Author: Bree

Shooting across the sky at 15km per second, its bright green and blue flashes were visible for a phenomenal nine seconds. The Mother’s Day Meteorite’s entry into the earth’s atmosphere was observed from inner city Perth, and all the way out past Kalgoorlie, to Leonora, two hours north of Kalgoorlie, more than 600km to the north-east of Western Australia. 

Its journey was captured by planetary scientist Eleanor Sansom and her team at the Australian Desert Fireball Network. 

Through her research at Curtin University and role as director of the Network, Eleanor investigates the origins of space rocks on earth, how they enter earth’s atmosphere, and tracks where meteorites may land.

Light, camera, action

The Desert Fireball Network (DFN) is built of autonomous, high-resolution observatories using everyday Nikon DSLR cameras and all-sky fish-eye lenses. They are dotted across the West Australian wheatbelt and across the Nullarbor, covering nearly 2.5 million square kilometres of skies, to observe the entry of space rocks like the Mother’s Day Meteorite through the atmosphere as fireballs.  

“The DFN can see everything from pea-size gravel to multi-metre asteroids,” says Eleanor.

“It can work out where they come from in the solar system, and if it survives to the surface, predict a landing spot. This gives these meteorites a spatial context that is usually missing and is essential for unlocking the full potential of meteorite samples.”

Unlocking origins

“Of the 70,000 meteorites in collections around the world, the origins of about 60 are known.
The DFN has helped pick up 25% of those. This not only helps us build a geological map of the solar system, but it also allows the team to link meteorites to potentially hazardous regions of space, and to other asteroids.”

Lost and found

 When it came to tracking down the case of the Mother’s Day Meteorite, the team got super excited. 

“It’s always challenging to find the meteorite on the ground afterwards, especially when rocks come in at a shallow angle and the fall area gets really long,” says Eleanor. “We got very lucky on this occasion as the main search area was over salt lakes.” 

“They often fall into the ocean too places that we just cannot reach.”

“With such finds, we can piece together how our planetary system began and how dust and gas formed a planet capable of supporting life.” 

“Our experience with the Mother’s Day Meteorite was exceptional, because we mapped its trajectory with precision to figure out its orbit.”

Help from our friends

Due to the angle at which the meteorite entered the atmosphere, its ‘fall area’ was very large, at fifty square kilometres.

“Being a small team and given the expanse that needed to be covered … we released the full strewn field to the public hoping others would be interested in joining the search.” 

“We’ve found a meteorite before on a salt lake, and it made a big splash visible from the air. We hoped this might have happened again, so we also decided to take out a spotter plane. We didn’t get out hopes up but were really excited when we spotted two convincing spots on the lake.” 

Cop and amateur meteorologist finds the first piece

Eleanor said it was exciting that a member of the public — a policeman and amateur meteorologist — found across the first fragment.

“From the plane we spotted a member of the public on the ground, who had travelled from 200km away to reach Lake Hope.”

“That piece of meteorite is going to be put on display at the WA Museum by the end of July for everyone to see. It will be especially exciting for those that saw the fireball themselves!”

Three main meteorite fragments have now been collected and will be sent around the world to be studied in labs. 

“What we know so far is that the Mother’s Day Meteorite was the same type (LL ordinary chondrite) as the Chelyabinsk meteor in 2013. That meteor streaked through the skies as a fireball that caused a destructive supersonic shockwave strong enough to smash windows and damage buildings.” 

“The orbit is also similar, and it will be interesting to start looking into the planetary defence aspect – how risky are asteroids and space rocks from that area of our solar system.” 

Q & A 

Was the Mother’s Day Meteorite a rare occurrence? How often are meteorites spotted in Australia?

We see about 300 fireballs per night over Australia with the network. Of those, about 10 per year can drop 50g+ sized meteorites. We search for those that are larger and easier to get to, and we pick up about one per We now have the added capability of conducting drone surveys to spot meteorite candidates on the ground, and this number is going to increase in the coming years!

 Was the Mother’s Day Meteorite spotted by humans first, or cameras?

Cameras capture events at night and spend the day processing/running detection software, but also as it was a Sunday, we wouldn’t have seen the detection until the Monday morning. So, we were alerted to the excitement of this one by the media requests.

