The Australian Innovation Community

A major transformation in the food system is needed to address future threats to food security according to experts from some of the world’s leading science organisations.

CSIRO opens new, state-of-the-art national test facility capable of rating conventional and solar-powered air con systems.

Ways to reduce the costs of phosphorus fertiliser use on farms – critical for sustaining high agricultural production in many Australian farming systems – have been identified in a new suite of journal papers.

CSIRO scientists are reaping the benefits of their 'not-so-new but improved' Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) supercomputer now running much faster on Windows HPC.

A conference to advance our understanding of how weather and climate events will impact global energy systems is underway on the Gold Coast.

CSIRO astronomer Dr George Hobbs has become the 2011 Young Tall Poppy of the Year for NSW.

Direct effects of climate warming on biodiversity pose a serious conservation challenge for marine life, according to new research published today in Science.

An international research team has balanced the sea-level rise budget by showing that the total amount of contributions to sea level rise explains the measured rise over recent decades.

An exciting new research Supersite will use a climate station to monitor Western Australia's 16 million hectare Great Western Woodland.

A new book designed to inform business, government and the community about the importance of one of Australia's invaluable natural resources – water – will be launched in Canberra today by CSIRO's Chief Executive, Dr Megan Clark.

A reference to research undertaken by CSIRO’s “bat pack” team highlights the role CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) in Geelong, Victoria, would play in a real-world version of Hollywood’s latest disaster flick - Contagion.

Brisbane high school students are this week experiencing the range of science and engineering careers open to university graduates.

The team of researchers responsible for developing a new variety of cotton which now constitutes 80 per cent of Australia's total annual cotton crop was today presented with CSIRO's highest award for excellence – the Chairman's Medal for Research Achievement.

Pollen may annoy allergy sufferers in springtime but, viewed under the microscope, a pollen grain is a thing of beauty.

The violent swirling of the gas between the stars has been captured for the first time with a CSIRO telescope.

CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope - 'The Dish' - turns 50 on 31 October and will celebrate with public open days on 8 and 9 October.

A new state of the art x-ray imaging detector smaller than a postage stamp is the key to a powerful new method of characterising mineral ores, according to an article published today in the October issue of CSIRO’s Process magazine.

A new insight into global photosynthesis, the chemical process governing how ocean and land plants absorb and release carbon dioxide, has been revealed in research that will assist scientists to more accurately assess future climate change.

Scientists are taking the first steps to improve estimates of long-term wind speed changes for the fast-growing wind energy sector, intended to reduce the risks for generators in a changing climate.

Research into developing more productive wheat varieties in Australia has been given a major boost following an equity investment in HRZ Wheats Pty Ltd by one of the nation's leading agricultural disease and pest control companies, Dow AgroSciences Australia Ltd.

CSIRO continues its support of up-and-coming ICT innovators at Tech23.

In 2008, CSIRO and the Fulbright Commission entered into a partnership to sponsor a scholarship enabling one high-quality US postgraduate student to spend up to 12 months, working with one of the National Research Flagships. In late August, we welcome our third Fulbright scholar, Marvin Alfaro.

Astronomers using 'The Dish' – CSIRO's radio telescope near Parkes, NSW – believe they've found a small planet made of diamond, orbiting an unusual star.

Emissions from domestic wood-fired heaters in southern Tasmania's Huon Valley dwarf emissions from forest regeneration burns, according to a new CSIRO study.

A CSIRO study has shown why the lights are going out in the Universe.

CSIRO and ingredients manufacturer, Clover Corporation Limited, are developing the next generation of nutritional ingredients for infant formulas.

Research helping to save the eyesight of people in the rural and remote areas of Australia has won the top prize at the 2011 national iAwards, the information and communications technology (ICT) industry’s peak awards event held in Melbourne last night.

Willows are major environmental weeds of riverbank habitats across much of south-eastern Australia. They obstruct water flow, increase water temperature, change water chemistry and can displace native riverine plant species.

