Editorial – Australian Science

CROSCI Statement

Josip — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 06:06:53 +0000

It is with much regret that Australian Science and its sponsors have decided to withdraw their support of European science organisation, CROSCI. The educational website based in Croatia has revealed many fascinating studies and pieces of research with the aim of advancing science and inspiring the next generation seeking careers in academia.

We wish CROSCI, its contributors and followers all the best and hope to read about many more exciting scientific discoveries in the future.

Cite this article:
Ivanovic J (2014-12-11 06:06:53). CROSCI Statement. Australian Science. Retrieved: Apr 28, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/editorial-2/crosci-statement/

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The Best of Australian Science: November 2014

Milica Djekic — Fri, 28 Nov 2014 00:15:16 +0000

It’s the end of November, 2014 and it is our time to summarise our contribution for this month.

Please enjoy our this month’s selection.

A Cyber Disaster Somehow Occurred… What to Do the Next? by Milica Djekic

A modern business environment is frequently connected with many risks and uncertainties. The fact is the majority of modern businesses rely on IT infrastructure, but is a cyber threat the only thing that concerns us? Certainly, it’s not. There are a lot of different risks such as natural disasters, fires, threats to physical security and so on they can affect a business continuity and people’s safety.

Life – Evolved by Lia Paola Zambetti

What is a life form? Most of us, if asked, will think of an animal or a human being-in other words, a multicellular organism. However, life itself evolved in cells, single cells of various types that existed and propagated independently. What are, then, the factors that led cells to collaborate together and give rise to complex organisms? Collaboration is possible only if there are no cheaters -cells that exploit the collaboration of others- and cheaters always arise. How is possible, then, for a multicellular organism to develop? Do the cheaters need to be eliminated –an evolutionary impossibility- for complex organisms to occur?

Worldwide action needed to address hidden crisis of violence against women and girls

Yet, despite increased global attention to violence perpetrated against women and girls, and recent advances in knowledge about how to tackle these abuses, levels of violence against women – including intimate partner violence, rape, female genital mutilation, trafficking, and forced marriages – remain unacceptably high, with serious consequences for victims’ physical and mental health. Conflict and other humanitarian crises may exacerbate ongoing violence.

How to Get Skills in Cyber Security? by Milica Djekic

It is also well-known that people are not born with such a skill; they need to master their fields of interest through their lives. That’s exactly the case with cyber! Requirements are high, every single day something new appears and what you need to have for such a career is an excellent learning curve which will allow you to cope with the change and successfully adopt and apply new things.

Well, that would be all for this monthly review. New stories are coming soon!

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The Best of Australian Science: October 2014

Milica Djekic — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 00:15:15 +0000

It’s the end of October, 2014 and it our time to review the top highlights for this month.

These would be our choice for the previous period.

Efficiency and Benefits of Massage Therapy by Maya Edberg

The advancements in medicine have provided numerous cures and treatments for diseases that were terminal just a hundred years ago. And while there is a pill that can solve many problems, there isn’t one that can give you what a simple old-fashioned massage can – a total relaxation. But, there is more to it.

Microbiota and us – we feed our bacteria even when we are sick! by Lia Zambetti

There are good bacteria and bad bacteria. For millennia, we humans never made a distinction: bacteria were associated with diseases and death, no exception. It was known that we are carrying along a large assortment of microbes in our gut, but this was considered to be an evolutionary accident or a coincidence rather than a lucky occurrence for us. Recently, in the last 10-15 years, the scientists’ view on the bacteria living in our gut has changed drastically. Now we know that they are good for us in ways that we are just beginning to understand. What is already clear is that, without the bugs in our gut, we would be way worse off than we are.

A Futuristic Review of Cyber Defence by Milica Djekic

Cyber age has begun in the previous century and includes everything related to the web, computers and mobile technologies. As cyberspace has been developing, some security concerns have appeared. The future of computing technologies is clear – we are going quantum. But, how would be the future of cyber defence? Let’s say, we will get all those ultra fast, quantum-based computers in the coming decades, but how would we make them be a secure place for us? There is a lot of theories, but we will present you only some of them. So, let’s start our overview.

