australia). The cooling has two effects: it causes
seawater to become more dense, and salt precipitates from the
growth (http://tinyurl.com/abmjhtf). Viruses play particu-
larly important roles in the Antarctic because its waters harbour
fewer larger predators, so viruses can contribute even more to
the natural turnover in these ecosystems (http://tinyurl.com/
jvc5xl3).
DNA sequencing of entire Antarctic microbial communi-
ties in a freshwater lake on the Antarctic Peninsula discovered
sea-ice as it forms, so the sea-ice essentially becomes fresh water. a high level of unique viruses (http://tinyurl.com/ybw8fuc3).
As a result, a downward force is generated that drives global The 2009 report in Science noted how the viral communities
ocean currents. were dynamic, changing in response to the state of the ice cover
The cold Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica also on Lake Limnopolar.
supports the growth of phototropic microbes that harvest the In 2011 Cavicchioli’s laboratory at UNSW discovered a
sun’s energy and fix CO2 from the atmosphere. These microbes, form of virus called a “virophage” at Organic Lake, a marine-
and others that recycle nutrients, represent the beginning of a derived hypersaline lake near Australia’s Davis Station in Antarc-
marine food web that feeds krill and all other ocean life. tica (http://tinyurl.com/y79ng77a). Virophages depend on
As one of the tiniest forms of microbes, viruses play essen- the coinfection of their host by another virus, typically a giant
tial roles in all of the Earth’s ecosystems. Viruses may cause virus. While virophages negatively impact these larger viruses,
about 20% of the cellular microbes in oceans to lyse and die Cavicchioli’s lab concluded that the interactions between the

36 | | NOV/DEC 2017
Water samples taken from Deep Lake (pictured
here) found numerous viruses, while samples
taken from hypersaline lakes in the Rauer Islands
(below right) found DNA sequences from a
plasmid that encoded virus-like particles.

Organic Lake virophage and the larger virus could improve the
Deep Lake
ability of their algal host to photosynthesise, and hence
contribute to a better functioning ecosystem.

Plasmids, Viruses and Promiscuity

In a twist on what biology can offer up from the Antarctic, we
recently led a study that discovered a plasmid masquerading as
a virus (http://tinyurl.com/yalyzus3). Plasmids are small, circular,
Vestfold Hills
double-stranded DNA molecules found in many types of micro-
organisms. The findings, published in Nature Microbiology, mean
there are new ways to consider how viruses have evolved. Davis Station .
The backdrop to the discovery was a 2013 study that anal-
ysed the genetic make-up of a microbial community in Deep
Lake, a marine-derived system that has a salinity about ten
times that of seawater and is the coldest aquatic environment
known to support life – temperatures in the lake are as low as
–20°C. The Cavicchioli group reported that the lake supported m
a community of very promiscuous microbes that exchanged
31 k

DNA with each other (http://tinyurl.com/y8cpkya3). The

haloarchaea microbes require very high levels of salt to grow, and
Sørsdal Glacier
can be found in environments like the Dead Sea in Israel and
Lake Tyrrell in Australia, on salty fish, and in solar salterns
worldwide where they colour the ponds pink/purple.
Another study of Deep Lake published in The ISME Journal Filla Island
by Cavicchioli’s group analysed proteins from environmental
samples rather than DNA. It concluded that viruses were likely
to be important in transferring DNA between the different
types of haloarchaea (http://tinyurl.com/y89s7kdq).
Rauer Islands
A Plasmid Masquerading as a Virus
To advance our understanding about the haloarchaea and their Rauer 1 Lake
viruses, Cavicchioli’s group took water samples from hyper-
saline lakes, including some from lakes in the Rauer Islands One of the fundamental distinctions between plasmids and
about 30 km away from Davis Station, and brought them back viruses is that only viruses are known to encode proteins that
to the lab at UNSW. Erdmann isolated viruses from the water go into viral DNA particles, and are capable of infecting cells.
samples and sequenced their DNA so she could discover which Plasmids, on the other hand, do not build particles that transfer
types of viruses were present. by an active infection process. Instead, they move between cells,
During this phase of the research she discovered that one either when cells come together and transfer plasmid DNA
of the sequences was for a plasmid, not a virus. The plasmids during cell-cell contact or when naked extracellular plasmid
encoded proteins that were a part of virus-like particles. Further- DNA (e.g. arising from cell lysis) is taken up into new cells.
more, the particles harbouring the plasmids could be used to Thus the discovery blurs the boundaries between the defi-
“infect” other haloarchaea that did not already contain the nition of plasmids and viruses, with this new plasmid being
plasmid. able to infect – just like a virus.

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 37
 d
Plasmid vesicles

Plasmid vesicle

Haloarchaea host and the vesicles it produces that contain the plasmid (a–c). (d) Virus-like particles from the hypersaline lakes.
Credit: Susanne Erdmann

Membrane Vesicles and Gene Exchange ... the plasmid could integrate into the
Erdmann showed that the particles that the plasmid was packaged DNA of host cells, excise from the host
in was a “membrane vesicle” – a section of the host membrane
that forms a “bleb” and detaches. Many life forms produce
carrying long stretches of host DNA...
membrane vesicles. For instance, human cells use vesicles to move and then transfer to new hosts.
lipids and other cellular components around between cellular
organelles. Some human viruses, like influenza and hepatitis C, We speculate that plasmids that form plasmid vesicles may
require vesicles to propagate. Some of the vesicles have surface have been the predecessor of some viruses. Our reasoning is
structures composed of proteins that have similarities to some of along the following lines.
the plasmid proteins. It is now known that plasmids can produce proteins that
So what we have found is a new type of plasmid that behaves go into host membranes, leading to the formation of specific
like a virus. Furthermore, the vesicles harbouring the plasmid types of membrane vesicles that harbour the plasmid. These
appear to have structural features in common with vesicles in plasmid vesicles then leave the host and go off to infect other
humans that play roles in both cell function and the life cycle of hosts that do not already contain the plasmid. This phenomenon
human viruses. These are interesting evolutionary connections. is like a virus.
Erdmann discovered different forms of the plasmid in haloar- Some viruses, called pleolipoviruses, reproduce by encapsu-
chaea from Deep Lake and the Rauer Island lakes. She learned lating themselves in vesicles made from lipids from the host
that the plasmid could integrate into the DNA of host cells, excise membrane combined with their own proteins. Other viruses,
from the host carrying long stretches of host DNA, get packaged such as head-tailed viruses, encode specific proteins that form
into particles and then transfer to new hosts. heads, specific proteins that form tails, and other “machinery”
The discovery that the plasmid could transfer host DNA was that collectively makes these types of viruses structurally sophis-
another important finding as it demonstrated a plausible mech- ticated entities.
anism for the observed promiscuous gene exchange in Deep Lake. The plasmid vesicles are less defined in their structure than
It will take more work to determine if the plasmid does perform many types of known viruses, perhaps being most similar to
this role in the lake, but there is certainly a good reason to go pleolipoviruses. It’s therefore conceivable that some types of
looking. viruses acquired their refined traits through an evolutionary
process that commenced with plasmids that form plasmid vesi-
The Evolution of Viruses cles.
Scientists studying viruses have wide-ranging opinions about how Since ~80% of life on Earth lives at temperatures below 5°C,
they evolved, including whether they pre-dated cells or evolved from this research in Antarctica provides insights of global relevance.
cells. One theory, the escape hypothesis, is that viruses evolved as The discoveries also help to illustrate why Antarctica needs
fragments of cellular DNA capable of infecting other cells so they protection so that future generations can continue to learn and
could escape and propagate in a wider range of hosts. Our discovery benefit for years to come.
of a virus-like plasmid fits with this theory while challenging how Rick Cavicchioli is Professor of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at UNSW Sydney,
scientists think about the distinction between viruses and plasmids. where Susanne Erdmann is a Research Associate.