Feeling the chill this winter? Or in summer do you feel like you’re living in an oven?

Three deep-ocean moorings have become the foundation for a new drive to measure change in currents linking the Pacific and Indian Oceans through the Indonesia Archipelago – a key factor influencing Australia's climate.

CSIRO's Dr Neal Wai Poi will lead the development of a major new international mining and mineral processing research centre based in Santiago, Chile.

CSIRO scientists are investigating the potentially damaging effects climate change will have on Australia's agricultural crops and native plants as carbon dioxide concentrations, temperatures and rainfall patterns change.

With the world’s population set to reach 8.9 billion by 2050, CSIRO scientists are hunting down and exploiting a number of wheat’s key genetic traits in a bid to substantially boost its grain yield.

Relocating species threatened by climate change is a radical and hotly debated strategy for maintaining biodiversity.

Reduced catches of small oceanic ‘forage’ fish like sardines and anchovies may be required in some ocean areas in order to protect the larger predators that rely on these species for food.

The latest research into how variations in the atmosphere and oceans combine to produce impacts like the major droughts and floods experienced recently in south-eastern Australia will be presented today in Canberra at a science workshop hosted by the South Eastern Australian Climate Initiative (SEACI).

One of Australia's leading climate change modelling experts, CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Flagship’s Dr Wenju Cai, has been awarded a five-year CSIRO fellowship to establish a new research team examining climate influences on Australia.

The world’s established forests remove 2.4 billion tonnes of carbon per year from the atmosphere – equivalent to one third of current annual fossil fuel emissions – according to new research published today in the journal Science.

Australian scientists have sought the help of the United States and Australian navies to plug a critical gap in their Argo ocean and climate monitoring program caused by Somali pirates operating in the western Indian Ocean.

CSIRO plant scientists have shed light on a problem that has puzzled researchers since the first virus was discovered in 1892 – how exactly do they cause disease?

Industry and science came together in Brisbane today to launch a groundbreaking new research alliance to support the sustainable development of the coal seam gas (CSG) industry. The alliance was officially launched by CSIRO Chief Executive Megan Clark and Page Maxson, Project Director, Australia Pacific LNG.

The impacts on Australia of a 4ºC increase in average annual temperatures – including major reductions in annual rainfall in southern Australia, marked increases in evaporation nationwide and reduced snow cover in alpine regions – were presented today by CSIRO's Dr Penny Whetton at the Four Degrees climate change conference in Melbourne.

The discovery potential of the future international SKA radio telescope has been glimpsed following the commissioning of a working optical fibre link between CSIRO’s Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope in Western Australia, and other radio telescopes across Australia and New Zealand.

This month’s final print edition of Ecos – Australia’s longest running magazine on science and sustainability – features expert commentary on the drivers of rising household electricity bills identified in the recently released eighth update to Professor Ross Garnaut’s Climate Change Review for the Australian Government.

How the frequency and intensity of wildfires and intentional biomass burning will change in a future climate requires closer scientific attention, according to CSIRO’s Dr Melita Keywood.

Decreasing autumn and winter rainfall over southern Australia has been attributed to a 50-year decrease in the average intensity of storms in the region – a trend which is forecast to continue for another 50 years.

Lessons learned from the recently successful 50-year campaign to rid the world of cattle plague (rinderpest), could assist in controlling other devastating diseases such as foot and mouth disease, according to world renowned veterinarian, Dr Peter Roeder.

The science behind understanding the movement of heat through the world’s deep oceans is entering a more exact phase with the adoption of a new thermodynamic definition of what constitutes "seawater".

The recent spate of major natural disasters in Japan, Chile, New Zealand, Australia and other parts of the world will be the talk of the town in Melbourne from tonight until 7 July at one of the world’s largest Earth science conferences.

