Feeding the world with new farming systems PAGE 22
Collaborating over carbon Working together to change the future
26 A better outlook
How social media is changing mental health PAGE 12
Composite materials
Engineering that’s saving millions for defence
PAGE 16
Industry big bang
Adding value with Australia’s biggest instrument
PAGE 20
5 Big ideas 5 Big ideas Inventions, innovations and frontier science that’s changing the rules
Since its launch in September 2009, ICRAR has emerged as a major new international centre of excellence in astronomical science and technology. Working towards the world’s largest telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), ICRAR is delivering world-class research.
ICRAR PReCuRsoRs
ICRAR provides ongoing support to SKA precursor projects including CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder and the Murchison Widefield Array currently observing at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in WA.
ICRAR is contributing to the international design program for the SKA through research and prototyping of data intensive ICT systems. We are also conducting advanced research and prototyping of aperture arrays for the low frequency portion of the SKA.
ICRAR is working closely with industry to develop technology and infrastructure for the SKA. Partners include IBM, the Pawsey High Performance Computing Centre and iVEC.
ICRAR works closely with the community to raise awareness and understanding of radio astronomy and the SKA. Activities include liaison with Indigenous Australians, engaging public lectures and hands-on community observing events.
ICRAR has a strong teaching program at the undergraduate, Honours, Masters and PhD levels. ICRAR also generates excitement towards astronomy and the SKA through programs to inspire teachers and students, such as teacher professional development, studentships and access to educational materials. ICRAR researchers, with national and international colleagues, are conducting worldclass radio astronomy research projects in fields such as galaxy formation and evolution, high angular resolution astronomy and high time resolution astronomy.
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
Image:
Way by exploding stars.
Bridging the gap
Good relationships need work, but where they succeed, they bridge cultural divides cross-institutionally and across continents, says CRC Association CEO, Tony Peacock
WE ALL ACCEPT
that we need to work on our personal relationships. Even the best marriages only succeed on the basis of a continually evolving dynamic, and must not be taken for granted.
Generally, we also accept that innovation is rarely due to one person. Teams need to come together if an idea is going to end up as a product, a service or a new policy. Often, those team members will come from very different backgrounds and possess very different skills.
When those backgrounds or cultures are dissimilar, as they are in team members that work in academia or in industry, the capacity for operating at cross-purposes is quite large. But if progress is to be made, it is essential to first get the relationship right.
Many of Australia’s research units have their relationship/ communication issues writ large. In maintaining
strong relationships, these communications between individuals, language, geography, culture, regulation and many other issues come into play.
I am reminded of cultural differences as I write this, the first foreword for the Cooperative Research Centres Association’s new KnowHow magazine. I’m
Yet as Australia’s interactions with Asia increase exponentially, these cultural differences will form part of the dynamic that defines our relationships, both new and old. We’ll need to know more about the nuances of innovating with Asia. That’s why we’ve themed our coming conference in Perth in May 2014
As Australia’s interaction with Asia increases exponentially, these cultural differences will form part of the dynamic that defines our relationships, both new and old.
sitting in a Tokyo hotel foyer, realising that, at 9:30 am, I still have 30 minutes to wait until the faux-Parisian coffee shop on the corner opens. Although I’m on holiday, I’m out of sync with this city that prefers to open later in the day and transacts much of its business at night.
on Innovating with Asia. It’s also why this, the first issue of our new magazine, focuses on the frontiers where science meets business. Because we can’t just assume that our new relationships will happen; like any good marriage, we have to work at them.
c onTE nTs
FEATURES
HEALTH
12 Click to connect
Australia is leading the world in harnessing the power of social media to protect the mental health of young people, says Stephen Pincock.
innovATion
16 The composites revolution
Rapid advances in composite materials are set to bring about huge advances in the manufacturing sector. Phillip English reports.
TEc H
20 Big bang for industry
The ultimate tool for science
R&D, the Australian Synchrotron is becoming an industry heavyweight.
food
22 Winds of change
Whether by tantalising the tastebuds, reducing our carbon footprint or creating new fuels, the agricultural revolution is delivering new benefits, writes Rosslyn Beeby.
c LimATE
26 The climate challenge
It’s arguably the greatest trial confronting humanity: to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are fundamentally altering our climate. Australian Cooperative Research Centres are leading the fight. David Ellyard reports.
IN THE NEWS
5 Call for action over growing global contaminants
6 Harnessing uncertainty in bushfire prediction
7 Using brainwaves to detect hearing loss
8 Text mining helps analysts take stock
8 Mining innovation recognised
9 Pinpointing wool’s comfort factor
9 Practical tips for establishing a novel invention
GROWTH FACTOR
10 Launch pad Career strategies to take you further, plus, meet the women who are carving a name for themselves across science and business.
BIG PICTURE
29 The communication conundrum
We are more effective at communicating our ideas with those who work in close proximity to us – in fact, within a few metres of our workspace. Communication theorist extraordinaire Tom Allen on why, despite our intricately interconnected digital universe, this maxim remains truer than ever.
NEXT BIG THING
30 No silver bullets
As industrialisation accelerates globally, the days of cheap fossil fuels are ending and climate change is setting in. What can be done? Wilson da Silva looks at some innovative ideas.
Call for action over growing global contaminants
Leading scientists have called for a worldwide network to manage contamination and its impact on human health and the environment.
Typically found in groundwater, soil, air, food and consumer goods, tens of thousands of chemical waste products such as petroleum hydrocarbons, chlorinated hydrocarbons and toxic metals accumulate over time, exposing nearby communities to potentially major health risks.
Globally, up to five million contaminated sites exist, the majority found in densely populated urban areas, said Professor Ravi Naidu, a soil scientist at the University of South Australia and Managing Director at the Cooperative Research Centre for
Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE). Many of these sites are industrial regions that were developed mid-last century, when there was no appropriate legislation regarding contamination. As such, current policy for contaminated sites is based on original function rather than recent research, posing unheralded risks, said Naidu.
These risks need action at an international level, Naidu argued at the CleanUp 2013 conference in Melbourne in September 2013, where he received unanimous support from international scientists for his proposal to form the Global Contamination Research Initiative (GCRI). The proposed GCRI would form “an international initiative to define contamination problems that
have a serious impact on human health and the environment, identify effective and practical solutions, and share them globally”, said Naidu.
The proposed GCRI is envisaged as a network linking new scientific data to governments, industry regulators and companies to address gaps in our understanding of contamination. “This is a global problem, and it needs a harmonised global approach along with a huge effort to share knowledge about the risks and possible solutions or ways to clean up problem contaminants worldwide,” he added.
The initiative raises key questions of finance and the varying political legislations of countries participating. Although Naidu hopes to have regulators in place to encourage
countries to participate in the GRCI, stimulating companies and industries may prove difficult due to stigma attached to contaminants – “people are reluctant to admit responsibility,” said Naidu. Only in promoting cost effective, workable solutions that can be readily adopted by industry, governments and the community will the project be financially sustainable – especially in developing nations, he added.
Achieving awareness within the global community is also crucial, he said. Greater emphasis on ecological issues within the school curriculum for example, would encourage those entering the workforce to have a greater concern for environmental issues – a “green army” to take on global contamination in the future.
– Sophie Schmidt
Professor Ravi Naidu says globally there are five million contaminated sites.
Harnessing uncertainty in bushfire prediction
The October 2013 NSW bushfires served as a warning that it is critical to predict bushfire spread. Now, scientists have developed a model to better predict bushfire spread and so promote the rapid responses and quick decisionmaking vital to minimising the devastating impact of fires.
Phoenix Rapidfire, developed by the Cooperative Research Centre for Bushfire (Bushfire CRC), is a sophisticated modelling system using land topography, weather forecasts, fuel loads and expected fire-
fighting efforts to produce a map predicting a fire’s characteristics. This map shows the fire’s progression across the landscape, with representations for flame height, ember density, intensity and heat release.
“It enables risks to be assessed and prevention and preparedness scenarios to be undertaken,” said Gary Morgan, Bushfire CRC’s CEO.
Phoenix Rapidfire can also be used to create hypothetical fires, enabling fire agencies to map more vulnerable areas. This can assist land managers
to carry out prescribed burning more effectively, potentially saving properties at risk in bushfire season. The project, led by Dr Kevin Tolhurst from the University of Melbourne, is an improvement on older firecharacterisation models such as the McArthur Forest Fire Danger Index, which represents fire danger as a single number, with zero indicating a low risk, and 100 indicating catastrophic conditions. Phoenix Rapidfire has adopted principles from the McArthur model and built them into a computerised three-
dimensional mapping system, while also incorporating newer, sophisticated technologies such as fire suppression models for aircraft, bulldozers and ground crews.
Dr Thomas Duff, also from the University of Melbourne, said one of Phoenix’s unique attributes is a process for predicting the spread of embers from a fire. Fire convection carries flaming bark away from the main blaze, starting new spot fires downwind. This spotting kickstarted Australia’s most deadly bushfire event, ‘Black Saturday’, on 7 February 2009, which led to 173 deaths.
Phoenix Rapidfire is by no means an all-encompassing tool, explained Duff. “There are always going to be limitations to any sort of modelling that involves complex landscapes and weather.” He and his team work hard to circumvent the limits of Phoenix by using the best weather forecasts, recalibrating the model to reflect real situations better, and training personnel to interpret the model correctly.