38 | | NOV/DEC 2017
CONSCIENCE

While this period of inaction persisted,

I set about researching the processes for
suspected plagiarism. The Committee on
Publication Ethics (COPE) offers protocols
that many journals follow. Those proto-
cols did not inspire confidence.
The suspected plagiarist has multiple
avenues to avoid both detection and sanc-
tioning, particularly if their university or
organisation chooses to take no action. In
such circumstances, COPE suggests
repeating requests for a response “every
3–6 months”.
Even if the system does work, as in the
case of a reviewer clearly being identified
Adiano/Adobe as “appropriating” another person’s work,
the COPE protocols might result in the
Appropriate Behaviour? reviewer being removed “permanently from
the database”. Sadly, this isn’t anywhere nearly as sinister and
Plagiarism by academic reviewers is hard to dramatic as it sounds; it merely means they won’t be asked to
prove, and even harder to punish. review again by the journal from which they appropriated.
Most academics will be familiar with the processes for dealing I also sent letters to journals A, B and C telling them about
with a case of suspected plagiarism by a student. The my concerns, and asked if any of the authors of the new publi-
plagiarism is typically flagged by software such as Turnitin or cation had acted as reviewers on our manuscript. The editors
SafeAssign. The lecturer can then view the submission, with of Journal A and B replied immediately. They had checked on
passages containing suspected plagiarism highlighted with links the reviewers at their respective journals, their affiliations and
to original sources. Often the plagiarism is an innocent mistake. so on, and offered very clear assurances that they vouched for
Blatant cheating is rare. the integrity of their reviewers. In both cases the editors acknowl-
Given this limited exposure, it comes as quite a shock when edged the severity of the matter and were sympathetic.
you suspect that your own work has been plagiarised by another Journal C took another route. The editor would not directly
academic. My own experience here might be informative. answer my questions, and promised to refer the matter to the
About 2 years ago I first submitted a paper (written with journal’s ethics board. After persistent prompting over many
two colleagues) to a journal (Journal A), where it was rejected. months they said the same thing again, and again, and again.
The same story repeated at Journals B and C. That process took Just over 6 months after I had first contacted Journal D
a year. As I prepared to submit to journal D, I spotted a new about my concerns, I received a brief email from the editor
paper at that journal in an “early view” version that bore a saying that our manuscript and the suspect manuscript did not
striking resemblance to my own paper. The logic, style and facts show excessive matching in their plagiarism software. That was
all matched. It looked very much like our own work had been hardly a surprise, as it was the ideas that had been appropri-
plagiarised, or to use the term preferred by journals: “appro- ated. The editor also said that while there were clear similari-
priated”. ties between the two manuscripts, they would be taking no
The most likely source of the plagiarism: one (or more) of further action.
the authors of the new paper had reviewed an earlier version And that was that. After 6 months there would be no further
of our manuscript, and incorporated the ideas directly into investigation, and no action taken.
their own work. Acknowledging the possibility that it is all a strange set of coin-
I first contacted the editor of Journal D, who promised to give cidences, and there really was no plagiarism (it’s all in my head),
the matter their full attention. Two months later, the editor I’m not sure how even a blatant case of appropriation (even
apologised for not having reviewed the matter as he was new to the language is weak) would be detected and then sanctioned.
the position. In the coming months I received several similar The current system is premised on trust. Sadly, for me at least,
emails from the editor, each promising attention that never trust is in short supply nowadays.
materialised. Stephen Moston is an Associate Professor in Psychology at CQUniversity.

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 39
 NEUROPSY Tim Hannan

The Mystery of Agatha’s Amnesia

A popular fictional theme, psychogenic amnesia is a possible consequence of stress or trauma.
A sudden attack of amnesia for one’s own identity has been popular she was eventually located in a hotel in Harrogate 350 km to the
grist for the Hollywood mill, with films such as Total Recall, X- north. At that time she reportedly lacked any recall of the inter-
Men and the Jason Bourne series all revolving around the protag- vening period and didn’t recognise her husband. Newspaper
onists’ inability to recall much of their personal histories. Indeed, coverage at the time questioned the authenticity of Christie’s
the number of movies about this unusual type of amnesia has claims. No doubt her fame as a writer of crime fiction encour-
exceeded the count of well-documented cases in the psycholog- aged such scepticism.
ical literature, and its apparent rarity and inexplicability has led to However, a new review by clinicians from a London hospital
suspicions that sufferers were fabricating their symptoms – as demonstrates that her symptoms were quite consistent with those
happened to the crime novelist Agatha Christie in 1926. A new observed in well-documented cases of psychogenic amnesia. They
review in the journal Brain has identified more than 50 cases in identified 53 cases admitted to the hospital between 1990 and
a 20-year period at one London hospital, suggesting that this form 2008, with examination of medical records revealing much about
of amnesia may not be quite as rare as previously thought. their individual symptoms. While most sufferers reported exten-
Amnesia is most commonly observed after a neurological illness sive amnesia for much of their personal history, others had one or
or injury, or as a consequence of the onset of dementia. In such more shorter memory “gaps” involving specific events or episodes.
cases, the person loses the ability to lay down new memories Most cases of psychogenic amnesia included the “fugue state”.
(anterograde amnesia) and struggles to recall certain memories This refers to the tendency of sufferers to wander, possibly with
from before the onset of the condition (retrograde amnesia). the intention of locating people or places that may help them
Usually, the amnesia for past events relates to specific facts or recover their memories.
details, and is more prominent for recent events rather than long- In comparison with hospital patients presenting with “organic”
held and well-learned facts. The neural damage is typically located amnesia following neurological injuries, those with psychogenic
in the medial temporal lobes, including the hippocampus. amnesia displayed higher rates of depression, more frequent inci-
In contrast to these “organic” forms of amnesia, “psychogenic” dences of severe family or relationship difficulties, and marked
or “dissociative” amnesia is understood to arise as a result of trauma financial or employment problems. Some or all of these are the
or other psychological stress, and involves forgetting personal presumed triggers of their amnesic episodes.
information. The sufferer is able to recall and utilise her long- Unlike the organic cases in which memory of recent events
held general knowledge and skills to engage with people, objects was most affected, most psychogenic patients demonstrated a
and the environment, but is unable to recall her name, family consistently severe loss of memories across all time periods. The
members, residence, job or other personal details. outcome for patients was generally positive, with the majority
The best-known case of psychogenic amnesia, Agatha Christie, recovering their memories within weeks or months, although
went missing for 11 days after disappearing suddenly from her some had persisting gaps in their memory at follow-up years later.
home. Her car was later discovered abandoned 50 km away, and While psychogenic amnesia may arise following some type of
stressful episode, it is far from a common consequence of trauma.
Those experiencing a traumatic event are more likely to be trou-
A gift that will be bled by intrusive memories or “flashbacks” than lack any memory