CSIRO research has revealed that the tremendous diversity of ladybird beetle species is linked to their ability to produce larvae which, with impunity, poach members of ‘herds’ of  tiny, soft-bodied scale insects from under the noses of the aggressive ants that tend them.

The Maia X-ray Microprobe Element Imaging System developed for use at the Australian Synchrotron by CSIRO and Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York has won a prestigious R&D 100 Award.

For the first time, greenhouse gas data are accessed easily on a new CSIRO website. The site shows the levels of greenhouse gases measured in the Southern Hemisphere atmosphere for the past 35 years.

Venice – the City of Dreams – may have one less nightmare to deal with following a finding that the frequency of extreme storm surge events generated by Adriatic Sea tempests could fall by about 30 per cent by 2100.

CSIRO scientists have developed powerful modelling techniques to help understand the full impact of flooding that occurs when dams collapse.

Want to know where Mirella the gold spot trevally or Nero the spangled emperor hang out? Or how about where Hitomi the bigeye tuna, Papa the whale shark, and Galileo the tiger shark patrolled the southern oceans?

Adding just one year to the life of Australia's iron ore industry could earn the nation a bonus $56 billion according to an article published today in the June 2011 issue of CSIRO's Process magazine.

Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation, Rio-Tinto Alcan Gove and CSIRO are celebrating winning the prestigious Biodiversity category of the United Nations Association of Australia World Environment Day Awards tonight.

The first six antennas of CSIRO’s Australian SKA Pathfinder telescope in Western Australia will today receive names in the local Wajarri language.

Responding to outbreaks of deadly animal-borne diseases promises to be quicker and easier with new technology allowing disease experts to work in real-time with chief veterinary officers across Australia.

A team of CSIRO Future Manufacturing Flagship scientists has won a major mining industry award for the invention of the highly sensitive magnetic field sensor which sits at the operational heart of the mineral exploration tool, LANDTEM™.

New CSIRO research indicates that the amount of methane emitted from cattle fed on tropical grasses in northern Australia is up to 30 per cent less than figures currently used to calculate the northern cattle industry’s contribution to Australia’s greenhouse gas accounts.

Establishing an economically and environmentally beneficial, 'bio-derived' Australian and New Zealand aviation fuels industry is a viable proposition, according to a report compiled by CSIRO in collaboration with the region’s major aviation industry players.

CSIRO scientists have shown that a new experimental vaccine helps to protect horses against the deadly Hendra virus.

A review of the potential benefits and risks associated with the Australian Government’s proposed Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) features in the April-May edition (160) of CSIRO's ECOS magazine.

In just 10 weeks a team of Canadian researchers has succeeded in 'barcoding' 28,000 moth and butterfly specimens – or about 65 per cent of Australia’s 10,000 known species – held at CSIRO's Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC) in Canberra.

Mining industry explorers, earthquake and climate change scientists and members of the public can now access a 'stack' of information about Australia's geology at the click of a button.

Following an intensive international search and selection process, CSIRO has appointed one of its own, Jonathan Law, as the new Director of the organisation Minerals Down Under National Research Flagship.

Australian scientists have reported the first known detrimental impact of southern hemisphere ocean warming on a fish species.

Access to a portfolio of cost-competitive CSIRO casting technologies was crucial to Nissan Casting Australia’s (NCAP’s) recent successful bid to manufacture components for the Nissan Motor Company’s new LEAF electric car in Dandenong, Victoria.

Recently released genetic research from CSIRO and New Mexico State University in the US is helping scientists better understand how Australian birds evolved.

Protecting urban Australians from a range of health risks associated with global warming is the focus of a new research cluster launched today in Cairns at the 2011 National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) Conference.

Australian scientists have begun the process of delivering the most detailed national climate change projections yet.

CSIRO today will launch Climate Change: Science and Solutions for Australia to help inform business, government, and the community about the many issues that need to be addressed in response to climate change.