Are synthetics overcoming the natural materials? by Maya Edberg

In 1935, Percy L. Julian (1899-1975) synthesized physostigmine, the compound that was only available in its natural source, the Calabar bean, now used in the treatment of glaucoma. This pioneering research opened a door to widespread usage of chemical materials; however, it also started a “synthetic versus natural

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The Best of Australian Science: September 2014

Milica Djekic — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 00:15:04 +0000

It’s the end of September, 2014 and it our time to review the top headlights for this month.

These would be our selection for the previous period.

A Brief Talk with Andrea Morello, a Leading Australian Quantum Physicist by Milica Djekic

Let us introduce you a leading Australian quantum physicist and probably one of the most promising scientists in the world. His name is Andrea Morello. He is an electrical engineer and a quantum physicist. At the moment he is Associate Professor in Quantum Nanosystems at University of NSW and a Program Manager in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology (CQC2T). His research is focused on building a quantum computer based on single spins in silicon. In addition to the research, Andrea is actively engaged in science outreach and education. So, let’s start with our talk.

Guide to the Most Important Green Building Certification Systems in the World by Dunya

Here in Australia, the GBCA are working towards a greener and more sustainable future. The past decade has seen tremendous growth within the building industry, as companies such as the GBCA and others have been working towards designing and creating a greater percentage of buildings that are certified as green and sustainable. When looking at how this has been accomplished, there are a plethora of green building certification systems throughout Australia and all over the world that have helped to create a new standard of quality within the industry. Here’s a brief look at what some of these systems are.

Fun Facts about Baking Soda and Its Uses by Josip

Sodium bicarbonate or sodium hydrogen carbonate, better known as baking soda is a chemical compound with the formula NaHCO3 . It is primarily used in cooking and baking as a leavening agent, and as a very effective cleaning agent.

How to protect your critical information? by Milica Djekic

A modern cyber security can be defined as a process of maintaining an acceptable level of cyber risk. So, security is about a risk management. It’s a never-ending process which requires you to invest new and new efforts in order to keep thing secure. Bad guys will always do bad things and good guys should find a way to respond to all of that. There are a lot of malicious persons in a cyber world – hackers, criminals, terrorist and security is the one which would be ahead of all in order to protect us from harm.

Kids love the volcano experiment by Josip

Experiments are great. What better way is there to spend time with your kids, have fun with them and teach them a thing or two about science? Even better when they’re messy and dramatic like the “volcano experiment

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The Best of Australian Science: August 2014

Milica Djekic — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 00:15:51 +0000

It’s the end of August, 2014 and it our time to review the top headlights for this month.

This would be our selection for the previous period.

From the caves to the classroom

From classrooms around the country, students will embark on a digital journey exploring the iconic Jenolan Caves, an important scientific environment full of learning opportunities. As they progress through quests, the students will explore the surrounding environment and complete inquiry based learning tasks that test their core science skills.

Genetic key to lupus shows potential of personalised medicine

Medical researchers at the Centre for Personalised Immunology, based at the John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR), sequenced the genes of a young girl who suffered a stroke when she was four as a result of her lupus.

A Good Defence is about Understanding Cyber Threats by Milica Djekic

In the era of the Internet and emerging technologies, we are supposed to deal with different sorts of cyber threats, risks and attacks. This modern time brought a lot of advantages to the Human Kind, but also some fast-spreading and increasing security issues. It seems we are connected with the risk more than ever before. Cyber environment may appear as so friendly and convenient, but for real it brings a lot of nightmares to its visitors. In this article, we discuss all the disadvantaging things you can face up in cyberspace and also suggest why cyber security and a good undersigning of the problem is so important for a good defence. So, let’s start.

Multi-Coloured Vision by Lizz Rice

Colour is our eye’s interpretation of light reflecting off objects. The different colours we see are different wavelengths of light. Colour-specific photoreceptors in the retina of our eyes, cones, translate the wavelengths into what we see as colour.

Interview: Simon Phipps, a computer scientist and open source advocate by Danica Radovanovic

One could call Simon Phipps a real eclectic geek, having in mind his background and activism globally: from campaigning for digital liberties, open data, open source software and political transparency, through his columns at InfoWorld to presidenting at the Open Source Initiative.