Duff and colleagues have also been working on a new experimental system called the Fire Decision Support Tool (Fire DST). This prototype has been designed to compensate for the uncertainty around the weather forecasts and fuel predictions in the output of the Phoenix model: where Phoenix provides an estimate of the most likely outcome, Fire-DST will enable the model to show a range of outputs. “So rather than the model giving a single output, you basically get a cloud of possibilities,” said Duff.
– Cherese Sonkkila
Inset: Models of the convection created by bushfires are integral to understanding the way bushfires spread.
Using brainwaves to detect hearing loss
Medical researchers have created a device to help hearing health professionals detect and better treat hearing loss in infants, young children and the aged.
Known as HEARLab, the device consists of a series of software modules developed by the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre and the National Acoustics Laboratory. The project was a finalist for a 2013 Jamie Callachor Eureka Prize for Medical Research Translation and won a Cooperative Research Centres Association Award for Excellence in Innovation.
HEARLab’s first module, the Aided Cortical Assessment (ACA), works by measuring the electrical activity created in the brain in response to sound. By monitoring the activity of the brain’s auditory cortex while a patient is exposed to sound, the module can make a series of statistical decisions to establish whether the patient is responding. Because the ACA receives signals directly from the brain, HEARLab gives clinicians information about the likelihood of sounds being heard by difficult-to-test patients such as infants, the elderly, stroke victims or those who have dementia.
“The main reason we decided to record responses from the auditory cortex is that longer speech sounds can be used as stimuli, which hearing aids can easily process”, said Dr Bram Van Dun, a senior research electrophysiologist at the National Acoustic Laboratories. In addition, tests can be conducted while the patient is awake, which is useful when testing older children.
HEARLab has two other modules currently under development. The Auditory Brainstem Response test records brain stem responses to sound and the Automatic Cortical Audiometer records cortical response to sound in such a way that a complete set of hearing thresholds at different frequencies (an audiogram) can be obtained at the press of a button and without the requirement for any verbal or behavioural responses.
These devices are expected to become valuable tools for audiologists and hearing health clinicians in providing accurate information about the patient’s hearing. They will also help determine if remedial aids, such as hearing aids and cochlear implants, meet the patient’s needs, and can assist in the creation of treatment plans tailored to individual cases.
– Oliver Chan
The versatility, ease and efficiency of the HEARLab system is key to its success in diagnosing hearing deficiency.
go figure
CRC stories at a glance
1.5%
The percentage of the Federal government’s annual $9 billion innovation budget spent on CRC innovation.
$3.10
The amount delivered back to the Australian economy for every dollar spent by the government on investment in CRC innovation.
$100 million
The projected economic value of genomic information included in Australian Breeding Values for Holstein and Jersey cattle, allowing farmers to assess bulls for beneficial traits much earlier.
200
The number of CRCs since the program launched in 1990
3
The number of Eureka Prizes won by CRC projects in 2013, of the 15 science prizes available.
Text mining helps analysts take stock
Predicting the accuracy of daily stock returns is big business to finance. Now, researchers have found these returns can be improved by mining the information from text sources – such as news reports and online chat forums – as well as from quantitative financial data.
The method has the potential to give traders an edge in the stock market or, if widely established, even improve the informational efficiency of the market itself, according to researchers. Zhendong (Tony) Zhao, a PhD student at the Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre (CMCRC), said in comparison to more rudimentary quantitative models, their system achieved an improvement of some 3% on other methods of predicting stock price movements.
The comparative study assessed the accuracy of four different models with different weightings of text and quantitative data from 2010. This included documents such as financial reviews and news announcements from the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) as well as figures such as a company’s past daily returns and capital size, taken from Reuters.
Text mining is about transforming unstructured text into structured quantifiable data that can be analysed by a computer. The process involves identifying patterns in text so that machines can automatically extract relevant and interesting information.
Researchers analysed the text using a bag-of-words method, which assessed the frequency of particular terms in a document, representing the result as a mathematical vector.
“For each [news] announcement, we combine this vector with corresponding quantitative numbers to predict the magnitude and direction of price movements,” said Zhao.
Matthew Clifton, a quantitative developer and researcher at CMCRC, who is involved in the research, said the next step is to evaluate the predictive model against a live trading market using various back-testing tools. “And if that checks out, it may be used in a live context to trade,” he told KnowHow
Zhao and his colleagues will soon present their findings to a computer science conference before publishing their results. Clifton said their hope is that researchers in both computer science and finance will explore this area further.
“In finance it’s kind of the Holy Grail to be able to incorporate extra information in stock prices. Zhao is bridging the gap between computer science and finance in that regard,” Clifton explained.
John Quiggin from the School of Economics at the University of Queensland, who wasn’t involved in the research, commented that the standard view in economics is
that profitable prediction of stock market movements on the basis of publicly available information is impossible. But he also explained that long-term changes affecting entire markets have sometimes been the exception, and that if Zhao’s study was established, it “would have major implications for financial economics”.
The researchers believe the method has the potential to revolutionise predictions of daily returns, as well as have a significant impact on the stock market.
“We’ve been working on this for years, and Zhao has shown some good results,” added Clifton.
Mining innovation recognised
A company servicing the mining industry that can trace its success to a simple innovation has been awarded the prestigious 2013 Australian Museum Rio Tinto Eureka Prize for Commercialisation of Innovation.
Researchers from Curtin University and the CRC for Spatial Information (CRCSI) spotted a need to undertake more rapid testing of the machinery used to crush and grind rocks to extract minerals, which used to be tested by personnel undertaking laborious measurements. The machines use around 60% of a mine’s energy and can cost up to $100,000 to replace.
The researchers came up with a 3D scanning laser system that measures 10 million points or more in just 30 minutes, so rapidly testing the machinery for faults. The technology was brought to market by a company formed for the purpose, Scanalyse, which was later bought by Finnish mining giant Outotec.
The company is a good example of how to move innovation from R&D to industry, said Peter Clarke, Scanalyse’s CEO. The company is now set up in South Africa, Chile and the U.S. and runs projects across 20 countries. “It drives efficiency through the mining system,” said Graeme Kernich, CRCSI’s deputy CEO. “It’s a good business. It’s going places.”
– Heather Catchpole
– Cherese Sonkkila
Scanalyse’s worldclass measuring and modelling tools have saved the mining industry millions.
Pinpointing wool’s comfort factor Practical tips for establishing a novel invention
Australian wool growers are set to benefit from two new technologies developed by the Sheep CRC that can give objective, numerical values to the traditionally subjective measure of the quality of wool.
The Wool HandleMeter is a device that gives a numerical value for sensory perceptions of touch, such as ‘soft’ and ‘smooth’, while the Wool ComfortMeter provides the most accurate available measurements of how ‘prickly’ a wool fabric is going to be perceived by the wearer.
As a fabric is measured by the Wool ComfortMeter, a fine metal string measures the fibres protruding from the fabric surface that can push against the wearer’s skin and cause a prickly sensation. It’s a combination of the diameter and the length of these fibres that determine the prickliness of the fabric. In the wool industry, an accurate measurement of fibre diameter of fleece is critical, as that is how the various levels of wool fineness are determined.
Finer wool is more comfortable to wear, especially in clothing worn next to the skin. “Different spinning techniques can change
the number of fibres protruding from the yarn,” explained David Tester, the Wool Quality Program Leader at the Sheep CRC. “There are also different finishing techniques and depending on when the fabric was dyed, for example, in wool form, yarn form or fabric form – all these influence how the fabric looks and feels at the end.”
Using the finest wool available is crucial to producing the best next-to-skin clothing. With these technologies available both to wool growers and the clothing industry, consumers could benefit from having the highest-quality materials used in their garments.
“These technologies give us a quantitative basis for describing the critical things that determine the ‘feel’ (handle), and the comfort,” said James Rowe, CEO of the Sheep CRC. “We’ve never been able to measure these fabric characteristics before, and never had a common language for an objective measurement through the supply chain to guarantee consistency and ensure that the consumer really gets what they want.”
– Oliver Chan
When research has potential to be used in a commercial application, it is likely that, at some stage, a patent will be considered to protect the research.
In order to be entitled to patent protection, a key criterion that must be satisfied is that an invention must be new (novel). This requires the invention to differ from existing prior art by at least one feature. Consider the following tips to help improve the likelihood of research work resulting in something new and patentable.
1. Search the prior art
A search of the patent and non-patent (journal) literature can help identify whether the same or similar work has been done before, and whether there is any problematic prior art that needs to be considered or designed around. Early awareness of close prior art also means that comparative experiments demonstrating the benefits of the invention over the prior art can be built into research plans.
2. Guard against own disclosures
Prior art considered relevant to novelty could include your own disclosures, as well as those made by others. Ensure public disclosures of the invention are not made before a patent application is filed. If it is necessary to publish, only do so with caution.
3. Have support for commercially important features
Broad claims that encroach on the prior art may need to be restricted in scope. This is usually done by incorporating additional or more specific features into the claims. Spend time describing and exemplifying fall-back options for key, commercially important features of the invention. Having good support in the specification for fall-back options can provide the ability to claim more specific features and strengthen the likelihood of establishing a novel invention.