 What is the Desert Fireball Network’s role in Australia’s planetary defence efforts?

The Desert Fire Network is part of a growing national network of Planetary Defence teams across the country as part of the Southern Hemisphere Asteroid Research Consortium to detect and monitor asteroids in space and learn about their impact risks. 

On a visit to the Rohingya refugee settlement in Bangladesh, a scene that stayed with Simon Rosenbaum, Professor of Psychiatry and Mental Health at UNSW, was seeing children playing soccer. The match was led by a local coach who knew every name and each story. 

“Sometimes you’d see hundreds of people gathered for a single game,” Simon recalls.  “For those ninety minutes, the pitch wasn’t just a place to play; it was a space for connection. For belonging. It was where people got a break from the relentless challenges they were facing.” 

That moment built on a foundation already laid through years of research. As part of Simon’s PhD, he led the first study investigating the role of exercise in supporting people living with severe PTSD. His work played a key role in advancing the understanding of physical activity as a credible, research-supported intervention in the treatment of trauma and mental health conditions.

The visit to Cox’s Bazar reframed the question.

“It wasn’t just about proving that exercise works,” he explains. “It pushed me to ask: ‘how do we deliver these interventions in ways that are culturally meaningful, trauma-informed, and accessible to the people we hope will benefit?’”

The importance of co-design

Back in Australia, that insight helped shape a mission that now defines much of Simon’s work — co-designing physical activity services with communities. Including people from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds, ensuring programs are embedded in trusted settings and built around safety, dignity and inclusion.

Exercise and nutrition as therapeutic tools

Simon now co-leads the NExuS research group at UNSW, short for Nutrition, Exercise and Social Equity, a cross-disciplinary team of exercise physiologists, dietitians and food security experts, physiotherapists, psychologists and public health experts. The team investigates how exercise and nutrition can be used as therapeutic tools for people facing systemic disadvantage. 

Physical activity programs without barriers

One example is Addi Moves, a free, community-based physical activity service in Marrickville’s Addison Road Community Centre. The program, co-designed with people from refugee backgrounds, focuses on removing barriers that often prevent participation: cost, language, safety, and stigma.

“It is a dedicated space run by accredited exercise physiologists where we provide access to free, supportive, trauma-informed and culturally responsive physical activity programs including people with an asylum seeker or refugee background, particularly women, in a safe, welcoming space where they can ‘move their mood’. By this I’m referring to experiencing the mental and physical benefits of exercise.”

“It’s a space giving people access to these programs who typically wouldn’t, because we know that movement and activity can have such an impact on how we feel.” 

Simon describes the space as a ‘not gym’ – minus the mirrors, loud music and sign-up fees.

“It’s where movement is a pathway to healing, in a space designed by the people it serves.” 

The program was co-designed with asylum seekers and refugees to be free, inclusive, and flexible. It offers group exercise sessions, informal play, and links to other community supports like Thread Together, a source of clothing for single parents, and Joy of Giving, a hub for pre-loved toys.  

At its heart, Addi Moves embodies a simple idea: when physical activity is made safe, welcoming and accessible, it can be an agent of change – for improved mental wellbeing, community connection and a soft, destigmatising entry point into other health and social services. 

Moving mood 

After a single Addi Moves session, the data shows participants are reporting improved mood. Of the more than 2,000 sessions run since 2022, the pattern still holds true.

“These are people facing intersectional disadvantage — mental illness, trauma histories, and yet with supported movement, we are seeing that something is shifting.” 

“We know from the data that people feel better. And sometimes, that moment is the ‘opening up’ they need to engage with other supports,” Simon says. 

The concept embodied in Addi Moves is being extended through initiatives like SportCoach+, which trains coaches to deliver community-based, trauma-informed movement programs in contexts affected by war and displacement. 

From pitch to policy 

What began with a local coach on a dusty pitch in Cox’s Bazar has grown into an international research agenda, a community-based service, and a new way of thinking about how movement, mental health, and care intersect.
 

And Simon’s goal? To redefine how physical activity and nutrition are embedded within systems of care, especially for communities who have historically been underserved due to intersecting experiences of trauma, displacement, and systemic exclusion.
 