valued through to of the trauma. The present review’s finding that most cases of
psychogenic amnesia spontaneously recover is just as well, for
next Christmas little is known about how to treat the condition.
In the absence of neural correlates of psychogenic amnesia, it
may be difficult to determine whether an individual’s symptoms
are authentic or feigned: it is suspected that in some cases the
person is malingering to avoid an unpleasant circumstance, such
as legal, financial or personal problems.
Whether or not Agatha Christie’s wandering was a true case
of psychogenic amnesia remains, perhaps appropriately, an unre-
solved mystery.
A/Prof Tim Hannan is Head of the School of Psychology at Charles Sturt University, and the
Past President of the Australian Psychological Society.

40 | | NOV/DEC 2017
THE FOSSIL FILE John Long

When Palaeontology
and Philosophy Meet
The Cambrian explosion of animal diversity,
evident at the Burgess Shale fossil site is
fertile ground for philosophers to ponder.

This year at the Annual Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

Conference in Calgary, Canada, delegates could opt for two
special events. I enrolled in both. The first was a 1-day field trip
to the world-famous Cambrian Burgess Shale fossil site, in the high
mountains of British Columbia outside Banff. The second was
a “Philosophy and Palaeontology” workshop held at The Univer-
sity of Calgary. While it might seem both are unrelated events,
they actually meshed together beautifully, especially because the
field trip came first with the workshop the day after.
The field trip was a long, hard day. We had to be on the bus
by 4.30 am to get to the site and walk up the mountain in three
groups so that only a limited number of people could each be
at the Walcott Quarry to look for fossils. The Burgess Shale
quarries have been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1980
because of the incredible preservation and diversity of these
Middle Cambrian fossils (505 million years old), which include The Burgess Shale’s Walcott Quarry site in British Columbia,
Canada. Credit: Prof John Long, Flinders University
a wide range of soft-bodied forms as well as typical hard-shelled
creatures like trilobites and marine shells. and Palaeontology workshop saw eminent philosophers present
Nonetheless, the only way to get to the site is by walking papers about the logic of palaeontology, with discussions devel-
the 21 km round trip to the site and back. The site is at an alti- oped by input from the attending palaeontologists. It was a
tude of about 2350 metres, and the first leg of the hike is rather perfect example of how science and humanities groups can
steep. When some of the group turned back at that stage, we all work on common problems.
knew we were in for a hard hike to the site. Arriving at the site Much of the debate honed in on the nature of the big ques-
around 2pm, we found the quarry set among a backdrop of tions raised by the Burgess Shale fossils. The late Steven Jay
stunning mountains capped by glaciers with the Emerald Lake Gould proposed in his book Wonderful Life that we higher
shimmering down below us. vertebrates are only here because of a lucky throw of life’s dice.
The diversity of the Burgess Shale is extraordinary for any If the precursors to fishes like Pikaia and Metaspriggina were
site this age, with at least 170 species recorded. Most of these not around in the Cambrian, we would not likely have ever
belong to the joint-legged animals (Arthropoda comprise 59% evolved.
of species known from Walcott Quarry), with sponges being the There are many similar topics that philosophers like Dr
next most abundant group. Worms, molluscs, algae and other Adrian Currie discuss and write papers about, from the theory
groups make up the rest. Many bizarre creatures, like Halluci- of consciousness and palaeobiological laws to the luck required
genia, whose affinities were at first unknown, characterise the by palaeontologists working in the field. His blog Extinct
assemblage. (http://www.extinctblog.org/) provides other examples.
For these reasons the site has generated much debate about Of course, the really big contribution to philosophy by
the “Cambrian Explosion”, the point in time when animal life palaeontology and evolutionary theory combined is that we
diversified rapidly. While some put this down to the fact that humans are just the product of billions of years of evolution, and
when soft-bodied animals are fossilised it greatly increases therefore are solely responsible for our own destiny on this
overall diversity, it is at the higher level of animal classification planet. Darwin dropped this big one in 1859, and the world
that we see Cambrian life really taking off. Most of the living has either been empowered or threatened by this thought ever
phyla of animals had appeared by the middle Cambrian. since.
The nature of this diversity and how it relates to today’s
John Long is Strategic Professor in Palaeontology at Flinders University, and is current
living fauna is the perfect segue into philosophy. The Philosophy President of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 41
 EXPERT OPINION Australian Science Media Centre

Musk’s Mission to Mars

Elon Musk provided an update on his quest to colonise Mars at the International Astronautical
Congress in Adelaide, where he described a reusable rocket to overcome cost barriers and
an ambitious schedule to land cargo missions on Mars by 2022.
“Elon Musk’s vision for human space flight is exciting, timely, Space X started in 2002, and their first three rockets failed,
and truly fascinating. One hundred per cent reusability of having the first successful launch in 2008. Last year they over-
rocket components, refuelling in orbit rather than on a planet came one of the hardest hurdles in the rocket business: landing a
or moon’s surface, and using widely accessible and inexpen- rocket on a barge and creating a reusable rocket. This year Space
sive fuels like methane and oxygen are major parts of this vision. X launched more rockets this year than any other space agency.
Space-X has made huge strides towards this reusability this But these launches, it appears, were just a practice for some-
year.  thing bigger. Space X is working on making their current rockets
The time lines are very ambitious, including setting the year and Dragon capsule redundant in place of one rocket to rule
2022 for two cargo ships to go to Mars, but 5 years is also a them all: the BFR rocket. The factory is built, the parts are ordered,
significant amount of time. The Apollo program’s time line and production will start soon.
was not very different. The reusability is fundamental in keeping the costs down, as well
If even a small part of this vision can be implemented then as refuelling by oxygen and methane in orbit. This one rocket will
Elon Musk and Space-X will allow humanity to make major be able to service the ISS, do a return trip to the Moon without
steps to the Moon, to Mars and beyond much faster than existing local re-fuelling, and reach Mars. It can carry 150 tonnes of fuel,
plans. Yes, there are undoubtedly major challenges to over- which is more than the biggest rocket so far, Saturn V. The rocket
come, including the effects of space weather (e.g. radiation will be able to land to the Moon or Mars by Falcon’s perfected
events due to solar flares) and issues with closed life support retro-propulsion method.
and maintenance systems, but we should explore the major The first cargo mission with two BFR rockets is planned for
potential benefits to Space-X’s approach and consider supporting 2022, and a human crew mission for 2024, and also setting fuel
the parts we deem viable and transformational.” production on-site.
Professor Iver Cairns is a Professor in Space Physics at The University of Sydney and incoming
We have learned to expect the impossible from Elon Mask
Director of the ARC Training Centre for CubeSats, UAVs and Their Applications. and Space X, and this time frame is aspirational but does not
“Elon Musk is impressive. He shows what intelligence and seem impossible. And this time we were treated with visions
money can do when they are combined. Notice also that Elon of a lunar and Martian base, which makes the whole package even
Musk is not a committee. more mesmerising.
Reusing and recycling seem to be at the heart of the new And just as you think that is innovative enough, Elon Mask
approach that Musk is taking. The science behind this is real- casually mentions that the same rocket will be able to fly us in
istic. The unrealistic part – the thing holding us back – has under an hour wherever we want to go on Earth. What else to
always been finding the political will to invest in space. say but ‘the future is now’ – and it looks great.”