– Dr Grace Chan, Senior Associate, Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick
Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick is a full service IP firm and has worked extensively with CRCs and research institutions in the development and implementation of IP protection strategies. pof.com.au
Launch pad
Career success stems from good management, hard work and yanking the door open when opportunity knocks. We look at career strategies to take you further and profile women who are carving a name for themselves across science and business.
Top tips for a successful career
To sTay mo T ivaT ed during your work, be it academic research, a commercial project or office management, you need to organise your time efficiently. Rather than putting in more hours, focus on keeping yourself healthy and sociable without putting off the important stuff or overcommitting to other projects.
1. Managing your work
• Set milestones and deadlines and make sure they’re realistic. Classify your tasks according to importance and potential return for effort so you avoid spending 80% of your time on work that contributes to only 20% of your results.
• Communication is vital – talk regularly with superiors and colleagues so they’ll be familiar with you and aware of your work when you need them.
• Plan for requirements such as travel; identify windows of opportunity for conducting field studies and acquiring special equipment.
• Re-evaluate what you’re doing every six months to ensure you’re on track.
2. Managing yourself
• If the going gets tough, don’t quit. Talk to someone, set a time to re-evaluate what you’re doing in a few months or, if applicable, look at an alternative qualification.
• Ban email, Facebook and other distractions when you sit down at the computer – boredom will drive you to be more focused on work!
• Take time to see family and friends, have a daily lunch break and take some leave every year.
• Take up a sport or extracurricular activity to give your brain a break and potentially increase your social network.
3. Marketing yourself
• Agree to do presentations or attend conferences where you can network with others.
• Use websites, blogs and social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Mendeley and ResearchGate to network, but always remember your contributions to cyberspace may be permanent and public.
• Engage with members of the public by contributing at open days and joining programs where you can present your work. This promotes your research and helps you think about its context outside your workplace.
4. c ompleting your work
• Don’t start a new project, such as organising a wedding, before you finish your current project.
• Keep your perfectionism for the final version of your presentation and get someone more objective to help proofread it.
• Consider what else you could do to improve your project without extending your deadline too far.
• Be prepared to consider the strengths and weaknesses of your work when you discuss it.
You can find more career advancement tips and tricks from the Researcher Development Framework for Australia from Vitae: http://tinyurl.com/vitaeplanner
– Laura Boness
Field notes
elizAbeth shAdwiCk
Chemical oceanographer Antarctic Centre for Ecosystems CRC
An eerie A nd pristine environment forms the setting of Antarctic Centre for Ecosystems CRC researcher Elizabeth Shadwick’s fieldwork, examining chemical changes in oceans. In her most recent research she sailed the seas of the Arctic and Antarctic for a year, observing the impact of increasing CO2 concentrations and the consequent increase in ocean acidity. Her research, published in Nature Scientific Reports in August 2013, highlighted how distinct the far north and south oceans are, despite their similarities in climate. “The baseline conditions of the two polar oceans, in this case the Amundsen Gulf in the Arctic Ocean and Prydz Bay in the Southern Ocean, are different. The Amundsen Gulf experiences greater seasonal warming and freshening, and has lower alkalinity and summer pH than the Antarctic site,” Shadwick says. “These findings suggest that the Arctic Ocean is more vulnerable to ocean acidification than the Southern Ocean.”
“it’s really important to take opportunities when they pop up – you never know where they’ll take you.”
Raised in a family of academics, science sparked Shadwick’s interest when she was young, leading to an undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics at McGill University, Canada. Taking a gap year to work as a volunteer on organic farms in Greece and Ireland helped her gain perspective and refocus before she returned to academia, starting with a Master’s degree in atmospheric science at the University of Alberta, Canada. During the first year, she became interested in oceanography and began a PhD in chemical oceanography with Professor Helmuth Thomas at Dalhousie University, which included a research trip to the Arctic. “The best part was getting out there, going on a ship and working with some really amazing people doing some really interesting research,” Shadwick says. “It’s really important to take opportunities when they pop up – you never know where they’ll take you.”
– Oliver Chan
CAreer suCCess stories
C
A roline l e PhD scholar CRC for Cancer Therapeutics
Caroline Le’s research looks at how stress affects the way cancer spreads in the body. “It’s generally accepted that stress is bad for your health. But rather than just making you more susceptible to flu or a cold-sore, what if stress could make you more susceptible to something much more sinister – like cancer spread? Using glowing tumour cells, my work shows that stress weakens our immune systems and actually helps cancer cells spread throughout the body. I’ve also shown that the use of some existing drugs may be able to block these stress signals from having their effect.”
Le was the winner from six finalists selected out of 50 entries to the 2013 Showcasing Early Career Researchers competition, sponsored by the CSIRO, which celebrates “good research, communicated well”. Watch Caroline and other finalists’ videos showcasing their research here: http://tinyurl.com/ecr2013winners Or, enter yourself for 2014 –keep an eye on the CRC Association website for details: http://crca.asn.au
Click to connect
Australia is leading the world in harnessing the power of social media to protect the mental health of young people, writes Stephen Pincock
ASK A SS oci Ate
Profe SS or Jane Burns to describe what life is like for young people in Australia and the University of Melbourne psychologist will tell you about the risk of tragedy that threatens their dreams, and how the brink of adulthood can be a dangerous place.
At an age when hormones are in upheaval and brains are in a state of fragile development, people in their teens and 20s face a host of challenges, from school pressure and bullying to the temptations of drugs and the uncharted territory of sexuality and relationships. It’s terrain that has become bitterly familiar for Burns and other mental health experts over recent decades.
“We’ve known for the past 20 years that one in four young people will experience a mental health difficulty, and that 75% of mental health and substance-abuse problems begin before the age of 25,” says Burns. Too few young people get help when they need it, and suicide continues to be the leading cause of death for young men.
In this context, Burns understands why the recent explosion of social media, gaming and smartphones often raises concerns. But, she and other experts say, these fears emerge from a major misapprehension.
Over the past three years, Burns has served as the CEO of the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), a coalition of more than 70 organisations that brings together young people, university researchers,
not-for-profits such as reachout.com and headspace, and private companies including Google, Yahoo and Facebook. Across dozens of projects, the CRC is working to study the relationships between mental health and technology in young people. And their findings show that technology may be one of the most powerful tools available to boost youth mental health.
PERHAPS THE most obvious reason for technology’s positive potential is the fact that most young people – from budding urbanites to kids in remote communities – love to use it, says Burns. As a channel to reach people in remote or isolated areas, mobile technologies and the Internet can hardly be bettered.
“Our studies show that 99% of young people are using the Internet, and most are using it daily,” she says. “Given that there is this uptake and interest, then the challenge becomes using it to promote good mental health and provide treatment.”
Australia has been a world leader in harnessing the Internet to deliver treatment for depression and anxiety for more than a decade, thanks to groundbreaking websites such as MoodGym, an online cognitive behavioural therapy tool developed
Get help online
headspace.org.au
reachout.com
@appreciate www.appreciateamate.com
Black Dog Institute www.blackdoginstitute.org.au
The MoodGYM moodgym.anu.edu.au
Young and well CRC www.yawcrc.org.au
by Professor Helen Christensen and colleagues at the Australian National University in Canberra.
These days, says Christensen, who is now executive director of the Black Dog Institute in Sydney, an Essential Partner of the Young and Well CRC, attention has shifted to using mobile apps to deliver these kinds of interventions.
Until now, this is an area where the development of new products has outstripped research, but Christensen and her colleagues are working to rectify that. “There have been 40 or 50 randomised trials now showing that this kind of mechanism [for delivering online care] is highly effective. We at Black Dog are doing second-generation stuff in the web space now,” explains Christensen. “The core feature of this research is, let’s use science to help us know how to do it better.”
One recent example is iBobbly, an app that aims to prevent the high rate
are otherwise marginalised or bullied or left out, kids who have problems or disabilities or are gay or are isolated by geography, they can connect with other people who are much like them through technology. And they’ve created whole new social networks.”
Just as Australian researchers pioneered online treatment, they are now pioneering research into harnessing the power of social networks, says Christensen.
“The idea that connectedness between people could serve as a form of health promotion and prevention has great potential. One of our big programs of work at the moment is the scientific study of social media to try and understand how it works and then to manipulate it to get better health outcomes.”
To illustrate the potential, she points to a study conducted on 61 million Facebook users by U.S. scientists during
One in four young people will experience a mental health difficulty, and 75% of mental health and substance abuse problems begin before the age of 25.
of youth suicide among Australia’s indigenous people. “We are doing much more targeted work to be used by indigenous communities – and we’re testing it.”
FOR UNIVERSITY OF Sydney psychiatrist Professor Ian Hickie, Chair of the Young and Well CRC Scientific Leadership Council, the real power of the digital world is in providing connections in a disconnected world.
“We live in a more and more disconnected society,” he says. “Young people have less contact with formal social structures like churches, sporting clubs, community groups and so on than they ever did. And connection really matters.”
What’s particularly fascinating in the Facebook era is the extent to which young people have been using technology to reconnect with each other, he adds. “For a lot of kids who
the 2010 U.S. congressional elections. They found that Facebook messages directly influenced the political selfexpression, information seeking and realworld voting behaviour of millions of people. The messages not only influenced the users who received them but also the users’ friends, and friends of friends, the scientists reported in the journal Nature in September 2012.