About Simon Rosenbaum 

Simon Rosenbaum is a Professor in the Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health at UNSW Sydney and the co-lead of the NExuS research group (Nutrition, Exercise, and Social Equity). His research focuses on the intersection of physical activity and mental health, particularly for populations exposed to trauma and social disadvantage. 

No parent wants to face the moment when a surgeon needs to cut burned tissue from their child’s body. But for many families, it’s a painful reality, particularly as children under five represent the highest hospitalisation rate for burns in Australia. 

For clinicians, one of the biggest challenges is knowing how a child’s burn is likely to behave. The likelihood of infection. The extent of scarring, or the number of hospital visits needed for skin grafts and revision surgery. Then there’s other unknowns, such as the level of risk of long-term complications like chronic inflammation. 

Dr Xanthe Venn, Senior Research Fellow at Future Industries Institute at the University of South Australia is probing such questions. Through her research with clinicians in Burns Units in both Western Australia and South Australia, Dr Venn is exploring ways to improve healing outcomes for burn patients. This work relates to stopping scar tissue forming and preventing the need for ongoing scar revisionary surgery, by understanding the balance between healthy immune response and harmful inflammation. 

“We know around 220,000 Australians suffer a burn each year, and about 10% require hospitalisation,” she says. “Children under five have the highest rates of hospitalisation from burns.”

In the first days after a burn, the body launches its inflammatory response. “A little inflammation is a good thing. It’s a sign that the immune system doing its job,” Dr Venn explains. “But too much inflammation can lead to complications. It can contribute to damage to other organs and is linked to fibrosis, or excessive scarring.” 

“If dead tissue remains on top of healthy tissue, it can trigger further damage – ‘die off’ and infection. So, it is important clinicians know which burns are so bad that a patient needs to go to surgery.” 

Innovative ideas taking ‘Fliight’

Dr Venn is investigating the role of a protein called Flightless I (Flii), which affects how skin cells respond to damage and how scars form. Her work has shown that wounds tend to heal more effectively and with less scarring when Flii levels are lower. 

“We think Flii is part of the reason some wounds don’t heal well. It interacts with key proteins in the body that regulate tissue repair and inflammation,” she says. 

By identifying how Flii behaves in burn wounds, Dr Venn hopes to develop therapies that help clinicians predict healing outcomes and tailor treatments. These therapies could one day reduce the need for repeat surgeries, shortening hospital stays, and improving quality of life for burn patients.

This work was part of her broader research into skin biology, initiated at the Women’s and Children’s Health Research Institute before the lab’s relocation to the University of South Australia in 2013. Dr. Venn was awarded her PhD from the University of South Australia in 2016 for her investigation into the role of Flightless I in tissue regeneration.  

Getting the balance right

Dr Venn is also looking more broadly at how to balance the body’s inflammatory response – not suppress it completely but modulate it – so wounds get the right ‘burst’ of immune activity to allow the wound to heal best. This could have major benefits, not just for burns, but also for people with chronic wounds caused by conditions like diabetes, where inflammation lingers for too long, and wounds fail to heal. 

Ultimately, Dr Venn’s goal is to help support clinicians in their decisions about how best to treat each patient and to help prevent patients from needing to return to hospital. 

It looked like a little underwater rave.

Neon pink, vibrant yellow, and bold blue coral formations lit up the ocean floor off Ko Tao Island, Thailand. For Jennifer Matthews, fresh from an undergraduate degree in biology, the experience was love at first dive.

“When I surfaced, the dive instructor explained that those colours were stress pigments.”

“The corals were stressed,” she says. “I thought, if something can look as beautiful as that while under stress, imagine how incredible they could look when healthy.”

That underwater moment spawned Jennifer’s lifelong passion for coral biology. Today, a key element of her work is steered towards an overlooked but vital part of coral survival: their nutrition.

“Just like us, corals need the right nutrients to thrive — especially under stress, or when they are subjected to changing environmental conditions.”

During her PhD, she studied coral nutrition at microscopic scales: what sugars, fats, and nutrient levels corals need and under what conditions. Her research spans the Great Barrier Reef and further south into NSW, where warming waters are shifting coral habitats southward.

A BREAKTHROUGH PROJECT? CORAL BABY FOOD.

