In most situations and places, toilets and defecation are taboo topics for discussion. They are at the bottom of the list of topics for dinner table conversations. Yet 2.4 billion…
A solution for the ailing Great Barrier Reef
Our team from Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute has identified thousands of hectares of rapidly eroding gullies in the rivers that feed fine sediment into the waters of the ailing…
Securing Australia’s food & water systems
Understanding and addressing environmental and social risks Australians share a deep relationship with our land and water, one that includes Indigenous connections to country, cultural associations that derive from a history…
Whale of a lab
How does Antarctica, the coldest driest and most remote continent on earth come to be polluted industrial chemicals and pesticides likes DDT, PCBs or dioxins, some of which were already…
Viruses don’t deserve their bad rap: they’re the unsung heroes you never see
The word “virus” strikes terror into the hearts of most people. It conjures up images of influenza, HIV, Yellow Fever, or Ebola. Of course we worry about these viruses—they bring…
Watch out, Australia: a red-hot summer means blue-green algae
As the Bureau of Meteorology has already warned us, Australia is in for a hot, dry summer as the current El Niño takes hold. Those conditions are ideal for blue-green…
Whale Watch – or not: Helping industry adapt to a changing climate
Whale watching is a major global tourism industry with an annual revenue of over two billion (US dollars) and more than 13 000 employees. Furthermore, it is estimated that close…
Turning salt water into energy
Can the saline water from the desalination process be used to generate power? According to new research harnessing the energy created from salinity gradients — for example, when freshwater meets…
Shark culls could affect climate change
If you knew that there was zero percent chance of being eaten by a shark, would you swim more often? Rhetorical questions aside, the fear of being eaten has a…
Testing the reef against climate change
Coralline algae (pink & lavender colour in the image above) are red calcifying algae found worldwide from the poles to the tropics, from high light environments such as the intertidal…