“How powerful is that!” Christensen asks. “If you provide feedback to your friends about your behaviour then it influences their behaviour. It has huge ramifications for community and population-based mental health.”
One of the CRC’s commercial partners, Sydney digital consultancy Zuni, has recently begun testing the ways social media can be used to improve mental health – particularly self image – with a mobile phone application that allows users to design and send positive messages to one another via
social platforms such as Facebook.
It’s early days for the project, although already it has exceeded expectations in terms of reach, with more than 23,000 messages created and 46,000 users so far. Analysis of its impact is underway through the CRC.
“What we have done is shift the focus from finger pointing at negative behavior, to looking to provide social value to young people for participating in positive behaviours,” says Zuni’s managing director Mike Zeederberg. “Young people are already emotionally boosting each other and themselves on social media by sharing inspirational imagery. ‘Appreciate a mate’ taps into these existing online habits.”
COMPUTER GAMES
generally get a bad rap from those who worry about their effects in social violence and isolation. Yet these are also areas where there can be psychological benefits for young people. A comprehensive review of more than 200 research papers from around the world, led by Dr Daniel Johnson from the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane and coordinator of the Young and Well CRC’s Gaming Reference Group, shows increasing evidence linking video game play and flourishing mental health.
“For years we’ve been told video games make us socially isolated, aggressive and lazy, but our research suggests the opposite is true,” says Johnson. The report suggests video games can positively influence young people’s emotional state, selfesteem, optimism, vitality, resilience, engagement, relationships, sense of competence, self-acceptance and social connections and functioning.
The University of Sydney, another CRC partner, is now looking at how these kinds of psychological benefits can be integrated more purposefully into the gaming world.
Associate Professor Rafael Calvo is an expert in positive computing, which focuses on how you can develop software that promotes psychological wellbeing. “Positive computing doesn’t have to be a piece of software
Crisis point
In July 2013, a major report from the Young and Well CRC illustrated just how important technology could be in addressing a crisis in youth mental health.
In the report’s first section, the researchers charted just how ubiquitous technology has become. They found that 99% of 1400 young men and women surveyed used the Internet. More than 60% read or wrote blogs, 61% accessed social networks and 34% played games alone. Overall, 84% of respondents used the Internet to contact other young people.
The second part of the report focused on young men because, the authors explained, the major killers of young men — suicide, motor vehicle accidents and violence — can be prevented with better mental health, and because young men often do not seek help until they reach crisis point.
Of the 700 young men surveyed in the report, 42% had experienced moderate to very high levels of psychological distress. One in five said they had been diagnosed
with a mental health or behavioural problem, and around 18% said they had felt life was hardly worth living at some point in the past year. Among 22 to 25 year olds, 12% had thought about taking their own life. Young men with moderate to very high levels of psychological distress were more likely to talk about problems on the Internet, or to use it to find information for a mental health, alcohol or other substance-use problem, the researchers found.
For these young men, the Internet is providing a source of help that they can control, and access when they need, the authors say. “With the introduction of smartphones, information and services provided online or via mobile applications can be accessed privately and at any time. This can be empowering for individuals who are marginalised or geographically or socially isolated.”
The real power of the digital world is in providing connections in a disconnected world.
that is focused on an attribute like mindfulness,” he points out. “It can be in a much wider context. We’re looking at the kinds of features computer systems can have that can help, for example, to promote autonomy.”
A software engineer by training, Calvo says this approach to computing is gaining traction in IT. “You can design software that is dedicated to developing one particular positive attribute, such as autonomy, engagement, resilience, mindfulness and so on,” he adds. “In the software industry we are moving from focusing on usability and improving efficiency
towards focusing more on the long-term impact the technology has on us.”
For Jane Burns, it’s this kind of thinking that will help Australia continue to lead the world in using technology to improve mental health in young people.
“Technology is here to stay, that is a reality,” she says. “And we believe that offers an exciting opportunity: to help prevent mental health problems from the beginning, and to get the right treatments for young people when they need them most.”
Stephen Pincock is a freelance science and medical reporter.
With 30 years’ experience in commercialisation, I have high level skills in all aspects of commercialisation. I have assisted a range of organisations to commercialise hundreds of new high technology products, processes and services across many disciplines. I fully appreciate both the research and commercial cultures and this assists in negotiating quality commercialisation and related business deals.
To discuss how I might be able to add value, phone me (John Thorne) on 0414 529 278 or email me at john.thorne@comcon.com.au
Young people communicate constantly via social media, and efforts to improve mental health are utilising this. Gaming has also been shown to have positive benefits to mental health.
the composites revolution
Rapid advances in composite materials look set to bring about huge advances in the manufacturing sector. Phillip English reports.
They’re more popularly known as fibre-reinforced polymers (if you work in science), but call them what you like, composite materials have found widespread, indispensable use in a huge range of commercial and industrial applications. “Composites can be lighter, stronger, stiffer, more thermally stable, than their alternatives,” says Dr Kevin Magniez, a researcher at the Institute for Frontier Materials at Deakin University and a specialist in the rapid curing of composites.
New innovations in composites, nanotechnology, and biocomposites are delivering new products that could soon replace more traditional engineering materials.
The aerospace sector in particular is increasingly using composite materials. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the first commercial aircraft constructed of composite materials, contains more than 30 tonnes of composite material, half of that being based on carbon fibre. That’s nearly 50% of the weight of the aeroplane. The use of the carbon-fibre in this case is driven by its superior strength-to-weight ratio compared with aluminium or steel.
But despite their proven uses in industry, composite materials still face challenges in their design and widespread commercialisation, such as the high cost of prototyping and production, sensitivity to fibre misalignment in the manufacturing process, and environmental impact. But new techniques developed by
the Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Composite Structures (CRC-ACS) in collaboration with institutions in Australia and around the world are enabling composites to be brought rapidly to market. The CRCACS is approaching the problem by targeting common bottlenecks in the rapid development of composite materials.
oN e SuC h B o TT le N e CK is the characterisation of new composite materials. Before manufacturers can consider a new material for commercial use, it must be rigorously tested to ensure its properties are known and reliable. Determining the mechanical properties of a composite is crucial in the aerospace and military fields where untimely failure can lead to disaster.
“Because they consist of fibres that have certain orientations relative to the direction of the applied mechanical load, composites can fail in much more complicated ways than homogeneous materials such as metals,” says Dr John Michopoulos, creator of a robotic system for multiaxially testing composites at the United States Naval Research Laboratory. Previously, comprehensive evaluation of new composites could take years and cost millions of dollars, as a result of a large suite of tests conducted one at a time along a single axis of the composite. The data from these uniaxial tests is then plugged into a computer model that simulates how the material will react under force from multiple axes. Michopoulos, in collaboration with
A new dimension
Carbon nanotube-reinforced polymers (CNRP) work on the same principles as regular carbon-fibre. But where carbon-fibre is generally made up of fibres of around 5-10 micrometres in diameter, carbon nanotubes can be as small as 1 nanometre in diameter. Carbon nanotubes are the strongest and stiffest materials ever discovered – properties that would transfer well to a reliably made polymer composite. But the task of creating long, straight, aligned nanotubes and dispersing them properly in the polymer matrix is proving difficult. By spending less time waiting for test results and more time refining processes, widespread uptake of CNRPs could be just around the corner.
The
Boeing 787
Dreamliner contains
more than 30 tonnes of carbon-fibre-
reinforced polymer – some 50% of the entire weight of the aeroplane.
the CRC-ARS, developed a robotic system for multiaxial loading tests that accelerates this process by testing multiple axes directly, and extracting their validated and complete constitutive response, rather than relying on computer simulations.
Think of it as a super compositetesting machine, able to apply loading to a material in any combination of six degrees of freedom (engineering-speak for six types of movement: forwardback, up-down, side to side, yaw, pitch and roll), with a fully automated sample loader so that materials can be continuously tested. Its top speed so far is an impressive 35 samples per hour.
“These numbers are already an order of magnitude higher than what you can do with conventional technologies,” says Michopoulos. By reducing the cost of prototyping materials, robotic testing is helping composite designers to get materials to market quickly.
WHILE THE STRENGTH of composites such as carbon-fibre cannot be argued, it comes at a cost: not only in production terms, but in the impact they have on the environment. Biocomposites are a class of composites that use natural fibres taken from tall, stiff plants, and contained within a vegetable or animal resin. The resulting material is not only cheaper to make than comparable materials but will decompose naturally.
One market quick to see the benefits of biocomposites is the automotive industry. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than 750,000 cars come to the end of their lives each year. The metal and tyres of these cars are recycled, but the majority of plastic components end up in landfill where they can take decades to degrade.
“Reducing the impact of disposed fibre-reinforced composite material on the environment, whilst providing the industry with an innovative material is of primary significance in Australia,” says Magniez. Specialist parts such as door panelling and interior items are already being made using either pure or hybrid biocomposites.
Clockwise from left:
Components of Formula 1 racing cars are constructed with composites; Boeing made its Dreamliner lighter than other planes using carbon-fibre reinforced polymer; detail of a carbon fibre weave.
