Leading economists back federal government action to curb rising gas and electricity prices

By Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Australia’s top economists have overwhelmingly endorsed intervention to restrain gas and electricity prices, with only three of the 47 leading economists surveyed believing the best thing the government can do is to leave things to the market. The 47 economists surveyed are members of…

New ARC Carbon Science and Innovation centre awarded funding

The UNSW-led Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Carbon Science and Innovation has been awarded $35 million in federal funding, and aims to “revolutionise carbon science” to create new carbon-based catalysts for use in renewable energy generation, carbon capture and clean chemical production.  Scientia Professor Liming Dai (pictured), who is also Founding Director of the…

USQ leads bid for ten-year hemp CRC

University of Southern Queensland is leading a bid for a ten-year Cooperative Research Centre, which would “explore the immense production possibilities of hemp”. According to a statement from USQ on Monday, core research areas would include production, health and materials streams. Supporters of a thriving industrial hemp industry in Australia point to attributes such as…

Seaweed genome research promises better compound discovery for health, environmental purposes

University of Sunshine Coast researchers have identified “hundreds of potential anti-cancer compounds” by genome analysis of 12 edible seaweeds, narrowing the search for future identification of chemicals for new products. Professor of Molecular Biology Scott Cummins and Genomics Lecturer Dr Min Zhao said that the anti-cancer benefits of seaweed were known, but it was much…

BOC opens second Australian Application Technology Centre

Industrial gases specialist BOC has officially opened its second Application Technology Centre in Australia, with federal assistant manufacturing and trade minister Tim Ayres cutting the ribbon at a new site in south-west Sydney on Wednesday, According to a statement from BOC, part of the Linde group, the facility is world-class as “will showcase state-of-the-art welding…