Make sense of science

Kennedy and the cold war found the money for NASA to get Dr Jasmina Lazendic-Galloway is a Lecturer in the School of Physics and Astronomy at
Monash University.
us to the Moon. Musk doesn’t need Kennedy’s eloquence... or
rather Musk’s eloquence is in the deep knowledge of the physics
and engineering.
Musk’s vision and engineering savvy seem to be able to attract
the money to build the BFR.”
Dr Charley Lineweaver is an Associate Professor in the Research School of Earth Sciences at
the Australian National University College of Science.

“Elon Mask is one big step closer to his dream of making humans
multi-planetary species. He wants us to have a better future
and to be inspired by the potentials that we have as humans. 
Elon is famous for his agile and efficient way of running his
companies and bringing truly amazing ideas to life. But the cost
of interplanetary travel is one of the main reasons humans have
not set a foot beyond the Moon, so Elon Mask’s presentation Subscribe at austscience.com
focused on ‘how do we pay for this thing?’

42 | | NOV/DEC 2017
DIRECTIONS Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering

Securing Our Digital Future The successful uptake and effective utilisation of ICT services
will continue to facilitate innovation across an increasingly
Our digital future depends on preparing
diverse range of areas. Australia’s manufacturing, production
industry and society for change.
and services sectors will increasingly be enabled by access to
Today’s digital technologies are having a significant societal broadband, both fixed and mobile, as well as low-power network
and economic impact within Australia. They are also acting as technologies for the Internet of Things (IoT).
the basis of a newly emerging set of foundational technologies The pending boom in the number of sensors collecting huge
such as the Internet of Things, big data, machine learning and quantities of data, which in turn must be stored, presents a
autonomous systems, which will disrupt every aspect of the range of technological opportunities.
economy. ICT has already strongly impacted societal culture and
This digital transformation presents a range of opportuni- behaviour. People are increasingly moving towards living part
ties and challenges. We must address three key areas to maximise of their lives in the digital world, including socialising, learning,
opportunity in Information, Computing and Technology conducting financial transactions, and storing and sharing
(ICT) development and application and reduce societal impact. personal data. Emerging technologies will see this evolution
Stakeholders across government, industry, academia and the continue with a deepening of human–machine partnerships
community need to take responsibility for: and relinquishing of tasks to autonomous systems.
• developing information and communication technologies in
Australia;
Emerging technologies will see this
• advancing digital transformation for industry and govern-
ment in Australia; and evolution continue with a
• evaluating the implications of digital transformation on deepening of human–machine
society. partnerships and relinquishing of
The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering
(ATSE) is working to provide guidance to various sectors on tasks to autonomous systems.
the required next steps as Australia’s national capabilities in
ICT and digital engineering strive to underpin growth in all This level of engagement will also create a societal response
Australian industry sectors, including health, agriculture, finance, as users of technology face issues around:
mining and education. • cybersecurity. Secure and large storage systems to accom-
Australia’s digital future will rely upon a science, technology, modate the proliferation of data being collected will continue
engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills base. Critically, to increase in demand, with failures around this impacting
education systems must a focus on STEM, and they must evolve on advancements and user confidence;
to meet the pace of digitalisation. • ownership of data. Clear ownership to facilitate adequate
Digital literacy will be essential to the process of learning, from privacy and control will be central to some consumers and
primary school through to tertiary education. Students must have necessary for engagement in new and innovative programs
courses that teach computational thinking (e.g. mathematics and as they emerge;
coding) as part of the curriculum, and must be exposed to • ethics around automation and artificial intelligence (social
entrepreneurship throughout their education in order to harness robotics). As technology advances there may be a lag in
each student’s imagination, enlivening creative responses that response from the general community until broader aware-
align with the dynamic and changing real world environment. ness of potential issues grow. This can result in industries and
Tertiary institutions must focus on providing the skills to innovation being stifled or dismantled; and
meet the technical and analytical needs created by increasing • privacy. The community has varying expectations around
volumes of data. This should include courses for data scien- privacy. Factors related to the IoT and home safety may
tists and analysts (already in demand) to facilitate effective present issues for the development and uptake of IoT prod-
information management services that ensure the availability, ucts.
confidentiality and integrity of data. Australia must address these matters at the forefront of tech-
Courses must also produce graduates with cybersecurity nology development – with appropriate regulatory frameworks
skills that enable them to hit the ground running. Vocational – before they become issues rather than responding to poor
educational systems, with strong alignment with industry and outcomes after they have become issues.
flexible and responsive course design, will be essential in accom- Professor Mike Miller AO FTSE and Professor Glenn Wightwick FTSE co-chair ATSE’s Digital
modating emerging skills trends. Futures Working Group.

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 43
 THE BITTER PILL Friends of Science in Medicine