In contrast to the mass-marketing potential in the automotive industry, biocomposites are also finding applications in the more personal manufacture of prosthetic limbs. Composites have enabled artificial limbs to be both stronger and lighter, making them easier for the wearer to live with. But in developing countries, the prohibitive cost of materials such as carbon-fibre can deny patients such innovations. With the combined rise of 3D printing and biocomposites, limbs can be made in small batches and rapidly prototyped for individual patients. Developers of biocomposites still face challenges – such as how to prevent moisture absorption in humid conditions. But their low cost, environmental friendliness and potential for broad application make them a material that will become ever more relevant to manufacturers.
Composites have already proven their use among engineering materials in a wide range of applications. Their combination of strength and light weight has made them a prime target for research centres around the world. Already we have seen the cost of producing them come down to the point of commercial viability.
Composites round-up
ic- M at R ix co MP osit E s use the weight and heat resistance of ceramics and combine them with other fibres to create a durable, lightweight material that weighs a third of the equivalent metal alloys. General Electric, for example, have combined silicon with porous ceramic-coated silicon carbide fibre lattices for use inside the new LEAP jet engines – these require materials that are strong, heat resistant and light, as weight reduction cuts fuel use and reduces operating costs.
There remain obstacles to be overcome, such as their environmental impact, and the manipulation of sensitive materials such as carbon nanotubes into a composite-ready state. But with facilities such as the CRCARS leading the way in composite research, it seems like only a matter of time before composites attain new levels of strength and versatility.
Phillip English is a freelance writer based in Perth and has contributed regularly to COSMOS Magazine, among others.
glass, carbon, aramid and even cellulose (from wood or paper), to confer additional strength and overcome the temperature limitations of plastic. The high strengthto-weight ratio, high durability and the expansion coefficient, which is equivalent to steel, allows these materials to be used for applications where weight saving and precision engineering are required, such as the car body panels of high performance racing cars.
2 M E tal- M at R ix co MP osit E s are made by dispersing a reinforcing material, such as a ceramic, organic compound or another metal, into a metal alloy matrix without using conventional alloying. Using the properties of the metal and the reinforcing fibres, the composites have high-temperature capabilities, high specific stiffness and strength, high thermal conductivity and low coefficients of thermal expansion, making them ideal for space applications or military aircraft.
andwich st R uctu RE s consist of a core material, such as rigid foam or honeycombs that are designed to reinforce the top layers by absorbing the shear strengths, covered by resin impregnated woven fabrics, known as face sheets or prepregs (PREimPREGnation), on both sides to create stable, lightweight materials. They have a high flexural stiffness and buckling strength and their properties – flame retardance, surface quality, weight and mechanical properties – and applications are determined by the materials.
5 conc RE t E is made of a chemically inert aggregate such as crushed rock, water, causing the concrete to harden through hydration, and cement, which reacts with the water to form a binding agent. This material has been around since the Romans, who used it to build structures like the Pantheon – described as one of the more unusual structures built by human hands – and added pozzolona, a volcanic dust found in central Italy, as their binding agent.
tapping into a growing industry
In the last few decades, rare earth elements have emerged as increasingly important commodities with green energy applications from hybrid car technology to wind turbine generators.
World demand of Rare Earth Elements (REEs) was estimated at 136,100 tonnes per year in 2010 and is projected to reach 210,000 tonnes by 2015. China accounts for approximately 96% of REE production, but Australian companies are aiming to become major rare earth oxide concentrate and processed metals producers.
Despite their name, REEs are surprisingly common, but because they occur in complex minerals they can be difficult to extract. Alkane Resource’s Dubbo Zirconia project,
located in central NSW, is Australia’s most valuable rare metal/rare earth project and is expected to commence production in 2016.
Apart from producing zirconium, which is used in catalytic converters, the Dubbo Zirconia project will also supply REEs such as lanthanum, which is used in hybrid car batteries, and neodymium, one of the metals that are used to make rare earth magnets.
Over the last five years, the company has worked with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
Consulting services
With 35 years’ experience and access to world-class facilities, ANSTO Minerals provides practical solutions and innovative technologies that deliver financial and environmental benefits to the mining and minerals processing industries.
ANSTO Minerals’ expertise covers radiation safety, chemical engineering, metallurgy, mineralogy, chemistry and geology. ANSTO Minerals provides consulting and process development services, as well as collaborative and contract research in a number of general areas including uranium ore processing, rare earth processing, radioactivity control and management, and novel flowsheet design.
(ANSTO) to refine and prove an innovative flow sheet in a demonstration pilot plant at the organisation’s headquarters in Sydney. “We’ve had the opportunity to be involved in and apply our knowledge to all aspects of this complex project,” says Bob Ring, General Manager of ANSTO Minerals.
“Successfully running the demonstration pilot plant at ANSTO has been extremely important in validating the flowsheet from ore to finished product work and provided us with finished product samples that we could give to potential customers,” adds Ian Chalmers, the Managing Director of Alkane Resources.
Laura Boness
Big bang for industry
Particle accelerators have long been familiar to physicists seeking to shed new light on fundamental theories of the universe. Increasingly, science’s favourite toy is becoming industry’s secret weapon.
AT ABOUT THE size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Australian Synchrotron produces X-rays and infrared light by accelerating electrons to almost the speed of light and deflecting them through magnetic fields. A close cousin of this device came to broad public attention with the discovery at CERN of the ‘God particle’ last year, with further recognition popularly through TV shows such as the ‘Big Bang Theory’. The light produced by the synchrotron can be one million times brighter than the sun, and is directed along ‘beamlines’ to experimental end-stations. It’s here that scientists use the light in various ways to see the structure and interactions of materials that are not visible to other technologies.
“Our investigative capabilities are Big-Bang big,” says Dr David Cookson, the Head of Beamline Science and Operations at the Australian Synchrotron. “We can use this machine
in as many ways as the imagination can muster. And we’re excited about its breadth of application across the sciences and most industrial sectors.”
The Synchrotron has recently tweaked its access model toward an increase in direct industry engagement. While the Synchrotron has serviced industry from its early days in 2007, this has largely been through third party research
“We’re excited about its breadth of application across the sciences and most industrial sectors.”
industrial and mining process, and investigating new energy alternatives.
ONE OF THE Synchrotron’s first industry projects involved E-Crete, a ‘green’ geopolymer cement developed by Melbourne company Zeobond from recycled fly ash, a by-product of burning coal to produce electricity, and slag, a by-product of steel production.
Concrete is a very complex mixture, and despite its common use, “we still have things to learn about its detailed chemistry,” Cookson says.
Australian Synchrotron
Kerry h ayes
Business Development Manager kerry.hayes@synchrotron.org.au
David Cookson
Head of Beamline Science and Operations david.cookson@synchrotron.org.au
providers, such as universities, limiting the facility’s ability to actively spruik its capabilities. This has sometimes led to an apparent misconception about the Synchrotron’s contribution to industry. In fact, much of the work the synchrotron facilitates makes direct or indirect contributions to most sectors, with outcomes such as developing new materials and pharmaceuticals, improving
That means when someone comes up with a new formula for concrete, it is difficult to guarantee how it’s going to behave in 20 years time. By varying the E-Crete formulations and examining the resulting structures with the synchrotron’s infrared microscopy beamline, the scientists and Zeobond have determined which formulations are the most stable and durable.
Because it uses recycled fly ash and slag, which would normally be disposed of as waste, E-Crete reduces CO2 production by 80% compared to ordinary concrete. The resulting cost-competitive product is
Wine quality at the nanoscale
Tannins are important for wine quality and ageing, but we still don’t fully understand how. Wine researchers are using synchrotron techniques to study tannin molecules so small (a few nanometres) that tens of thousands of them could fit across the width of a human hair. The synchrotron tells us about the size and shape of molecules in solution, and how these change as molecules interact, e.g.: combining, breaking down, or responding to other compounds present in wine. Size is important for wine tannins because the bigger the tannin, the
The shape and size of tannin molecules (shown here as coloured micrographs), affects how wine tastes.
more puckery and astringent the wine. Synchrotron techniques can fully cover the wide range of sizes that might be encountered in wine components, in a way that no laboratory instrument can.
now being used on a commercial scale in Victoria for footpaths and other similar structures while researchers assess how it behaves. Zeobond is applying the synchrotron findings to the utilisation of other waste materials and the design of green cements for specific applications.
SCIENTISTS FROM the University of Waikato in New Zealand used the synchrotron to help them develop Novatein, an eco-friendly bioplastic made from bloodmeal, a co-product of the red meat industry that is usually turned into fertiliser and animal feed. The idea came from chemical engineer Dr Johan Verbeek, who knew that plastics could be made from soy proteins, and decided to investigate if protein-rich bloodmeal could also be used this way.
At first, he says it was nearly impossible to get bloodmeal to behave like a thermoplastic, but after discovering the correct additives and processing method they now have a standardised recipe to extrude and injection-mould the material.
Verbeek and his team used the synchrotron’s infrared microscopy beamline to examine how polymer chains made from bloodmeal proteins interact before and after processing, and how the different structures are spatially distributed. This gave them insight into how to further optimise Novatein’s properties. “We now have a much more
fundamental understanding of how proteins behave in the solid state. We can now start drawing comparisons with regular polymers.”
Eco-wise, Novatein uses very little petro-chemicals in its makeup (unlike most common plastics) and performs well in terms of the amount of energy required to make the product and the amount of greenhouse gases released, Verbeek says. The team are still investigating the dynamics of the different processes that take place during manufacturing and are looking for ways to manipulate the chain structure.