With support from Pure Ocean, Dr Jennifer Matthews and her team are uncovering the vital nutrients coral larvae need to survive. Taking their discovery from lab to ocean, they developed a ‘coral baby food’ to boost larval health and survival directly on the Great Barrier Reef, bringing new life to damaged, high-value reefs. In partnership with GBR Biology, Reef Magic, and Traditional Owners from the Yirrganydji and Gunggandji communities, this work is helping restore coral ecosystems where they’re needed most.

Jennifer believes the study of coral nutrition represents a powerful new realm of intervention – one that could be key to securing a future for coral reefs in a changing climate.

“Nutritional supplements have been used in agriculture for decades, so why not corals?” Jennifer asks. “My research opens the door to delivering targeted coral ‘medicines’ – like probiotics or nutrients – using nanoparticles.”

“If we want to buy time for corals, bold interventions, and bold risks, are our best hope.”

The plastics industry is growing, and it’s a growing problem. Greater Sydney will run out of landfill capacity by 2030 unless major action is taken. Soft plastics — highly susceptible to fire as they are made from crude oil — are stockpiled in warehouses across Victoria following the demise of RedCycle and they have now become a serious fire hazard.

Concerningly, the use of plastic is showing no signs of slowing. Plastic use is poised to double globally by 2040*, in a sector valued at three times Australia’s GDP.

Plastic figures paint worrying picture on land and at sea
Plastics are tipped to outnumber fish in the ocean in just over a quarter of a century. Here in Australia we’re consuming plastic in huge quantities — including 70 billion pieces of ‘soft’ plastic such as shopping bags, trays and punnets. Of the 84% of used plastic we send to landfill, we’re only recycling – wait for it – less than 13% (which is predominantly PET and HDPE**).

Australia, we have a soft plastics problem
And the scale of the problem couldn’t be bigger in the area of soft plastics – – plastics known as Polyethylene and Polypropylene.

Soft plastics recycling is often in the too-difficult to-process basket,” says Dr Vipul Agarwal, UNSW Senior Lecturer – Cluster for Advanced Macromolecular Design (CAMD), School of Chemical Engineering.

The challenge of waste plastics recycling and the road ahead
“The recycling of soft plastics have traditionally been challenging for several reasons. Products made from soft plastics are often made from multiple layers of different polymers, which are combined together to deliver specific properties such as flexibility, strength, and moisture protection, for example.”

“Among the main issues with most widely used plastics recycling methods is that the process typically requires very high temperatures and therefore high energy use, and release greenhouse and toxic gases. Additives and dyes cannot be removed from plastics – such as those added for different applications.”

“Also, repeated heating leads to the breakdown of individual polymer chains in the plastic — which is one of the reasons why same waste cannot be recycled an infinite number of times, because each time the process is conducted, the polymer degrades resulting in loss of intrinsic properties making them unusable for value added product manufacturing.”

Contamination is another issue where the existing recycling methods predominantly rely on clean waste sources. The contamination could be the combination of mixed polymers, additives, dyes and residual material and dirt.

Not all doom, or gloom in the world of waste plastics recycling

Researchers from the University of NSW, Sydney (UNSW) have devised a novel, low-energy method for recycling plastic — an approach that has the potential to retain most of the intrinsic properties of the polymer by significantly reducing the degradation of the plastic (polymers) during recycling.

The new technology has been successfully translated to pilot scale using industrial scale processing.

The recycled soft plastics from this new technology can be used to manufacture virtually all kinds of value-added products including packaging materials, toys and automobile parts.

“Our method has the potential of causing no mechanical or chemical degradation of the polymer, so we believe it may be possible to recycle the plastic a higher number of times than using existing recycling processes,” says Dr Agarwal.

“In addition, there is no need for extensive cleaning of the waste plastic before it is recycled. This process also has the potential to separate the polymer from various additives such as dyes, eliminating one of the stages currently required in current recycling processes,” explains co-inventor Prof. Per Zetterlund (UNSW).

“The other advantages of this new technology are tolerance to mixed plastic waste allowing segregation of different waste plastics during the recycling process such as LDPE from HDPE and PP, and recycling of chemicals used in the process,” said Dr Agarwal.

“This is a completely new approach — any kind of waste plastic is processed polymer to polymer to resemble an ‘almond milk’ substance that can be processed and made into pellet-like materials that can be used to produce rolls — used to manufacture value added products.”