That’s basically our choice for August. Please stay tuned, new stories are coming soon.

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The Best of Australian Science: July 2014

Milica Djekic — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 00:15:45 +0000

Here we are at the end of one more exciting July and we would like to present you a brief review for this month. A lot of that have happened during the last 31 days and we would like to provide you with the top stories for the previous period.

Hope you will enjoy this journey. So, let’s start with our monthly review.

The Health of the Honey Bee by Lizz Rice

The delicate state of the European honeybee (Apismellifera) can be traced back to 2006, when the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) began wiping them out. Adult honey bees went missing from their hives, and no bodies were to be found. Since, apiaries have struggled – the US reports a yearly loss of about 30% – leaving the future of the honey bee in a precarious position.

Biological agent closing in on weedy rampant escapee

Sticky snakeroot, Mexican devil or Crofton weed – call it what you want – since the early 1900s this weed has been causing grief in Australia. But now the release of a new biological control agent brings some hope.

Australia’s ageing population poses budget risks

The report by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR), based at the Crawford School of Public Policy, provides the first National Transfer Accounts (NTA) measure for Australia, based on figures from 2009-10.

How Mature is Your Cyber Security Model? by Milica Djekic

In the previous articles, we’ve been discussing cyber security throughout different angles and perspectives, but we’ve never talked about its maturity model and how it’s important in the modern world. First of all, we should define what the term cyber security means. As it is known, security represents a process of maintaining an acceptable level of risk. So, does that mean that, by the same definition, cyber security is a process of maintaining an acceptable level of cyber risk? Basically, that’s exactly what it does. In this article, we will try to define a cyber security maturity model, explain approaches to cyber operations and introduce some maturity levels. Well, let’s start with our story.

That would be all for this monthly editor’s selection. Please stay thirsty and scientifically passionate. The new stories are coming soon.

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The Best of Australian Science: June 2014

Milica Djekic — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 00:15:47 +0000

It’s the end of June, 2014. It’s our time to summarise what we have done during this month. In fact, we are going to recount the best highlights for June.

Here are the most exciting and interesting articles of this month.

Interview: Henry Story, a Social Web architect and Polymath by Danica Radovanovic

Henry Story studied Analytic Philosophy at Kings College London, Computing at Imperial College, worked for AltaVista where he developed the BabelFish machine translation service, worked at Sun Microsystems on Blogging platforms and the development of the Social Web where he developed the decentralised identity and authentication protocol known as WebID, which is under standardisation at the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). He contributed to the Atom syndication format at the IETF (The Internet Engineering Task Force), to the Linked Data Protocol at the W3C, and is currently writing an Open Source platform for co-operating systems in Scala based on all those standards.

The Vaccination Debate: Answers to Common Questions about Vaccination Safety by Dunya

Vaccinations are not mandatory in Australia, yet it is relatively standard for most children to be vaccinated against diseases such as polio, hepatitis and meningitis. However, in recent years questions have been raised about whether the problems outweigh the advantages of vaccinations, sparking intense debate amongst parents, scientists and the general public.

A Brief Overview of Strategic Intelligence by Milica Djekic

We live in a world driven by hyper-competition where the supply of businesses exceeds the demand. In order for an organisation to survive in such an aggressively competitive environment, a better understanding of its competition and competitive forces that affect its success is required. Companies should know how to remain competitive and how to anticipate and react to changes inside and outside of their industries. In order to manage such an achievement firms should have a process in place for turning data into actionable intelligence, from which strategic and tactical decisions can derive.

New Advances in HIV Research by Dunya

Around the world, over 35 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, and over 2 million new cases are reported every year. All this for a disease that was only first discovered in 1981. (WHO, 2013) It’s clear that something needs to be done, and fortunately millions of dollars are being put into HIV research. The research being done can largely be broken up into three categories: prevention, treatment and cure.

A Dynamic Encryption – The Facts by Milica Djekic

As we live in a very dynamic and constantly changing world, where new information and ideas are appearing and disappearing at really fast pace, we should notice that data protection and critical information security play a crucial role in maintaining our everyday’s lives. For that reason, invoking the technique of dynamic encryption could be strategically important in this digital time. In this article we should attempt to provide the answers to the following questions. What is critical information? Are we going more intelligent? Why the concept of dynamic encryption matters? What could be the future of modern cyber security? Well, let’s begin.