Hig H quality X-ray imaging capabilities mean the synchrotron can potentially provide more detailed medical scans without requiring a higher X-ray dose. This will be valuable for monitoring how diseases progress over time in longitudinal studies designed to optimise treatments.
The synchrotron is also helping science move closer to realising the global dream of a practical and inexpensive method of splitting water to produce hydrogen, widely considered to have enormous potential as a source of affordable and renewable energy.
Wh I l E dEM a N d FOR access to the Synchrotron is strong, and therefore highly competitive, industry has it easier. In addition to allocated access time for
Real-time, in-situ synchrotron analysis of mineral processing reactions under industrial conditions is helping Australia’s mining industries to raise productivity, more efficiently extract valuable metals, address environmental impacts and cut greenhouse emissions. Australian Synchrotron scientists recently assisted researchers from Alcoa of Australia Limited to further their understanding of raw materials to assist future processing decisions.
industry, the facility now has a dedicated industry liaison team accessing extensive experience in applying synchrotron techniques to industrial challenges.
“As brilliant as this machine is, our greatest value is in the passion and curiosity of our scientific teams in its application,” adds Cookson.
“We invite anyone with a need for a deeper understanding of a material or process to ask us how we can help them innovate, prototype and reduce technical risk.”
– Laura Boness
The scientific team at the MX Beamline, Australian Synchrotron.
Winds of change
Whether by tantalising the tastebuds, reducing our carbon footprint or creating new fuels, the agricultural revolution is delivering vital new benefits, writes Rosslyn Beeby .
Saltbu S h lamb.
au Stralia’S culinary celebrities are crazy about it, praising its robust flavour, leanness, high vitamin E content and low environmental impact. It’s a poster product for sustainable farming.
Maggie Beer and Simon Bryant featured it in a Christmas lunch episode of their ABC television series, The Cook and the Chef. Channel Ten’s MasterChef judges George Calombaris and Matt Moran are big fans, and so are best-selling cookbook authors Karen Martini, Justin North and Bill Granger. Sydney food bloggers rave about the saltbush lamb and tzatziki burger at Moo Gourmet Burgers in Bondi, rating it among the top five burgers in the city. And in Perth, at the fiercely contested 2013 national sausage-making championships, South Australian small-town butcher Jason Mathie won his third successive National Sausage King title with saltbush hogget. His earlier wins were with saltbush lamb sausages.
Saltbush and other native forage shrubs have the potential to revolutionise many aspects of Australia’s $16 billion-a-year beef and sheep meat industry, well beyond providing a premium product for restaurants and gourmet food markets. Scientific field trials show they can reduce the industry’s carbon footprint by reducing methane
emission intensity, as providing animals with a mixed feed base of native shrubs and pasture provides a more nutritionally balanced diet, improving digestibility and reducing methane emissions. A mixture of native shrubs can also improve animal welfare, boost farm profits and help farmers adapt to the pressures of climate change.
The Future Farm Industries Cooperative Research Centre has been a major contributor to the complex science behind these innovations in sustainable farming and livestock management. The CRC has developed Enrich, a grazing system that uses native shrubs – predominantly saltbush, acacias and emu bush – which delivers farm profits as well as environmental benefits. The native shrubs reduce salinity and soil erosion and provide a diverse feed base that could reduce gastro-intestinal parasites in sheep. Laboratory tests have shown many native shrubs have anthelmintic medicinal qualities, inhibiting the development of parasite larvae. An additional benefit of native forage shrubs is that animals graze at a height above the ground, where worms eggs and other parasite larvae occur.
Forty per cent of the forage species assessed by the CRC trials reduce gut parasites such as worms by more than 50%, potentially cutting farm costs
for chemical drenches and veterinary treatment. It’s a significant discovery at a time when Australia’s sheep farmers are battling an increase in drench resistance and its associated production loss.
Enrich has been shown to boost farm profits by up to 20%, chiefly by reducing supplementary feeding during dry spells and in winter. Native shrubs also provide shade and shelter during lambing and after shearing, minimising stock losses caused by cold weather and wind chill. It’s Australia’s first large-scale systematic research into the benefits of using native forage shrubs for sheep and cattle in mixed farming systems in low-rainfall areas. The project is led by Dr Jason Emms from the South Australian Research and Development Institute and is a collaborative venture between CRC research partners that include the CSIRO, the University of Western Australia, state primary industry departments and farmers in low-rainfall agricultural zones across South Australia, New South Wales and Western Australia.
At the Australian Museum’s 2013 Eureka awards for science excellence, Enrich won the top prize for sustainable agriculture – an award sponsored by Landcare and the federal government’s
Caring for Our Country environmental grants program. When presenting the award, the museum’s director, Frank Howarth, said the Enrich research team had “produced a practical recipe for helping to proof farms against climate change”.
Emms says it’s demonstrating the economic and environmental value of shrub-based grazing as an addition to pasture and cropping, and as a way of increasing drought resilience on farms.
“Native shrubs can boost economic returns on poorer soils and are a reliable source of quality dietary protein and minerals during autumn and winter,’’ he says.
THE SEVEN-YEAR PROJECT
through a series of questions to narrow down a list of native species that will suit local conditions. Emms says that while there is “no right way” to design a native shrub system, it’s important to consider the layout of the whole farm rather than “just looking around for a patch of land that might be suitable”. Some farm areas may be suited to high-density block plantings, while others will benefit from widely spaced rows, or alley plantings that allow pasture or crops to grow between the rows.
“A small patch of forage shrubs won’t make much of a difference, because it won’t offer a sufficient number of grazing days to make an impact on the whole farm feedbase. You’ve got to map out these plantings so they’re large enough – and offer enough variety – to make a positive contribution to farm management,” he says.
has run field and laboratory trails on just over 100 native shrub species, culled from a list of more than 6000 that grow in Australia’s semi-arid regions. The list includes saltbush, casuarinas, acacias, desert kurrajongs, emu bush, bluebush and native peas. The tests analysed a range of factors including palatability, edible biomass, regrowth after grazing, nutritive value, digestibility, methane production and whether any species had the potential to become invasive weeds.
“It’s also important that the forage shrubs make a positive contribution to farm and livestock management. There must be a plan to use them throughout the year, not just as back up when times are tough.”
Enrich has been shown to boost farm profits by up to 20%.
“What we’ve found is that there’s no single silver-bullet species that does everything. You won’t get good results with just one or two native shrub species, or with small plantings,” Emms says.
“There has to be a diverse mix, and species composition will vary from farm to farm, depending on soils and other factors, like topography. It’s important to take time to get it right and design a system that takes the whole farm into consideration.’’
GETTING THE DESIGN right
doesn’t require the additional expense of hiring a consultant to map out a farm forage system. The Enrich team has written a comprehensive guide with a “decision tree” that takes farmers
The mix of shrubs is important as most species will not have all of the attributes that may be required. Some may be high in crude protein, but may not show potential for controlling gut parasites or provide shade and shelter for animals. Growing a variety of species with different attributes will broaden the range of livestock health and farm biodiversity benefits, says Emms.
Contrary to popular belief, sheep are not stupid, he adds. During a day’s browsing, they can selectively graze a large range of plant species, each with a unique nutrient profile. They choose their diet by associating the metabolic effect of eating a plant with the sensory characteristics of smell, sight and taste.
“They’re just like us – they prefer a varied diet, a smorgasbord of different tastes to a monotonous diet of limited choices,’’ he says.
Many of the native fodder shrubs used in the Enrich system “will be novel to animals, they won’t have seen or eaten them before, so they need to learn about them,’’ he explains. It’s important to monitor which species the sheep will eat, and how those preferences change over time. Initially sheep may over-browse a particular species until they become familiar with other forage plants, but their palate will change as they learn what’s on offer, he says.
Top: Grazing sheep on a mix of natives such as thorny saltbush ( Rhagodia spinescens ) and river saltbush ( Atriplex amnicola ) rather than traditional pasture can have wide benefits in sustainability, animal health and profit as well as producing exceptional quality produce.
ENRICH IS ONE OF several Future Farm Industries CRC research programs investigating the use of native trees and plants to diversify farm income. The CRC has an ambitious woody crops program that includes developing a commercially viable mallee eucalypt crop industry to supply aviation biofuel.
The CRC’s research director, Dr John McGrath, says the global aviation industry has set a goal to reduce its greenhouse emissions from fossil fuel consumption and aims to have all industry growth carbon neutral beyond
2020. Aviation companies are investing in research to produce jet biofuels from biomass sources such as crops, trees, algae and organic waste.
“Jet biofuels produced from woody crops on farms could reduce net emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere,’’ McGrath says.
The CRC’s industry partners include Virgin Australia, Airbus and General Electric – companies that are members of a global industry group committed to supporting the development of a jet biofuel industry. But there is “some distance to go before we will see a viable
biofuel processing industry operating in Australia,’’ says McGrath.
“On a regional scale in Western Australia, we estimate mallee plantings for biofuels would account for roughly 3% of farm area, so that’s not a significant impact on food production. Biofuels from mallees will provide an additional and reliable source of farm income once a commercially viable supply chain and processing plants are established to support the industry.”