Australia: an untapped global recycling hub?

It has been estimated $419 million per year could be returned in economic value to Australia if it recovered all PET and HDPE, figures from the CSIRO indicate. This estimated figure does not include other soft plastics, LDPE and PP.

“By recovering and recycling all soft plastic waste, Australia has the potential to become a global recycling hub adding significant economic value both as a consumer of global waste and producer of recycled clean plastics,” says Dr Agarwal.

“We’re not just sitting on a pile of rubbish — we’re sitting on untapped potential.”

Watch a video about this innovative low-energy method to recycling plastic at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa3NGp-U_Ic

*Sources: Advanced recycling technologies to address Australia’s plastic waste; CSIRO 2021

**PET = polyethylene terephthalate

HDPE = high-density polyethylene

LDPE = low-density polyethylene

PP = polypropylene

Dr Vipul Agarwal is a Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). He joined UNSW in 2018 on a prestigious Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Research Fellowship in the School of Chemical Engineering. Prior to this, he was awarded a SERB-DST National Postdoctoral Fellowship to undertake postdoctoral training at the Indian Institute of Science, India. Dr Agarwal graduated with a PhD in Chemistry from The University of Western Australia in 2015.

Dr Agarwal’s current research interest is in materials chemistry focusing on development of synthetic and fabrication strategies towards two- and three-dimensional polymer nanocomposites for a range of applications including neural tissue engineering. He has received a range of awards including a 2024 NSW Young Tall Poppy Award.

Picture courtesy Minna Sophia Manu

Many of us talk to ourselves in our minds–rehearsing conversations, reflecting on our day, or even just narrating life as it unfolds. This internal monologue is known as inner speech, and it’s a normal part of human thought. But in schizophrenia, something is different. For some people, this internal monologue can take on a life of its own – experienced not as self-generated, but as intrusive voices coming from outside. These are called auditory-verbal hallucinations.

A time to reflect

On World Schizophrenia Day, it’s important to reflect not just on the challenges of living with schizophrenia, but also on the growing science helping us understand it. One leading theory suggests that hallucinated voices may actually be a form of misattributed inner speech – internal thoughts that the brain fails to recognise as self-generated.

Understanding brain activity

Research using brain imaging and EEG shows that when people experience auditory-verbal hallucinations, similar brain areas activate as when they hear real voices. But unlike typical inner speech, these experiences often carry a sense of agency – as if someone else is doing the talking.

Why does this happen? Some researchers believe it’s a breakdown in the brain’s ability to predict and monitor its own actions–a kind of self-monitoring error where the brain loses track of its own inner voice. When these systems fail, the brain might not recognise that a thought came from itself, leading to the distressing experience of a foreign voice inside the mind.

Could the past speak or voice trauma

Many people with schizophrenia report that these voices are critical, hostile, or commanding, and frequently commenting on the person’s actions, appearance, or worth in a negative way. There’s also growing evidence that these voices echo phrases or tones reminiscent of past abuse or neglect. In this sense, auditory-verbal hallucinations might not just be a perceptual glitch, but a deeply emotional, memory-linked phenomenon, where the past quite literally speaks.

Distinguishing between self-generated and hallucinated thought

Emerging therapies are exploring whether people can learn to better distinguish self-generated thoughts from hallucinated ones. Techniques like real-time neurofeedback or cognitive training are being tested to improve source monitoring – the brain’s ability to tell who ‘said’ what. Early findings are promising, suggesting that the brain-based interventions may one day complement traditional treatments like medication and psychotherapy.

Understanding the link between inner speech and auditory-verbal hallucinations not only advances our understanding of schizophrenia’s biological underpinnings. It may also provide a potential window into the neural mechanisms behind the condition, and a possible biomarker to guide future treatment. Just as importantly, it can also reduce stigma. People who hear voices aren’t “making it up” or “losing touch with reality” in the way popular culture sometimes suggests. Instead, their experiences reflect complex changes in how the brain processes and attributes thoughts.

For people who hear voices, one of the hardest parts can be explaining the experience to others. The voices may sound as real as someone speaking next to them, or they might be quieter and more ambiguous. They might be continuous, intermittent, or triggered by certain situations. This variability can make it hard for friends, family, and clinicians to fully grasp what the person is going through – and underscores the need for empathy and open-ended listening.

