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NEWS
Lights, tinsel, hairspray
In a study of how to keep Christmas trees green longer, treatments designed for the’ do and scalp turned out to be surprise gifts.
CrocBITE’ s bigger chomp
Database of crocodile attacks receives additional funding from UK.
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UNSW ecologist and a group of Sydney schoolgirls have identified a novel approach to preventing the nation’ s Christmas trees from browning off this year: hairspray.
The project, undertaken by Year 7 students at Kambala and overseen by UNSW staff, analysed the reaction of cut Monterey pines – the most common species of tree used as the centrepiece of Christmas decorations in Australia – to a range of substances over a month.
Students trialled placing the trees in beer, energy drink or hot water, and also placed one subject group in water whilst spraying the needles and branches with hairspray. Each test subject’ s rate of deterioration was then compared with a control group placed in water and researchers used a light-emitting instrument to test the health of branches.
UNSW explained that the instrument worked by applying a pulse of light to measure how efficiently the pine needles convert light energy into chemical energy.
“ The beer and energy drinks turned out really badly," UNSW professor Angela Moles said. " The plants went brown quickly and were not very festive at all. But the hairspray group were healthier than the control plants that were just kept in water. They even started sprouting fresh green needles.”
Moles, who worked with the students as part of the Scientists in Schools Program run by CSIRO, said the hairspray might slow the process of deterioration by blocking the pine needles’ ability to sense chemicals indicating that the branches were in decay. These chemicals, she speculated, would otherwise usually trigger a loss of colour – or browning – in the needles.
“ Or it may be that the hairspray simply blocks the pores in the leaves, keeping the moisture in,” she says. Kambala student Isabella Spagnardi said the result surprised her.“ It was a really interesting experiment because we could all have a go and try lots of different treatments,” she said.“ But I could never have pictured that hairspray would be good for keeping a Christmas tree alive.” ■
An Australian-led international project that compiles data from crocodile attacks on humans is set to expand, thanks to a much-needed funding boost.
The Worldwide Crocodilian Attack Database, dubbed CrocBITE by co-creator and Charles Darwin University researcher Dr Adam Britton, was developed and launched in 2013 in collaboration with California-based student Brandon Sideleau.
Wildlife managers and researchers now update the openaccess database as a means of understanding more about the animals in order to protect both crocodiles and their would-be human victims.
“ When it launched, there were around 1800 incidents registered on the database,” Britton said.“ One year later, we have around 2700 incidents recorded, including new attacks but also additional historical records for various countries. It is one of the largest databases on human-animal conflict available free of charge to anyone.”
The project is now to receive more than $ 30,000 in additional funding through the UK’ s Economic and Social Research Council in collaboration with Imperial College London( ICL).
Britton, who is now also working with ICL’ s Dr Simon Pooley, said he hoped the financial boost would enable the delivery of greater educational content whilst improving the analysis and presentation tools used to interpret the information.
“ This funding will allow us to expand upon its usefulness and create interactive online tools that anyone can use to interpret the data, opening the door to simple discoveries being made by scientists and non-scientists alike that are relevant to their area,” he said.“ The goal of the project will be to better engage the public, local authorities, health workers and conservation managers to both contribute data and explore ways in which its lessons can be applied to saving lives.”
Britton said by delivering such lessons to a wide audience, particularly in rural areas where the risk of crocodile attack is highest, awareness and mitigation of incidents could be improved. ■
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