Follow the Money that it was a theatrical placebo. Despite many Chinese parents
considering it useless, and regarding the teaching of it as a
The Chinese government is behind efforts to
waste of precious school time, 12-year-olds are being taught
promote Traditional Chinese Medicine despite
about TCM and how to administer acupuncture; govern-
its lack of evidence.
ment sees it as a way to boost confidence and pride in China.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt’s recent announcement More than 700,000 TCM textbooks are being distributed to
that a host of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) schools.
practices, lacking any evidence base for their effectiveness, will The WHO is also involved. Quoted worldwide as “evidence”,
no longer receive taxpayer-funded rebates for treatment. That a 2002 WHO publication on acupuncture claimed that it is
is good news, but at the same time Traditional Chinese Medicine “clinically proven to be effective” or “effective” for more than
(TCM), similarly lacking an evidence base, is being promoted 90 disease and disorders, including depression, dysentery, induc-
and adopted widely with strong government support. You have tion of labour, rotating breech-position babies, rheumatoid
to ask why. arthritis, stroke and whooping cough.
In 2014, the Australian government signed an $18 billion For the past decade, Margaret Chan was the Director-
Free Trade Agreement with China, with TCM singled out for General of the WHO. A Chinese-Canadian physician, she
special attention. With no definitive evidence to support claims uses TCM, and urged the Chinese government to promote
that TCM can cure any disease or disorder, you have to ask TCM worldwide, claiming it could “reduce the burden on
why Australia is embracing TCM. health services”.
TCMs are among the fastest growing “health” products in Australian regulators are also to blame. As part of the Depart-
Australia, where the growth of TCM has been influenced by the ment of Health, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Adminis-
Chinese and Australian governments, and international agen- tration’s role is to safeguard the health of Australians “through
cies including the World Health Organisation (WHO), our effective and timely regulation of therapeutic goods”. However,
regulators and our universities. the latest proposed changes to their advertising code include
China is pushing TCM. It is a $40 billion industry in China, more than 1000 TCM and traditional indications, such as
and TCM products are among the most profitable of all “harmonise middle burner (spleen and stomach)”, “unblock/
Chinese exports even though it has been in decline in China in open/relax meridians”, “balance yin and yang”, “renal tonic”
recent decades, with 80% of people now relying on western and “helps healthy liver regeneration”.
medical treatment. To boost TCM a new Chinese law, Collaboration with Chinese institutions is bringing millions
promising equal status for TCM and western medicine, came of dollars into our universities. These collaborations aim to
into effect this year. Provisions include encouraging hospitals integrate TCM “research into a clinical setting,” supposedly
to set up TCM centres. to “accelerate the development of more effective treatments
TCM appeals because it is “natural”, but in 2015 DNA anal- for the most pressing and costly chronic health problems facing
ysis of imported TCM products found that nearly nine in ten the world”. China wants to grow its exports of TCM by influ-
contained some form of undeclared substance, including strych- encing governments, universities and regulators. Australian
nine, arsenic, snow leopard, pit viper, warfarin and Viagra. A business wants to tap into the $170 billion global TCM market.
2017 review of nearly 500 TCM products by Hong Kong This is not about improving our health and well-being, but
hospital toxicologists found that most contained modern phar- about growing Chinese business influence internationally and
maceutical-grade appetite suppressants, stimulants and anti- boosting the Chinese economy. The chronically ill and other
inflammatories. vulnerable patients pay the price.
In 2014, 230,000 reports of adverse reactions to TCM prod- Here in Australia, Friends of Science in Medicine has made
ucts were received by China’s “National Adverse Drug Reac- some progress. The links to the acupuncture report have been
tion Monitoring”. You might expect China to be at the forefront removed from the WHO website. The Chinese Medicine Board
of researching TCM’s effectiveness, but while the majority of of Australia has published a statement that “acceptable evidence
studies from China report that it’s effective, this is unreliable to support advertising claims needs to be based on findings
as negative results aren’t published, obtained from quantitative methodology such as systematic
Acupuncture is included within TCM, but it doesn’t work. reviews of randomised and high quality controlled trials”.
Cochrane reviews are the “gold standard” for evidence-based However, with no way to modify TCM practitioners’ scope
medicine, and nearly 50 reviews have failed to find robust of practice, for those who venture into their local TCM clinic
evidence for acupuncture. A rigorously scientific review of it will remain “business as usual”.
the evidence for acupuncture by non-acupuncturists concluded Loretta Marron is the Chief Executive Officer of Friends of Science in Medicine.

44 | | NOV/DEC 2017
THE NAKED SKEPTIC Peter Bowditch

Counting the Opinions

The same sex marriage survey repeats the statistical mistakes of most opinion polls.
People who might never have heard of George Santayana would Large amounts of advertising expenditure and media
still be familiar with the quote: “Those who cannot remember company profits are based on television and radio ratings. These
the past are condemned to repeat it”. Australia has been going ratings are based not on counting everybody who watches a
through a process that repeats mistakes from the past. particular television program but on monitoring the behaviour
The 1936 US presidential election was between the incum- of a very carefully selected sample of a couple of thousand people
bent Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt and Republican Alf across the country.
Landon, Governor of Kansas. Roosevelt was partway through Political polling can be very accurate with a small sample,
implementing his New Deal program, something which was but that sample is drawn from every electorate in the country.
seen by many conservatives as ushering in a form of socialism (The 1975 Australian Federal election that followed the dismissal
and anathema to those who saw libertarianism, small govern- of the Whitlam government was one of the most polarised in
ment and individual personal freedom as the foundations of history. The newspaper Nation Review had a competition to
US polity. predict the relative percentages in two-party preferred voting for
The magazine The Literary Digest mailed out about 10 million the Senate. The winner, who got the percentages correct to the
survey forms to subscribers and others, asking them to predict third decimal place, worked for the Gallup organisation and used
who would win. The 2.3 million replies suggested that Landon the figures from an opinion poll a week before the election.)
would win 370 of the 531 Electoral College votes, and there- Australia is in the midst of a massive opinion poll to answer
fore the Presidency. Yet Roosevelt received 500 Electoral College a single question: should the law be changed to allow same-sex
votes and more than 60% of the popular vote. couples to marry? Showing that we have learnt nothing from
the lessons of 1936, the survey is being conducted as a postal vote.
Although everybody on the electoral roll has been sent a survey
Although everybody on the form, participation is optional so only people really motivated
by the question will feel the need to respond.
electoral roll has been sent a survey Motivation to express an opinion might not even be enough.
form, participation is optional so I live in a small country town with approximately half of the resi-
only people really motivated by the dents of the local government area living on farms outside the
question will feel the need to town. There appears to be only one postbox in the entire area
for people to return their voting papers, and I’ve spoken to
respond. many people who only come into town about once a month to
do shopping. If you don’t post a lot of letters it’s easy to forget
that you need to take one with you the next time you go for
So how did The Literary Digest get the prediction so wrong? groceries.
One suggestion was that the subscriber base of the magazine Three weeks after the first voting forms were posted out
consisted predominantly of conservative voters, so they were the there were three estimates of the response rate. Two surveys
wrong people to ask. The real problem, however, was a combi- conducted by private pollsters with sample sizes of about 1000
nation of this and also that the respondents were a self-selected suggested that approximately 75% of the forms had already
sample of people motivated enough to fill in a form, put it in been returned. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said in the
an envelope and go to a postbox to return it. same week that 57.5% had been returned. The ABS figure was
Another player in 1936 was advertising executive George itself an estimate based on counting envelopes in a few boxes
Gallup, who thought that there was a scientific way of predicting and extrapolating to a warehouse full of boxes; if about 25%
the results of the election. Using a sample of 50,000 people he of the votes were coming in per week then just a few days delay
said that Roosevelt would win. in postal delivery could account for the difference between the
I remember having hammered into me in the first statistics two estimates.
courses I did at university the importance of sample selection, I’ve posted my vote, but I’ll have to wait until mid-November
and how samples had to be both random and representative like everybody else to see the result (and of course the ABS
of the population under study. These might seem conflicting analysis of the validity of the count). I hope we get value for
ideals, but it is possible to randomly select subjects while still the large amount of money the survey cost.
ensuring that the overall sample is representative. Peter Bowditch is a former President of Australian Skeptics Inc. (www.skeptics.com.au).