This World Schizophrenia Day, let’s listen with empathy, promote understanding, challenge stigma, and support the science that helps us understand – and honour – the inner lives of those living with schizophrenia.

https://www.healthline.com/health/schizophrenia/schizophrenia-awareness_

Almost half of Australia’s freshwater turtles are now listed as vulnerable, or worse. But in south-east Queensland’s Mary River, the endangered Mary River turtle is being given a fighting chance — thanks to an extraordinary 22-year collaboration between the local community (landholders, Landcare, volunteers) and researchers.

Sixteen years ago, the then-PhD student Mariana Campbell (and today Young Tall Poppy recipient) received a scholarship from the Tiaro & District Landcare Group (TDLG) to investigate the species’ ecology along the lower river catchment. Mariana’s close collaboration with Tiaro & District Landcare Group (TDLG) on the Mary River turtle Conservation Program has continued ever since.

Valuable knowledge improves management

The scientific knowledge on the Mary River turtle’s biology may have largely remained a mystery had it not been for this long-standing partnership. Together, members of the Tiaro community, TDLG, Mariana and several other researchers have built an extensive body of knowledge that spans 17 peer-reviewed papers and six higher degree research theses. Vital insights about the turtle’s ecology, critical habitats, threats, and population now inform environmental planning and water management in the region.

A passion for collaboration that runs deep

This deep collaboration has seen local group members and volunteers monitoring nests, river changes, collecting data, undertaking fieldwork, co-authoring manuscripts, and even obtaining extra funds to support the research.

This project illustrates how science stems far beyond the lab and into rivers, on riverbanks, and in communities that care deeply and take action.

Read Mariana Campbell’s work on the Mary River turtle, conducted in partnership with TDLG:

https://researchers.cdu.edu.au/en/persons/mariana-campbell

Learn more about the critically endangered Mary River turtle and the Tiaro & District Landcare Group:

https://www.tiarolandcare.org.au/maryriverturtle/

https://www.facebook.com/MaryRiverTurtleProjectTiaroLandcare/

Picture courtesy Joel Howland

Fewer killer T cells, which are also less efficient and weaker reinforcements: 

During World Immunisation Week, we look at revelations about how the body responds to influenza over time – and new research reveals why older people are at higher risk of severe influenza infection.

KEY FINDINGS:
> Older people are at higher risk of severe influenza infections because their killer T cells that normally play an important role in stopping the infection are now in lower numbers and less efficient. We gradually lose our most optimal killer T cells, and their backup cells are also of reduced quality, new research has revealed. 

Protecting us from severe disease caused by viruses such as influenza is the busy work of killer T cells, part of our immune system. These cells can remember viruses they have eliminated, which allows them to respond faster – and more strongly – when reinfected with the same virus.

In older people, killer T cells targeting the influenza virus are less effective versus those in younger people. There is a growing body of evidence to explain why this difference occurs.

Researchers observed how the killer T cell populations of a group of adults and older people changed over time (7-12 years). In particular they wanted to find out if they could detect the same Killer T cells across multiple time points.

Commenting on the findings was the University of Melbourne’s Dr Carolien van de Sandt, senior research fellow in the Kedzierska Laboratory:

“The highly functional killer T cells in adults are long lived; we were able to detect the same cell at multiple time points in the same donor. This is good news as it means our body has good defences against influenza for at least 10 years in our adult years.”  

“However the highly functional killer T cells in adults gradually declined over time. We discovered that adults have a high functioning killer T cells ‘in reserve’ which can take over once the initial highly functional cell populations decrease.”

In older people, it was a different picture.

“Once the highly functional populations start to decrease they eventually disappear, the void is filled by less functional killer T cells. As these less functional cells diminish, similarly low-functioning cells replace them, leading to a progressive decline in immune effectiveness.

“We now have a better understanding of why older people are at higher risk of severe influenza infections. Their killer T cells that normally play an important role in stopping infection are now in lower numbers and less efficient. Our most recent study shows their backup cells are also of reduced quality.”

Dr van de Sandt says in light of these findings, it is especially important for older people to get vaccinated at the start of the flu season, to boost other parts of their immune system, helping to protect them against circulating flu viruses. 