Please stay curious and scientifically passionate! New stories are coming soon.

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The Best of Australian Science: May 2014

Milica Djekic — Sat, 31 May 2014 00:15:10 +0000

It’s the end of May, 2014. It’s our time to summarise what we have done during this month. In fact, we are going to recount the best highlights for May.

Here are the most exciting and interesting articles of this month.

Security Challenges in Cloud Computing by Milica Djekic

Cloud Computing is a jargon, in other words a new computing model, in which the public Internet is used to connect to provider’s hosted network, infrastructure, platform and/or applications to leverage reliable services. Cloud has left all other distributed computing structures/mechanisms far behind both in competition and in terms of popularity and success.

Internet Research: Skills Your Students Should Have

Internet research is the practice of using Internet information, especially free information on the World Wide Web, in research. Internet research has had a profound impact on the way ideas are formed and knowledge is created. Common applications of Internet research include personal research on a particular subject, students doing research for academic projects and papers, and journalists and other writers researching stories.

Artificial Gravity Swimming Pool by Michelle Lee

The idea of taking a space holiday, once the stuff of science fiction, is no longer a far flung fantasy. The major hurdle to a viable commercial space holiday venture has long been the provision of a reusable launch system. Until an orbital launch system similar to the reusability of aircraft is developed, we will remain earthbound. Efforts to overcome this barrier have been underway since an international conference on the subject in Bremmen, Germany in 1997. More recently, the Space X reusable launch system development program has progressed to the active test program stage.

Satellite Hacking: A Closer Look to the Sky by Milica Djekic

Satellites are vital to sustaining the current balance in the global economy, society, and advanced militaries. As such, states are increasingly recognizing satellites as critical infrastructure. They provide a significant role in climate and natural disaster monitoring, communication, early warning systems, global broadcasting, meteorology, navigation, precision strikes, reconnaissance, remote sensing, surveillance, and the advancement of science and understanding.

Please stay curious and scientifically passionate! New stories are coming soon.

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The Best of Australian Science: April 2014

Milica Djekic — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 00:15:08 +0000

It’s the end of April, 2014. It’s our time to summarise what we have done during this month. In fact, we are going to recount the best highlights for April.

Here are the most exciting and interesting articles of this month.

What is Big Data, and why it matters? by Danica Radovanovic

Big Data refers to technology (tools and processes) and large amounts of data that is difficult to store, manage, analyse, share, and visualise with the traditional database software tools. From the semantic perspective, big data isn’t new concept at all: every time we generate data, we also generate metadata, “data about data

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The Best of Australian Science: March 2014

Milica Djekic — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 00:15:29 +0000

It’s the end of March, 2014. It’s our time to summarise what we have done during this month. In fact, we are going to recount the best highlights for March.

Here are the most exciting and interesting articles of this month.

How to Remain Cyber Safe?

Over the decades security experts all around the world have been debating what sort of protection is the most suitable for a PC. So, what do you think you should do to keep your computer cyber safe?

Grand Engineering Challenge – Providing Energy from Fusion by Milica Djekic

Fusion is a process by which two light nuclei join together (fuse) to form a heavier nucleus, and in doing so release considerable energy. Achieving this requires high temperatures such as those that drive the fusion processes which power the sun and stars. The aim of fusion research and development is to create conditions on earth which are sufficient to generate many fusion reactions which may be harnessed to produce large amounts of thermal and/or electrical power.

10 Tips for Making Online Video a Joined-Up Experience

Today, video plays an ever-increasing role in education. However, there is a major difference between an ad hoc, disjointed approach to video and a joined-up approach that sees video embraced as an integral part of university life.

International Conference on Digital Discrimination and Social Networks Online by Danica Radovanovic

It was a wonderful opportunity and space for interaction, discussion, learning and exchange of ideas and experiences: for social workers, academics, researchers, educators, Internet experts, NGOs, activists, young people and anyone interested in the issues surrounding discrimination on the Internet, especially in regards to social networking sites.

Please stay curious and scientifically passionate! New stories are coming soon.

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