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 45
 ECOLOGIC Laura Mumaw

Grow Your Own

Collaborative wildlife gardening programs
engage residents to manage their land and
achieve landscape-focused conservation goals.
Involving communities in appreciating and caring for nature
is a key goal in most conservation strategies. But how is this
achieved, particularly in cities where “nature” is sometimes
hard to come by? Wildlife gardening is one commonly suggested
solution, but what ingredients make for a successful program?
Although the urban landscape is dominated by human activ-
ities and cannot be restored to a wild state, the persistence of
native flora and fauna can be fostered. Effective conservation
of native species requires sympathetic management of plots of
public and private land in a way that protects and improves
patches of native habitat (generally on public land). This is
enhanced by establishing protective buffers around them and
improving connectivity between them through corridors and The superb fairy-wren feeds on insects and small grubs, and will
often appear in small groups in suburban gardens with dense,
stepping stones in residential and other land-use areas. low, native shrub cover. Wildlife gardening programs have
Residents may feel this is the responsibility of experts and potential to enhance our home gardens to be more wildlife-
friendly. Credit: Geoff Park
parks staff, or that they have little to offer. Yet residential
gardens are important: they make up a large proportion of Interviewees with or without prior intention or knowledge
urban land, many community members have them, and they can of wildlife gardening became involved. What was common to
provide habitat that is important for the survival of native all of them was an interest in keeping a garden.
species. Unfortunately there is currently little guidance about We conclude that wildlife gardening programs with commu-
how best to involve residents in wildlife gardening and align nity features can engage urban residents to manage their land
their work with public land management. to help council and community to conserve indigenous biota.
To help fill this hole, we looked at how a partnership in The hands-on involvement of community members and local
greater Melbourne between Knox City Council and a commu- government is critical to stimulate interest and support for
nity group (Knox Environment Society) involves residents in municipal biodiversity conservation. Beyond stimulating and
gardening to help conserve the biota native to the municipality. supporting members to wildlife garden, the program builds
The wildlife gardening program, Knox Gardens for Wildlife relationships between participating members, the community
(G4W), began in 2006 and currently has more than 700 partic- group and council around a shared interest in fostering the
ipating households (http://tinyurl.com/y8fdt9jz). municipality’s wildlife.
We interviewed 16 G4W members of varying ages, back- In part informed by research from this study, the Gardens for
grounds, gardening experience, property characteristics and time Wildlife Victoria (https://gardensforwildlifevictoria.com/) pilot
in the program to understand what program features motivated program has been initiated to support urban local
and supported them to change their gardening to assist the Knox government–community group partnerships to engage local resi-
City Council and Knox Environment Society to foster locally dents in caring for nature through gardening and other habitat-
native (indigenous) species. We supplemented the interview data improvement activities. A consortium that includes the Victorian
with a Council survey of the G4W membership. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, a
So what motivates people to make an effort to get into regional catchment management authority, and local govern-
wildlife gardening? We found that program features instru- ment and community group members has been established to
mental in supporting wildlife gardening are an inspiring face- lead the initiative. Their intent is to help make Victoria’s new
to-face garden assessment; a community nursery to which biodiversity strategy understood and pragmatically applied in
members can return to for advice and support; communica- urban communities, and to develop research tools and knowledge
tion hubs, including the nursery and Council offices; a frame- about how to facilitate community engagement in fostering
work that fosters experiential learning and community linkages; biodiversity while strengthening social cohesion.
and endorsement by Council and Knox Environment Society Laura Mumaw is a member of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions.
of each garden’s potential conservation contribution. She is based at RMIT University in Melbourne.

46 | | NOV/DEC 2017
LOWE TECH Ian Lowe

Lift-off for Space Agency

The re-establishment of an Australian space
agency is expected to generate billions of
dollars after decades of neglect of the sector.
Australia is at last going to have its space agency restored. The
decision was announced at a major international conference
in Adelaide in September. Scientists working in space-related
areas greeted the announcement with unanimous enthusiasm
after governments had been missing in action for more than
20 years.
The Australian Space Office was set up in 1987, when Barry
Jones was Science Minister. It had a modest annual budget of
$5 million, but there were big space projects under considera-
tion at the time: restoring Woomera’s capacity to launch rockets,
or building a massive space port on Cape York. Prime Minister
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
John Howard closed the Space Office when he was elected in
1996, a move showing he had neither vision nor respect for than when the climate change treaty was negotiated 25 years ago.
science. Twelve years later, a parliamentary committee said it All other developed countries, even the USA, have made
was no longer acceptable for Australia to be “lost in space” yet progress.
nothing happened. The fine print exposes the folly of the national government’s
The current industry minister, Arthur Sinodinos, appointed attempt to prolong the life of an old and dirty coal-fired power
former CSIRO chief Dr Megan Clarke to conduct another station. Our transport fuel use is increasing, an inevitable conse-
inquiry. It is due to report next March, but the international quence of rapid population growth and continuing neglect of
conference put pressure on the government to act. Critics public transport. With no realistic prospect of reining in trans-
pointed out that Iceland was the only other OECD country port emissions before 2030, meeting our Paris obligations
without a space agency. Barry Jones was more direct, noting demands a more rapid transition to clean electricity than the
that New Zealand has one, as do Peru and Nicaragua! government proposes. The Australia Institute concludes the
So the Turnbull government rushed to make an announce- least-cost solution to meet our Paris target requires 66–75%
ment to the conference. One report said the minister’s remarks of power from renewables by 2030. The ALP’s national target
were almost drowned out by cheers when he said that a space of 50%, and similar targets in some states, have been criticised
agency would be established. by the Coalition government as too ambitious. But the new
We really need to see the terms of reference and funding analysis shows that really drastic measures will need to be taken
level. Dr Bruce Middleton, who first headed the space office to reduce emissions from transport, manufacturing and agri-
30 years ago, told The Saturday Paper that the new agency will culture if we don’t take the more cost-effective action of cleaning
need at least $50 million per year to be effective. Dr Allan Duffy up electricity supply.
of Swinburne University of Technology said that the space Saddler’s analysis confirmed that electricity production from
sector is worth $3–4 billion in Australia, a figure that he expects coal and gas failed to meet energy demand during the February
could be doubled by an effective agency. heatwave. He noted that the power system has a peak load
The scientists and commercial interests involved will be problem rather than a baseload problem. “Right when NSW
watching next May’s Federal Budget with great interest. consumers needed them most, important gas and coal genera-
tion went missing in action,” Saddler said.
The latest edition of the national emissions inventory makes This strengthens the case to move towards renewables with
chilling reading. The report was produced for Canberra think storage, rather than extending the life of old baseload power
tank The Australia Institute by energy expert Dr Hugh Saddler. stations. It also reinforces the need to get serious about improving
It shows that Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions are still the efficiency of energy use, as the National Framework report
increasing rapidly despite our endorsement of the Paris agree- recommended 14 years ago. That is not low-hanging fruit; it is
ment to slow climate change. fruit lying on the ground that really should be picked up.
Our emissions are now at a record level. Turkey is the only Improving efficiency saves money as well as reducing emissions.
other advanced country releasing more greenhouse gases now Ian Lowe is Emeritus Professor of science, technology and society at Griffith University.