Read more of Dr van de Sandt’s work here: 

https://www.doherty.edu.au/news-events/news/t-times-up-when-the-immune-system-is-getting-older-it-gradually-loses-its-top-team-players 

University of Melbourne Dr Carolien van de Sandt, a Senior Research Fellow and early-career researcher at the Doherty Institute, is a 2023 Victorian Young Tall Poppy Award recipient. Dr van de Sandt was recognised for her work in virology and immunity. 

New approaches to induce protective immunity needed?

Current influenza vaccines are designed to generate antibody responses which bind to the outside of the virus and form a shield to prevent the virus from infecting your cells. However, these antibodies are directed against parts of the virus that can change from year to year. Leading to an almost annual update of the vaccine, to make sure it still matches with viruses circulating in the upcoming influenza season.   

Although current influenza vaccines are immensely important in preventing severe disease, particularly in high-risk populations including older people, the vaccine gives the best protection if the vaccine components are well matched with the circulating influenza viruses.  

Dr van de Sandt believes that further improvements to the vaccine can be made. New approaches, for example the mRNA vaccines used during the COVID-19 pandemic, can also boost the bodies killer T cells. Killer T cells recognise parts of the influenza virus that are less likely to change, which means that they can provide a second layer of protection against severe disease.   

“If vaccines that boost the killer T cells become available, our research indicates that they probably work best earlier in life, when we still have these highly functional killer T cells.”

“However, it will be important to investigate whether these novel vaccines will also induce highly functional killer T cells that can be maintained into old age.”

Dr van de Sandt considers the possibility that just boosting these cells will not be sufficient.

“We may need an additional vaccine component to specifically boost their longevity.” 

Dr van der Sandt is available to present on these topics: 

• Influenza 

• Ageing immunity 

• Pandemic risk/preparedness 

• Vaccination

Follow Dr van de Sandt on Twitter: @CvandeSandt, BlueSky: @cvandesandt.bsky.social and LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/carolienvandesandt 

Exposure to workplace aggression and violence (WAV) in healthcare settings is stressful for staff, and a big burden on budgets. A virtual reality (VR) enhanced training tool pioneered by researchers at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia could soon be set to change things.

The Simulation & Immersive Digital Technology Group (SIDTG) operating out of Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, together with the Department of Health WA, have created a I-VADE, a novel immersive virtual experience allowing both novice and experienced clinicians the opportunity to practice core de-escalation skills in a realistic, safe setting at a time that suits them.

Dr Brennen Mills, who leads the SIDTG, sees real potential given the scalable nature of the immersive VR training to impact workplace aggression and violence training, with traditional training options struggling to find priority in a busy healthcare landscape where finding isolated time for training can be a challenge. “I-VADE allows flexible training to be conducted at times that suit individuals and teams, minus the time drain commonly associated with co-ordinating staffing and resources,” says Dr Mills.

“For frontline healthcare workers, exposure to aggression and violence is an unfortunate reality. These incidents have long-lasting impacts that compromise the ability of the healthcare sector to retain experienced staff.”

Complex scenarios tackled in virtual settings

“Technologies like VR and AR give us a real opportunity to produce complex scenarios in virtual settings, to help mitigate risk. Situations and settings that are difficult to replicate or train for — because of the need for lots of resources — or because they are dangerous can be reproduced to provide training opportunities virtually.”

I-VADE is just one example of projects underway at the SIDTG to create high fidelity, human focused virtual simulations.

“We are also experimenting with AI-driven virtual avatars that would allow novel conversations to take place between users and the AI. This could be particularly meaningful for WAV de-escalation training where situations are often highly volatile,” Dr Mills adds.

De-escalating violence with I-VADE conversational AI

“Clinicians talk out loud to the virtual avatar ‘patient’ (named ‘Barry’) who is extremely frustrated and abusive — and he responds in near real-time.

His response to each verbal interaction is unique, even if users provide the same wording repeatedly. The training simulation incorporates emotive facial animations that align with real-time verbal responses, and Barry’s anger levels either escalate or de-escalate based on the empathy shown by the VR user.

The I-VADE VR program has been supported by the Department of Health WA, after identifying and acknowledging the growing problem of WAV exposure for healthcare workers and patients.

