Fellows in the news

Left to right: Barry Marshall, Howard Wiseman, Bob Graham, John Mattick

Terry Hughes talked to the media extensively in October about the Academy’s submission to the Great Barrier Reef draft plan. But our favourite was probably this summary by ABC’s The Roast.

Ian Frazer hit the headlines in October for his early success on developing a separate treatment for the HPV virus. His cervical cancer vaccine was also acknowledged by President Obama in a speech at the University of Queensland while he was in Brisbane for the G20 summit.

Gus Nossal was profiled in the Herald Sun’s special ‘Living Treasures’ series examining the lives of great Victorians. Nossal was highlighted among the likes of Kylie Minogue, Stephanie Alexander and Ron Barassi.

Suzanne Cory and Brian Schmidt featured in a science-themed episode of ABC’s Q&A program recently, Science: Precious Petals to Passionate Teachers, while Nalini Joshi featured in Time Travel, Teaching and The Meaning of Life, along with UK science superstar Brian Cox.

We all know airport security can be a drag, but when you’re travelling with an actual Nobel Prize it can get surreal. Brian Schmidt found his way into the news for this exchange at a US airport:

‘Who gave this to you?’
‘The King of Sweden.’
‘Why did he give this to you?’
‘Because I helped discover the expansion rate of the universe was accelerating.’

Brian also made the news for sharing in the US$3 million Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for his Nobel Prize-winning work. Want to find out more about this mind-bending astrophysics? Watch this recent episode of the ABC’s Catalyst.

What does it take to think like an outsider? This was the question asked in the popular Freakonomics podcast and Barry Marshall certainly fitted the bill. Listen to the show.

Kurt Lambeck made the news for an important new paper showing that sea levels have risen at unprecedented rates over the last one hundred years.

After Ingrid Scheffer and Sam Berkovic won the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science, Ingrid made news for warning that Australia’s best and brightest young scientists will head overseas because of recent government funding cuts.

In a new theory that could explain some of the irregularities in quantum mechanics, Howard Wiseman and his colleagues at Griffith University have suggested that parallel universes are real and interact with each other.

In a world first, Bob Graham led the research team that successfully transplanted a heart that had stopped beating.

John Mattick has been talking to the media about the next big step in Australian medicine: affordable gene testing for less than $2000.

Climate Change has been a big media topic of late and Tim Flannery featured in much of the commentary through his role on the Climate Council, including in this report that shows investment in renewable energy is down 70 per cent in Australia.

© 2024 Australian Academy of Science

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