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 47
 OUT OF THIS WORLD David Reneke

Bringing Building Blocks of

Life to Earth from Space
How life began on Earth, roughly 4 billion years ago, is one of
The theory holds that
the great scientific questions. New results from scientists at either very simple forms of
McMaster University and the Max Planck Institute for life or the materials
necessary for it to form are
Astronomy suggest a key role for meteorites landing in warm little carried to Earth on comets
ponds, delivering essential organic molecules that kickstarted the or fragments of asteroids.
Credit: Science Photo Library/Getty Images
emergence of life in the shape of self-replicating RNA molecules.
The astronomers reached their conclusions after assembling answer. The details of how our solar system formed have direct
models about planet formation, geology, chemistry and biology consequences for the origin of life on Earth.
into a coherent quantitative model for the emergence of life. The The new work supports the “warm little pond” hypotheses
most interesting result from these calculations is that life must for the origin of life, with RNA polymers forming in shallow
have emerged fairly early while Earth was still taking shape. ponds during cycles in which the pond water evaporates and is
This, they maintain, was only a few hundred million years after refilled periodically. It shows how meteorites could have trans-
the Earth had cooled sufficiently to allow liquid surface water, ported a sufficient amount of nucleotides to thousands of such
such as ponds or oceans. The building blocks of life would have ponds on Earth, helping to kickstart life in at least one of those
been brought to Earth by meteorites during an era when Earth’s ponds. “We have provided plausible physical and chemical infor-
bombardment by such small extraterrestrial rocks was much mation about the conditions under which life could have orig-
more intense than today. inated,” said Dmitry Semenov of the Max Planck Institute.
Astronomers agree that in order to understand the origin of How true! Now it’s the experimentalists’ turn to find out
life we need to understand Earth as it was billions of years ago. how life could indeed have emerged under these very specific early
As this study shows, astronomy provides a vital part of the conditions.
David Reneke is an astronomy lecturer and teacher, a feature writer for major Australian newspapers and magazines, and a science correspondent for ABC and commercial radio.
Subscribe to David’s free Astro-Space newsletter at www.davidreneke.com
Credit: University of Wyoming

How a Galaxy’s Spin Affects

Its Shape
For the first time Australian astronomers have measured how a
galaxy’s spin affects its shape. It sounds simple, but measuring a
galaxy’s true 3D shape is a tricky problem that astronomers first
tried to solve 90 years ago.
“This is the first time we’ve been able to reliably measure how a
galaxy’s shape depends on any of its other properties, in this case its
rotation speed,” said research team leader Dr Caroline Foster of The
University of Sydney, who completed this research while working at
the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO).
There’s one thing astronomers agree on: galaxies can be shaped
like a pancake, a sea urchin, a football, or anything in between.
Faster-spinning galaxies are flatter than their slower-spinning
siblings, the team found. It’s simply a rule the universe works by.
The team’s findings show that among spiral galaxies, which have
discs of stars, the faster-spinning ones have more circular disc
shapes. The team made its findings with SAMI, an instrument jointly At last the dynamics of galaxy rotation are becoming clearer.
developed by The University of Sydney and the Australian
Astronomical Observatory with funding from the ARC Centre of more than the biggest previous study. This large number was the key
Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO). to solving the shape problem. Because a galaxy’s shape is the result
SAMI gives detailed information about the movement of gas and of past events such as merging with other galaxies, knowing its
stars inside galaxies. This instrument has a wide grasp; it can shape also tells us about the galaxy’s history.
examine 13 galaxies at a time and thus collect information about In a way it’s sort of like “archaeo-astronomy” by backtracking on
huge numbers of them. The result is a bigger data base to work with. what went before in an effort to understand what we have now. It’s a
Foster’s team used a sample of 845 galaxies, over three times new study so watch this space!

48 | | NOV/DEC 2017
QUANDARY Michael Cook

Last-Minute Complications to figures upwards of $25,000,” says Riley. A lethal dose of the
other effective and popular drug, secobarbital, cost about
Botched executions provide a timely warning
US$200 8 years ago but Valeant, a Canadian pharmaceutical
that assisted suicide does not necessarily lead
company, bought the drug and jacked up its price to $3,000.
to a peaceful death.
The gold standard for experiments on human beings is a Compounding Pharmacies
randomly assigned double-blind placebo-controlled study. Faced with the huge cost of assisted death, prisons and patients
Naturally, organising one of these to assess the effectiveness of began to turn to compounding pharmacies where pharmacists
lethal drugs is unlikely. Unless you live in North Korea, the create the drugs from raw materials. “As the past three or so
chances of getting approval from an ethical review committee years have seen a dramatic increase in the use of compounded
is very low. drugs,” writes Riley, “there has been a corresponding rise in
Instead, we need to rely upon experience from the United ‘botched’ executions, though the secrecy laws have neutered
States. And this suggests that there can be glitches in choosing most attempts to link failed executions to compounded drugs”.
the date of one’s death. Drugs made in compounding pharmacies risk being not
In a recent issue of the Journal of Law and the Biosciences, Sean strong enough or too strong – or contaminated. In
Riley, an end-of-life researcher currently studying in The Nether- Massachusetts a former pharmacist is on trial for supplying
lands, reviewed the patchy record of the drugs used in execu- contaminated drugs that caused a nationwide outbreak of
tions and physician-assisted suicide (PAS). He summarises his meningitis. Prosecutors told the court that he had used expired
findings as follows: ingredients, falsified documents, neglected cleaning, failed to
The pervasive belief that these, or any, noxious drugs are guaranteed properly sterilise the drugs, shipped products before they were
to provide for a peaceful and painless death must be dispelled; modern tested, and ignored mould and bacteria in manufacturing areas.
medicine cannot yet achieve this. Certainly some, if not most, executions
and suicides have been complication-free, but this notion has allowed
much of the general public to write them off as humane, and turn a
blind eye to any potential problems. Executions or PAS have never been As Australia debates assisted suicide,
as clean as they appear, even with the US’s medicalization efforts
during the 1980s.
it’s important to keep in mind that
the case for Yes and the case for No
His research gives a different spin to arguments put forward
can both involve undue pain.
by supporters of assisted suicide in Australia and elsewhere.
While the horrors of botched executions in the American mid-
West are reported around the world, complications with death
by PAS are barely mentioned. Yet they use basically the same Last-Minute Complications
drugs, so it is worthwhile discussing them in tandem. It is difficult to define what a “botched execution” is, but the
Riley addresses several practical problems about the drugs. dying moments of some prisoners were clearly agonising. And
They are most evident in capital punishment, but there is a there are complications with PAS as well, although the data is
flow-on effect to PAS. a bit murky.
“According to data published by Oregon, 5% of patients
Supplier Boycotts experienced difficulties, such as regurgitation or seizures, after
Under pressure from anti-death penalty activists, pharmaceu- ingestion of the medication, since the inception of the law in
tical companies in the US and abroad have refused to supply 1997,” says Riley. However, the details were reported in only
prisons with the drug of choice for executions, pentobarbital. 51% of the cases, and “there are six reported instances where
Efforts to circumvent this by going to shady middlemen even- patients ingested the lethal medications, went unconscious,
tually failed. Nowadays most states have ceased to import the and awoke sometimes days later”.
key ingredients needed for executions. As Australia debates assisted suicide, it’s important to keep
in mind that the case for Yes and the case for No can both
Price Gouging for PAS Drugs involve undue pain. Riley’s philosophical conclusion is: “The
Because of the drought of lethal medications for executions, processes of death will always, to some extent, be a mystery.
the price of pentobarbital in liquid form for PAS has skyrock- For now, whether a death is peaceful and painless can only be
eted. “Before 2012, patients would pay about US$500 for a assumed.”
sufficient lethal dose of the drug, but by 2016 prices had inflated Michael Cook is Editor of BioEdge, an online bioethics newsletter.