AI and LLMs helping to humanise Barry

The I-VADE – conversational AI project recently received a major upgrade, thanks to a $500,000 innovation grant from the Department of Health WA. The incorporation of AI and large language models (LLMs) have given Barry human-like gestures and mouth movements.

“These upgrades are bringing a new level of authenticity to Barry. He’s a much more sophisticated conversationalist.”

“Dialogue between the person interacting with Barry, and Barry himself feels far more realistic and natural. Powered by AI, he can vary his tone and expression and adapt his responses to the trainee.”

From single scenario prototype to near real-time conversation

After years of co-design and end-user evaluation, The I-VADE program has come a long way since starting life as a single scenario prototype in 2020.

“An enormous amount of forethought and effort went into our prototype scenario, ‘Derek’. We were able to use learnings from Derek to generate a great deal of support from our partners, which led to further investment. We are now well placed to attack this problem on numerous fronts, expanding our original prototype, as well as exploring additional novel AI integrations.”

And what lies ahead? SIDTG is working with the Department of Health WA and other health service providers to implement and rollout I-VADE at scale.

“We can really see this technology make a meaningful difference in the lives of healthcare workforce, empowering them to be safer at work.”

“We can’t wait to see where Barry’s evolution takes us. He is becoming more authentic by the day. Barry has immense potential to improve education and training across many sectors.”

Read more about Dr Brennen Mills’ work with the SITDG here.

Dr Brennen is Senior Lecturer, School of Medical & Health Sciences and Lead, Simulation & Immersive Digital Technology Group at Edith Cowan University.

Dr Brennen Mills is available to speak to schools about:

· How AI will influence virtual reality and gaming in the future

· Virtual reality and gaming for education

· How digital technology can be used to improve training and practice for healthcare and other professionals

Fresh water quenches our thirst, is used to grow our food, and sustains our rivers, springs, and wetlands, as well as the ecosystems they support. You may not think about it, but most of the world’s fresh water, 98% in fact, is stored out of sight, and out of mind. That is, most of the world’s fresh water is stored underground. Groundwater plays many important roles.

While future rainfall is notoriously difficult to project, most models suggest more extreme weather events, shifting temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, which all affect the availability of surface water resources, and increasing reliance on groundwater resources.

Increased groundwater extraction – at what cost?

Increased groundwater extraction can lead to declining water tables, damage to groundwater dependent vegetation and land subsidence which can lead to irreversible reduction in the volumes of water that can be stored underground. As parts of the world get hotter and drier, and with pressures to increase agricultural outputs, the demands placed upon groundwater are expected to increase.

A deeper look at recharge rates

Understanding groundwater recharge, the rain that replenishes underground water systems, is vital for the management of both surface water and groundwater resources. Despite its importance, quantifying recharge rates is surprisingly difficult. Methods to estimate recharge are typically based on measurements of changes in water levels or based on water chemistry.

Recent research led by Charles Darwin University, produced an AI-based recharge model for the entire Australian continent. Their work used almost 200,000 measurements of groundwater chloride, collated from measurements collected by hundreds of scientists, over a 60-year timeframe.

Their resulting recharge dataset, by far the largest ever produced anywhere in the world, produces a detailed assessment about the variability in recharge rates across Australia. From less than 1 mm/y, to over 1 m/y, their estimates show the huge variability in groundwater recharge rates across Australia. The resulting model produced across the entire continent produces baseline recharge estimates, even in regions without other field-based estimates of recharge, providing much needed information to inform water resources management.

Dylan Irvine explains: “Previous large-scale collations of recharge estimates have used results obtained from many different methods. Each method has vastly different assumptions and can produce widely varying estimates.

“The application of a single technique, the most widely used technique in Australia – on a massive dataset – are the strength of this work.”

“This paper is our best efforts to utilise datasets collected over many decades, often from before any of the paper’s authors were even born.”

“Effective water resource management ensures flowing rivers, healthy vegetation, and access to water for irrigation. Any information that can assist effective water resources management is thus vital.”

Outputs from the model and the method used to estimate recharge are available at the following link:

https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/28/1771/2024/https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/5e7b8bfcc1514680902f8ff43cc254b8/