New synthetic biology group launched
Plant SynBio Australia (PSBA) was launched in Canberra on Wednesday, aiming at coordinating a national network of infrastructure and expertise to accelerate gains in agri-food productivity. PSBA will focus on synthetic biology, which uses engineering principles to redesign biological organisms for desired outcomes including creating vaccines, novel crops, and foods and pharmaceuticals. La Trobe Vice-Chancellor Professor Theo Farrell said the university was proud to be part of a national program driving agri-food advances. Farrell said “Our research institutes are at the forefront of discovery, translating pioneering science into commercial success.” Other research nodes will be located at Adelaide University, Australian National University and University of Western Australia. PSBA will provide plant synthetic biology services in agricultural, horticultural and medicinal species, including cereal, legumes and oilseed crops, as well as other species to bio-manufacture materials, medicines and other high-value products.
CSIRO launches new mineral discovery tool
National science agency CSIRO released LandScape+ this week, a new online tool to help geologists interpret geochemical data and plan follow-up exploration programs to target new resources. Mineral exploration in Australia is challenging because much of the land is covered by a thick layer of loose soil, sand, and broken-down rock, according to a statement from CSIRO, and much of Australia is also remote and difficult to access to map effectively. The new tool uses remotely sensed data to create landform maps informed by machine learning at a 30-metre resolution, “reducing the need for extensive, on-the-ground observations. It then integrates surface geochemistry for better, faster, and easier interpretation of soil survey results.”
SEMMA says “devil is in the detail” for procurement bill
Industry representative the South East Melbourne Manufacturers Alliance (SEMMA) said it welcomed the introduction of the Local Jobs First Amendment Bill on Wednesday, which delivers new enforcement powers for Victorian government contracts and projects benefitting local SME manufacturers. CEO Honi Walker said, “We hope this new Bill does give the Local Jobs First Commissioner new compliance and enforcement powers… We hope the Commissioner will issue civil penalties and conduct surprise site inspections. You must enforce a regulation for it to be effective.” Walker said that the state government must also prioritise local suppliers and not focus on price alone. “Manufacturers want to supply local government contracts and projects, but the devil is in the detail and we don’t want this to become an additional regulatory burden on manufacturers,” she added.
EMVision wins Red Dot awards
EMVision Medical Devices has shared that its emu and First Responder (pictured) point-of-care brain scanners have earned a Red Dot award. The company’s first and second-generation products are used to aid diagnosis of stroke for quicker intervention by medical workers. EMVision said in a statement on Linkedin on Thursday that each product “has been designed to meet the needs of healthcare professionals and patients to deliver high quality neurodiagnostic capabilities in complex care settings. It added that the awards reflect its dedication to a “co-design” approach with end users, and that, “The Red Dot Design Award evaluates medical devices based on several key criteria including degree of innovation, functionality, ergonomics and durability.”
Unemployment steady at 4.1 per cent in May
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 4.1 per cent in May, according to data released on Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Sean Crick, ABS head of labour statistics, said: “Despite employment falling by 2,000 people this month, it’s up 2.3 per cent compared to May 2024, which is stronger than the pre-pandemic, 10-year average annual growth of 1.7 per cent. This fall in employment, combined with a drop in unemployment of 3,000 people, meant that the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1 per cent for May” The employment-to-population ratio fell 0.1 percentage points to 64.2 per cent, and the participation rate fell 0.1 percentage points to 67.0 per cent.
AI aids green-ness of ammonia
Researchers have used artificial intelligence to vastly narrow down a set of candidates for suitable catalysts for use in green ammonia synthesis. According to a statement from UNSW on Thursday, the work built on a 2021 paper, showing how to make ammonia from air and water using renewable energy at “about the same temperature as a warm summer’s day”. The new paper, published in Small, showed how the team took a selection of 13 metals to look for the best combination, with “more than 8000 different combinations” possible. Researchers fed a machine learning system information about how each metal behaves and trained it to spot the best combinations, narrowing down the number of experiments in the lab required from 8000 to 28. The winning catalyst combined iron, bismuth, nickel, tin and zinc. “We achieved a sevenfold improvement in the ammonia production rate and at the same time it was close to 100 [per cent] efficient, meaning almost all of the electrical energy we needed to make the reaction happen was used to make ammonia — very little was wasted,” said Dr Ali Jalili from the university
Picture: credit EMVision