The mallees will be harvested every three to five years for biofuel production. McGrath explains that one-third of the carbon sequestered by mallees is stored underground, so harvesting does not reduce their potential value as a future
“The West Australian wheatbelt is so vast that planting just a relatively small area of mallees would produce enough biomass to make millions of litres of jet biofuel.’’
source of carbon credits for Australian farmers. They regrow from nutrients stored in their root system and can be harvested for up to 50 years.
“The West Australian wheatbelt is so vast that planting just a relatively small area of mallees would produce enough biomass to make millions of litres of jet biofuel,’’ McGrath says.
“There are also additional benefits for biodiversity from these woody crops. We know mallees provide food and shelter for native birds and animals and they are also effective as windbreaks and in reducing saline seepage.”
The CRC has been a research leader in developing cost-efficient mallee biofuel harvesting methods. One of the problems facing the creation of a viable mallee biofuels industry in Australia is the need for an energy-efficient, purpose-designed commercial harvester. Richard Sulman, managing director of
Richard Sulman, Biosystems Engineering, in front of the prototype mallee harvester.
Biosystems Engineering in Queensland, has worked with the CRC to invent a machine that adapts and combines agricultural and forestry harvesting techniques. McGrath describes Sulman’s prototype mallee harvester as “something of a cross between a forestry tree chipper and a combine harvester”.
He explains that mallees are not a single-stem plantation tree, and the harvester had to be designed to “cut the mallee’s multiple stems off above the ground, like coppicing, so you get regrowth”. The harvester also had to cut and chip the trees at a commercially viable rate – at least 50 green tonnes an hour – and process the trees while moving through the mallee plantation. An additional engineering design challenge was that the trees had to be fed into the chipper vertically, rather than cut and stacked for later processing.
Sulman invented a harvester that uses chain elevators to carry vertical trees up
to a set of rollers that guides them into the chipper. It’s an extraordinary design, and one that Sulman has developed to cut the energy consumption of both the rotating harvesting saw and the chipper. The next step is to move beyond the prototype and build a commercial harvester. McGrath is hopeful investors will see the potential of Sulman’s mallee harvester as a valuable technical breakthrough for an emerging world market in biofuels.
“It’s an essential machine for establishing a viable supply chain for biofuels,” he says.
“This is an industry that will take some years to develop – well beyond the lifetime of this CRC – but the mallee harvester is an important and critical step in developing this emerging industry.”
The CRC will wind up in June 2014, after seven years in which it has invested around $179 million in developing new
technologies and farming systems and delivering new products into the market. McGrath hopes investors will pick up several of the CRC’s projects that will need longer to complete. That includes both the mallee harvester and Enrich.
“The CRCs tend to be medium-term custodians of research. They bring research groups together to work on and speed up the flow of ideas. But once a CRC runs its allotted time and begins to wind down, that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the line for its research projects,” McGrath says.
“We create opportunities for future investment. Our role as a CRC was not to create a system to manufacture aviation biofuels, but to sort out some of the issues affecting the supply chain. We’ve demonstrated that mallee biofuels can be productively integrated into farming systems, and there’s potentially a very profitable industry for Australia if we can support the next level of research to make it happen.”
Rosslyn Beeby is a freelance writer and was the long-time science and environment reporter
Top: Mallee belts in a cropping landscape in the Western Australian Wheatbelt. Bottom: A relatively small mallee plantation could produce “millions of litres” of jet fuel.
Cliff Winfield
the climate challenge
It’s arguably the greatest trial confronting humanity: to stave off the infusion of greenhouse gases that are fundamentally altering our climate. In the second decade of the 21st Century, the hard work is still to be done, but Australian Cooperative Research Centres are leading the fight. David Ellyard reports.
THE AIR WE BREATHE
contains only a trace of carbon dioxide, yet that trace is already threatening the stability of both our climate, by trapping in heat, and the health of our oceans, by making them more acidic. So says the strong consensus of informed scientific opinion.
The burden of added CO2 and other greenhouse gases due to man-made emissions continues to rise. CO2 emissions from man-made sources have risen by 50% since modern industry began and are on track to double by 2050. That, in turn, is likely to raise global temperatures this century by around 20C, with a troubling range of consequences including more extreme weather, interference with water supplies, loss of agricultural production, and increasing numbers of environmental refugees. Simultaneously, the oceans will continue to acidify, disturbing food chains and fish production.
To head off the worst of this, we must stabilise the load of CO2 our atmosphere carries as soon as possible, and then reduce the amount we send into the atmosphere. That means cutting emissions, ultimately by around 70%. Since burning coal, oil and gas for energy creates greenhouse gas emissions, an obvious start is to reduce our energy
consumption by using fossil fuels more efficiently. At the same time, we can turn to other “low-carbon” energy sources, such as renewables. And we can try to capture the CO2 we make before it can reach the atmosphere.
AUSTRALIAN COOPERATIVE
Research Centres are already showing the way and not how you might expect. Whereas an increasing reliance on renewable energy is an obvious start, changing the way we live is another. And it could transform not only our climate but our communities.
Buildings provide a good example. These offer most potential in low-cost ways to cut emissions, whether by using building materials with a lower carbon footprint, developing smarter means of heating/cooling and lighting, adopting low-carbon approaches to cluster and link buildings, and dealing more effectively with their needs for power, water, waste management and transport access – all of which have major implications for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
For example, integrating solar cells into roofs could provide our buildings with all the electricity they need, as well as make any excess capacity available for other users.
New government policies and building practices and codes would push us well towards a 50% reduction in emissions by 2050.
The newly-funded Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Low-Carbon Living has already set some bold targets for research and development in this field. By 2020, it wants to see the annual emissions of greenhouse gases (including CO2) from buildings cut by around 20%. That’s a substantial bite out of our emissions, according to Deo Prasad, the CEO of the new CRC. “It would be equivalent to taking 2.3 million cars off the road,” he states.
Looking further ahead, new government policies and building practices and codes would push us well towards a 50% reduction in emissions by 2050. There is much more to all this than using new technology, although that’s important. It’s also about the need to address market failures and other barriers that block the uptake of new methods, even with incentives like a price on carbon. The CRC wants to provide government and industry with new tools to identify and overcome such impediments.
Deo Prasad stresses that it is vital that community be engaged, since our carbon footprint depends on the meshing together of decisions made by individuals, groups and businesses. All need access to the best available information to choose wisely.
THE TERM “RENEWABLES”
has come to mean sources of energy with a low “carbon footprint”. These include solar and wind energy (including tidal and wave power), geothermal, hydro and biomass sources. None of these is totally free of carbon dioxide emissions, but they are generally much lower than those from coal, oil and natural gas.
Decentralised renewables, such as rooftop photovoltaics and larger sources including wind energy, are rapidly becoming more cost effective. There is little doubt that in coming decades, the role of renewables will grow as we look to reduce emissions and move toward a low-carbon economy. But it’s also crucial to develop the storage capacity to account for peaks in demand, and to address off-grid regional energy needs. Currently, rural and remote Australia is heavily dependent on diesel fuel to power electricity generators and the trucks needed to transport goods. What is their energy future?
In fact, this future could hold promise and opportunity, rather than mere survival, and for the whole nation, not just locally. Remote regions hold many abundant, but largely untapped, renewable energy resources, including solar, wind, geothermal, tide and wave power.
Unleashing that potential to generate sustainable low-pollution energy could bring economic renewal to those regions and help the nation reach its low-emission targets. We can even become a renewable energy exporter.
CRCs and other research and development groups are active in this space. The CRC for Remote Economic Participation is developing alternative energy futures that could attract business through more attractive lifestyles that depend on low-cost, low-pollution energy.
A pattern is being set in regions such as the Gulf of Carpentaria, where
Clockwise from left: New wind farms will have the capacity to feed the grid; the green building at 1 Bligh St, Sydney; solar panels at the solar energy farm in Doomadgee, Queensland.
substantial renewable energy projects are underway. These include a proposed 60–70 megawatt (MW) wind farm at Forsayth, 100 km south-west of Townsville, Queensland, which will have the capacity to feed the national grid, and the 264 kilowatt (kW) first stage of a solar energy farm at Doomadgee, 100 km inland from the Gulf of Carpentaria. The latter will save an estimated 115,000 litres of diesel a year.
EVEN WITH GREATER
energy efficiency we will still need electricity; even with more renewables in use, coal-fired power stations will be making much of that electricity for years to come. But could it be possible to trap CO2 as it leaves a power station’s flues and store it out of harm’s way, and do it affordably?
For the past decade, the CRC for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (aka CO2CRC) has been looking hard at that possibility. The whole process is called carbon capture and storage (CCS). CCS will add to the costs of coal-fired electricity but CRC research indicates it will be competitive with other ways of producing low-emission electricity, such as wind, solar or geothermal.
The researchers face two main challenges. First, the CO2 must be captured from the stream of waste gases. Much of the research is directed at reducing costs. At Hazelwood power station the CRC is currently trialling an environment- and worker-friendly process with greatly reduced costs, using potassium carbonate as a solvent for the CO2. The plant absorbs a tonne of the gas per day, a large quantity for a pilot project. The solvent is later heated to release the gas, which, in a commercial operation, would be contained and compressed to be ready for storage.