Ants and termites have a significant positive impact on crop yields in dryland agriculture, according to a paper published today in the journal Nature Communications by scientists at CSIRO and the University of Sydney.

Marine scientists from five research agencies have pooled their skills and resources to compile a directory of life on Australia’s continental shelf.

Some may think that the mosquito and the house fly are worlds apart when it comes to common ancestry but new research published this week by an international team of scientists puts them much closer together in evolutionary history.

Understanding how climate change could impact on the deterioration of the basic building block of much of Australia's infrastructure – concrete – is crucial to ensuring major assets such as roads, ports and buildings continue to perform up to expectations, according to a CSIRO report.

Biologists have been advised not to over-commit time and effort establishing broader climate change links to local ecological impacts.

In what could prove to be a major breakthrough for people living in rural and regional Australia, CSIRO is developing wireless broadband technology that could operate using barely a quarter the number of transmission towers required by current systems.

Scientists at CSIRO have developed a simple but effective technique for growing and adding value to an exciting new group of smart materials which could be used in areas such as optical sensing and drug storage and delivery.

Transforming waste plant material into a sustainable, low-emission fuel for the world’s cars, trucks and planes is the aim of a new research collaboration between CSIRO and leading Australian and UK universities.

King penguins in the Indian Ocean ride ocean currents to eddies rich with fish before making a bee-line back to their chicks.

Two of the world’s leading science agencies, CSIRO and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), are joining forces to tackle one of the world’s biggest problems – how to feed a global population that is growing by 75 million people per year.

CSIRO Fellow Dr Ezio Rizzardo has been ranked as one of the world's Top 100 Chemists over the past decade, by US information and analysis company, Thomson Reuters.

New biotechnologies that influence the sex ratio and fertility of production animals are set to not only dramatically boost the productivity and profitability of Australia’s cattle and aquaculture industries but also address significant sustainability and welfare issues.

The influence ocean eddies have on marine life in the oceans surrounding Australia’s south-east is expected to become clearer after scientists examine data from new deep-diving research ‘gliders’ patrolling the East Australian Current.

An investigation into the effectiveness of international efforts to eliminate or restrict the use of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) – such as DDT, dieldrin and other toxic compounds – will begin next month when CSIRO starts a new atmospheric monitoring program.

More than 170 volunteers from all over New South Wales have signed on to a community effort to help family, friends and colleagues save money on power bills and reduce their carbon footprint.

Marine scientists are trialling the first near-shore water temperature forecasts to assist Australia’s aquaculture farm managers contending with rising ocean temperatures.

CSIRO has developed new tools to help government and industry water management agencies better estimate how forest plantations affect stream flows in local catchments.

Australian scientists are part of an international consortium creating ‘battle maps’ that visualise how bird flu and other viruses constantly mutate to camouflage their antigens, or ‘invading soldiers’, to avoid being neutralised by the immune system’s ‘artillery’.

CSIRO research into how bats can host some of the world’s deadliest viruses without suffering any ill-effects themselves will lead to improved strategies for controlling the spread of bat-borne diseases.

Enhancing the world’s ability to respond to the increasing threat of emerging infectious diseases will be the focus of more than 600 international experts in human, animal and environmental health at the 1st International One Health Congress, beginning today in Melbourne.

Ancient stone faces carved into the walls of a well-known limestone cave in East Timor have been discovered by a team searching for fossils of extinct giant rats.

Biological control of the aquatic weed salvinia in the billabongs of Kakadu National Park has been “fitful and incomplete”.

Visitors to CSIRO’s Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies (QCAT) complex in Pullenvale, Brisbane, might soon have a floating doughnut to show them around.

A new pyrolysis technology could expand charcoal production in Australia tenfold, and generate a range of valuable byproducts, according to the February edition of CSIRO's Process magazine.

Using the Parkes radio telescope, CSIRO astronomers are working closely with NASA to unlock one of astronomy’s great enigmas – the science behind pulsars.