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 49
 AUSTRALASIAN SKY

November 2017
STAR BRIGHTNESS
Zero or brighter
st
1 magnitude
2nd Andromeda Galaxy

3rd
4th

GREAT SQUARE
OF PEGASUS

M15

First Quarter Moon

on the 27th

Mira

BOOTES
CORONA
BOREALIS

Arcturus

M8
M28

Regulus SATURN

M19
P
P MERCURY
47 Tucanae
Zubenelgenubi

Antares

SCORPIUS
CENTAURUS
NORMA Omega Centauri
CHART KEY TEA POT Alpha Centauri
POINTERS

Bright star POINTERS CRUX SOUTHERN CROSS

α β β γ
Faint star εδ MOON PHASE
α
Ecliptic Milky Way TRIANGULUM
AUSTRALE Full Moon 04th
Celestial Equator Proxima Centauri Last quarter 11th
P Planet APUS
SOUTHERN CROSS
New Moon 18th
LMC or Large Magellanic Cloud First quarter 27th
SMC or Small Magellanic Cloud OCTANS

THE CHART HIGHLIGHTS IN NOVEMBER 2017

The star chart shows the stars and constellations visible in The best time to look at the Moon with a small
the night sky for Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart telescope or binoculars is a few days either side of its
and Adelaide for November 2017 at about 8.30 pm (local first quarter phase, which falls on the 27th of
daylight saving time) or about 7.30pm (local standard November. Saturn is low in the west, starting in
time) for Perth and Brisbane. For Darwin and similar Ophiuchus (the Serpent Bearer), but moving to
northerly locations the chart will still apply, but some stars Sagittarius (the Archer) as the month progresses.
will be lost off the southern edge while extra stars will be Mercury is also low in the west, through November
visible to the north. Stars down to a brightness or moving from Libra (the Scales) through Scorpius to
magnitude limit of 4.5 are shown on the star chart. To use Sagittarius. Crux (the Southern Cross) is located to
this star chart, rotate the chart so that the direction you are the south, near the horizon, making it difficult to see at
facing (north, south, east or west) is shown at the bottom. this time of year. Pisces (the Fish) and Aries (the Ram)
The centre of the chart represents the point directly above are located in the eastern sky, while the great square
your head, called the zenith point, and the outer circular of Pegasus can be found in the north.
edge represents the horizon.
Sydney Observatory is part of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. The Sydney Observatory night sky map was created by Dr M. Anderson using the TheSky
software. This month’s edition was prepared by Melissa Hulbert. © 2017 Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney.

50 | | NOV/DEC 2017
AUSTRALASIAN SKY

December 2017
STAR BRIGHTNESS
Zero or brighter
st
1 magnitude
2nd Andromeda Galaxy
3rd
4th
M45 - Pleiades

Hyades

First Quarter Moon

on the 26th

Orion’s belt 1
“The Saucepan” Fomalhaut

Tarantula Nebula

False Cross

Chart Key
Bright star Diamond Cross

Faint star The Pointers

Ecliptic Southern Cross MOON PHASE

Milky Way Full Moon 04th
P Planet Last quarter 10th
LMC or Large Magellanic Cloud New Moon 18th
SMC or Small Magellanic Cloud First quarter 26th

THE CHART HIGHLIGHTS IN DECEMBER 2017

The star chart shows the stars and constellations visible in The summer solstice is on the 22nd, when the Sun
the night sky for Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart reaches its highest point in the sky for the year, and
and Adelaide for December 2017 at about 8.30 pm (local this day has the most hours of daylight. The best time
daylight saving time) or about 7.30pm (local standard to look at the Moon with a small telescope or
time) for Perth and Brisbane. For Darwin and similar binoculars is a few days either side of its first quarter
northerly locations the chart will still apply, but some stars phase, which falls on the 26th of December. Saturn
will be lost off the southern edge while extra stars will be and Mercury start low in the west in Sagittarius (the
visible to the north. Stars down to a brightness or Archer) but vanish in the twilight early in the month,
magnitude limit of 4.5 are shown on the star chart. To use leaving no bright evening planets. Crux (the Southern
this star chart, rotate the chart so that the direction you are Cross) is located to the south, near the horizon,
facing (north, south, east or west) is shown at the bottom. making it difficult to see at this time of year. The
The centre of the chart represents the point directly above summer constellations of Orion (the Hunter) and
your head, called the zenith point, and the outer circular Taurus (the Bull) are in the northeast. Sirius, the
edge represents the horizon. brightest night-time star, is low in the southeast.
Sydney Observatory is part of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. The Sydney Observatory night sky map was created by Dr M. Anderson using the TheSky
software. This month’s edition was prepared by Melissa Hulbert © 2017 Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney.

NOV/DEC 2017 | | 51
Unlock the
Archives
Get full online access
to past editions
when you subscribe
@ austscience.com
nobeastsofierce/Adobe

Purchase Past Print Issues TAX INVOICE

Please send the following printed issues:

Control Publications

Name: __________________________________
ABN 46 006 591 304

___________________________________ @ $12.00* Address: __________________________________

___________________________________ @ $12.00* _______________________________________
___________________________________ @ $12.00* __________________ State: ____ P/code _____
___________________________________ @ $12.00*
Payment details: ❏ Cheque ❏ Visa* ❏ Mastercard* ❏ Money Order
Total Price: $_____
‡

*Prices include GST and postage within Australia.

Make cheques payable to Control Publications. *A 2% surcharge applies to credit card transactions.
Overseas deliveries add AUD$10 extra
Card No. __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ Expiry: __ __ __ __
POST: Control Publications, Box 2155, Wattletree Rd PO,VIC 3145
FAX: (03) 9500 0255 WEB: austscience.com Cardholder ............................................................... Signed ..................................................