Meanwhile, the hunt is on for a safe means of storing the CO2 deep underground. One option is injecting the compressed gas into deep beds of sedimentary rock that once held deposits of natural gas or oil, such as those under Bass Strait. The CRC’s $40 million Otway Project in Victoria, funded by
There is no one solution to the challenge of climate change. We need to research all realistic options, and implement those that offer best value.
a number of public and private partners, is the world’s most comprehensive R&D facility for geological carbon storage, and is designed to demonstrate that the process is both technically and economically feasible. Currently, the research is focused on ways to track the gas underground once it is injected, with the aim of building confidence that it is safely stored.
A CO2CRC-led collaboration, the project involves Australian and international organisations, including the CSIRO, Geoscience Australia, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (USA), the University of Melbourne, Curtin
University, Adelaide University and KIGAM (Korea). The demonstration site is a key example of how collaboration can change our carbon future.
As any researcher in this field will tell you, there is no one solution to the challenge of climate change. We need to research all realistic options, and implement those that offer the best value. And Australia is in a better position than most nations to secure that value.
David Ellyard is a writer, author of the award-winning Who Discovered What When and an ex-radio guru with ABC Science.
Storing carbon
Sequestering carbon emissions at major power plant sources could do more than take carbon dioxide emissions out of the atmosphere – it could also provide food for microalgae, which in turn could be used to create materials for agriculture and energy. The Advanced Manufacturing CRC, in partnership with MBD Energy and James Cook University (JCU) in Queensland, is trialling a project to utilise these super small creatures to feed on the carbon from captured emissions to generate algal bioproducts including animal feedstock and biofuels. In the past year, the team has set up a one-hectare trial plant at the Tarong Power Station in Queensland and a demonstration plant at JCU; the next phase will see two more systems set up at Loy Yang A power plant in Victoria and Eraring in NSW.
Left: An artist’s conception of a microalgae farm.
Below: The algae trial project at James Cook University in Queensland.
The communication conundrum
How did the evolution of the Internet affect the Allen curve?
We are more effective at communicating our ideas with those who work in close proximity to us – in fact, within a few metres of our workspace. Heather Catchpole speaks to communication theorist extraordinaire Tom Allen to find out why, despite our intricately interconnected digital universe, this maxim remains truer than ever.
The Allen Curve
HC: How did you first get interested in this area?
TA: I started in electrical engineering, working with Boeing for several years. At MIT, I got to know a famous psychologist, and we got talking about the social psychology of engineers – how engineers and scientists work.
How did the Allen curve, which maps how effectively engineers and scientists communicate, evolve?
Engineers search the world for new ideas, and most of their communication is directed towards people outside their own organisations. Yet the best ideas come from colleagues within their own organisations. So we did some research on how to improve the communication inside a large technical organisation.
How does it work?
We set up a webpage with the names of all the people in the organisation and then send them a weekly email asking them to think about what they did on that day and if they talked to anyone about a scientific or technical subject. We gather the data and then average this out, and see how far apart their offices or workstations are and that’s how we got that curve.
Electronic communication on the Internet or local email networks are directly and positively correlated with face-to-face communication. The more frequently two people see one another face to face, the more likely they are to exchange emails and vice versa. That doesn’t mean we don’t communicate with people who are more distant, but we don’t communicate anywhere near the degree to which we communicate by email or by telephone to people closer at hand.
How can organisations improve internal communication? Any simple rules?
What we’ve always argued for is not necessarily increasing communication but structuring it differently. It’s about looking at what those trade-offs are and what you can do when moving people together into the same building, keeping them from being on separate floors, for example. That’s an important factor I talk to architects about –how they overcome those kinds of separation in their architectural design.
How do your ideas apply to crossinstitutional collaboration?
Physical proximity is extremely important. Companies in the same vicinity communicate far more among themselves than those spread over a larger geographic area. We looked at companies in the State of Massachusetts, comparing those within a couple of postal codes with companies spread out in other areas, going out to about 100 km. When you separate those two groups and look at their communication patterns, they’re extremely different; there’s much stronger communication among those that are geographically close than those that are spread out.
Tom Allen is Emeritus Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT in Boston and a keynote speaker for the CRCA’s Innovating with Asia conference in Perth in May 2014.
No silver bullets
As industrialisation accelerates globally, the days of cheap fossil-fuels are ending and climate change is setting in. What can be done? Wilson da Silva looks at some innovative ideas.
Not e Nough, and too much: that’s the core problem we face globally when it comes to energy and climate change. Demand for energy is booming: it’s forecast to rise 56% by 2040 from 2010 levels. More than 85% of this increase will come from countries outside the club of rich nations, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Energy prices are rising, and there’s a race on to drill oil and gas fields, dig coal mines and build power plants. It’ll get even more frenzied beyond 2040 as India, Brazil and China ride the wealth curve higher.
But today, too much energy – 87% –comes from fossil fuels, energy sources that exacerbate climate change. Despite notable efforts to reduce emissions, fossil fuels will remain the dominant energy source: by 2040 renewables – like hydro, wind, solar and biomass – are forecast to contribute 15% to our coming needs, just four points up from 2010.
What to do? Ignoring the human contribution to climate change is one way to react, but reality has a habit of catching up with you: if 97% of peer-reviewed science says industrial activity is the cause, and that economically catastrophic changes will result, it’s a brave soul who bets otherwise. As astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson recently quipped, “the good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it”.
The problem with greenhouse gases is that they stay in the atmosphere for decades, even centuries, with new tonnage piling up on previous years’. And with demand booming, global policymakers are worried enough to consider the seemingly unthinkable: a shift away from fossil fuels entirely.
“To combat climate change, reducing emissions will simply not be enough –we need to eliminate them altogether,” said Ángel Gurría, secretary-general of the OECD, when handing down a new report in October 2013. “We need to achieve zero emissions from fossil fuel sources by the second half of the century.”
That’s a hell of a challenge.
In innovation terms, there are two ways forward: to boost efficiency and extract more energy from fossil fuels, thereby getting more bang per tonne of greenhouse gas emitted; or to commercialise zeroemission technologies.
It’s the latter where innovation is stuck in the narrow band of wind and solar, and advocates of these technologies do everyone a disservice by pretending they can meet all demand. In energy, there are no silver bullets.
In Canada recently, a brave band of scientists, engineers and policy specialists tackled this head-on. Could the world really move away from fossil fuels this century; would such a shift be possible, much less achievable? The answer entails planning technology pathways over a 60-year time-scale, and developing promising technologies.
“We hoped we would emerge with pragmatic next steps for a global energy transition,” says Jatin Nathwani, an engineering professor and energy specialist at Canada’s University of Waterloo, one of the scientific advisors.
The resulting report, Equinox Blueprint: Energy 2030, does just that. It proposes five technological pathways:
develop large-scale electricity storage for wind and solar plants, removing the problem of intermittent supply; explore enhanced geothermal deep drilling by creating 10 commercial-scale, 50 megawatt demonstration projects worldwide, run as public-private partnerships, which freely share knowledge (reducing the technical and financial risks for commercial players); accelerate and deploy organic photovoltaic technologies for the 1.5 billion people who live in off-grid communities; and pursue sustained research of advanced nuclear reactor designs – such as the Integral Fast Reactor –which offer inherent safety and allow most high-level radioactive waste to be ‘burned’ as energy is generated. And finally, ‘smart urbanisation’: roll out new and existing ICT technologies –plus the larger-scale use of smart grids and superconductors for transmission and distribution in dense urban settings – to make cities more efficient and reduce emissions.
Where would the money come from? One source is suggested by the same OECD report: abandon the tax breaks OECD countries give to oil and gas producers, which are worth between US$55 billion and US$90 billion a year.
Wilson da Silva is the co-founder and former editor-in-chief of COSMOS science magazine, and he chaired the Equinox Summit: Energy 2030 meeting in Canada.
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IA 2014 INNOVATING
Perth, Western Australia, 20 & 21 May
Register now and save money with early bird rates
The Innovating with Asia 2014 Conference provides access to Australian innovation funding sources, a dynamic education program and people who are now creating real impact through research.
Why you need to attend
In ‘The Asian Century’ Australia’s geographical proximity and stability places us in a unique position to take advantage of the growing influence of Asia globally.
The Conference, Innovating with Asia 2014, will examine world’s best practice and innovation from the fastest growing economies. Learn more about the quality of Australian CRCs and how they strengthen global innovation.
PROGRAM APPEALS TO:
• Industries that benefit from Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs)
• CEOs and Managers of CRCs Communication Professionals
• CRC Education Professionals
• Researchers and Research Managers
• Australian University Research Officers
Featured Speakers
PEGGY LIU
Supporting Events
The CRCA will produce a series of events throughout 2014:
Educators
Business
Communicators Meeting (2015)
• Schools and Faculties of Science
• Deans of Science
• Students of Science
• Policy Makers
• Innovators in Mining
• Innovators in Agriculture and Food
Chairperson for JUCCCE. JUCCCE is a non-profit organisation dedicated to accelerating the greening of China.
THOMAS BARLOW
CEO of Thomas Barlow Advisory Services. Thomas is a leading research strategist in Australia. Author of Between The Eagle and the Dragon: Who is Winning the Innovation Race
PROFESSOR THOMAS ALLEN
Howard W. Johnson Professor of Management and Emeritus Professor of Organization Studies MIT Sloan School of Management.
Join us in Western Australia at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre 20-21 May 2014
