The World's Rice Originated in Australia

Rice came from Asia, more specifically China, right? You would be wrong. Genetic tests on rice grown today show it come from northern Australia. It was clean, uncontaminated and has been pinned down to Cape York in Queensland.
Australian wild rice in cape york northern queensland
Originally, it was growing wild in the tropics, an unusal place for rice as we associate it with wet conditions all year round. The real question is how did it get to Asia? Obviously, people from Asia came to Australia and took it home.

The Middle East is the cradle of Mankind. For rice it is Australia. Wild rice growing there today is more genetically diverse than anywhere else in the world. Asian domestic and wild rice is inbred. Australian rice is wild. It grows there today unchanged by human intervention. This took place 7,000 years ago.

Australian rice will be the basis of research to improve world food production. It holds the genetic keys to open the door very wide indeed. Modern rice varieties are just little sparks from the fire of the Australian native gene pool. The introduction of genes from Australia is vital to feed the growing world population.
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Gasp Dog

"Oh my God!"
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GOOFY DOG
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Our Genes Hold the Key to History

History is based on artifacts with huge gaps in the timeline. Academics fill in the spaces and tell us that this is absolute truth. Of course, we are not stupid: we know that much of what happened in the past will never be found. However, real history is in our genes. The "modern" world has only been here for a couple of centuries. we have not changed much from our ancestors when they came out of Africa perhaps 90,000 years ago.
Mongolians invaded europe
Sure, many of us have become paler than those who remained in Africa. Some genes coincidentally related to this have become more prominent in Europeans and Asians. The ability to more easily digest dairy products in an example of related genes. By tracing these genes the human mixing process has become clearer.

Times of conflict increase the mixing process. Tough times in medieval Europe and the Crusades in north Africa were such eras. A reverse mix occurred when north Africans moved into Spain. It has come to light that immigration took place from Mongolia into Europe before Genghis Khan. Nothing is recorded in the history record about this. History is surely the life of conquerors. waves of human movements are not there. Genes hang around in our bodies. Many come along for the ride, just waiting for an opportunity to "activate".
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THE HUMAN MIX
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Meditating Pussy

meditating cat
"TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION to all you uneducated out there!"
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CAT MEDITATING
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New Carbon Dioxide to Monoxide Process to Reduce Pollution

Turning carbon dioxide in carbon monoxide may seem like a silly thing to do, considering carbon monoxide is a deadly poison. However, if this can be done easily and cheaply it could reduce pollution: it is used to produce fuels and plastics.
Carbon capture at coal power plant at Boundary Dam in Canada
A catalyst has been made that does the conversion into carbon dioxide. It does the task rapidly. Last year the world's first commercial capture process at a coal power plant began operating. Waste gases were bubbled up through vats of amine solution. This is very expensive though.

The new process became possible when it was made to work in water. Electrocalysts have been used for two decades to take an oxygen molecule from a CO2 atom. As it now safely functions in water a whole new horizon opens up to clean up the environment.

conversion occurs at a rate of 290,000 atoms a second, an improvement of 26 times the pre-water process. Little maintenance of the system is needed. It has only been done in the lab so far. Plans are afoot to try it out at a coal power plant.
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CATALYST CONVERTS CO2 TO CO
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Pup Dog Collar

"Can I wear this when I grow up?"
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PUP WEARS BIG COLLAR
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Man Lived Alongside Giant Lizards

Humans lived alongside giant lizards. Some would say we still do. Doesn't the Komodo dragon still exist in Indonesia? Australian Aboriginals did have to fear an attack by giant killer lizards. A fossil has been found in north Queensland near Rockhampton.
Human hunting a giant Megalania monitor Megalania prisca Komoda lizard
Scientists are sure that giant lizards existed on this continent. The fossil is only about one-centimeter square. Radiocarbon dating shows the animal is 50,000 years old.  Giant lizards were thought to go back to 80,000 years.

Debate continues whether the lizard is a Komodo or a giant Megalania monitor, Megalania prisca. This is not that important. It does show that Man coexisted with a very large dangerous reptile. It would have made life difficult during the day for ancient humans. Dragons cannot run as fast but they do a good job of ambush, pouncing on unsuspecting prey.
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GIANT KILLER LIZARD LIVED WITH HUMANS
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Frog Leaf Umbrella

"Will it ever stop raining?"
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South Australian Legislation to Allow Driverless Cars on Australian Road is Illegal

South Australia is going to test driverless cars for use on roads in that state. This is premature. We have the hacking problems of "normal" vehicles to deal with, let along allowing potentially dangerous ones loose in Australia. There is also the important question of who is responsible if there is a collision involving a driverless car.
Driverless car vehicle odd shaped
This is way too soon. The South Australian experiment will be the first in the southern hemisphere. Legislation is to be passed in state parliament on Thursday. It will allow testing on road with cars being driven by people. It is obvious that if there is an accident the insurance company of a normal vehicle will not pay out. It is common knowledge that insurance companies keep taking annual premiums when they know a legal problem exists which takes liability away from them - note the payouts refused in recent floods.

Wanting to be the first state to adopt new technology is stupid when such cars will be driving illegally with no insurance. If they can be used even in tests, everyone should be able to drive with no insurance.

There will be a High Court challenge to laws exempting testers from having to abide by design rules and the insurance obligations. Some road specifications are federal laws that states do not have jurisdiction to override.
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No Selfie Cat

"Aaaaaah!  He's going to take a selfie."
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Parsitic Wasps Transfer DNA to Lepidoptera Caterpillars

Wasps enslave caterpillars. It could be seen as a genetics accident, though it appears to be a conscious decision by Someone out there. The wasps could not survive without caterpillars. If caterpillars all died out so would wasps.
predator wasps laying eggs in lepidoptera caterpillar
Parsitic wasps lay their eggs in all types of lepidoptera caterpillars. Both insects are so close in evolutionary terms that some wasp genes are actually in caterpillars. The reason for this is that 300 million years ago there was a common ancestor of Hymenopter, the insect order to which wasps belong, and Lepidoptera caterpillars.

When eggs are laid inside the caterpillars, a large bracovirus is injected which supresses the immune response of Lipidoptera, so grubs are not killed off. They hatch and eat caterpillars alive! Sometimes caterpillars survive and develop into buterflies and moths with bracovirus DNA because it was picked up from wasps before injection into caterpillars.
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The Kimberley Throws Out Another New Species

Acanthophis cryptoamudros kimberley death adder
You would think that all the snakes in Australia are known.  However a new species has been found.  It is a death adder in the Acanthopis family.  Official named Acanthophis cryptoamudros the Kimberley death adder is two thirds of a meter long.  Like many snakes its head is diamond shaped.

Adders hide and blend in with the underbrush then ambush prey.  Four legged reptiles and small mammals are the main food.  Oddly, the new adder does not look like other adders.  It is similar to snakes of other species.

Australia has been a happy hunting ground for scientists recently.  Many new animals have been identified.  The search goes on in this sparsely populated region of the dry continent.    New species include: shark, dolphin, antechinus, seadragon, lizard, fish and spider, ,     A new water flower has also been discovered.
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THE KIMBERLEY IS THE CENTER OF DISCOVERY FOR NEW SPECIES
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Fox Night Out

"I enjoyed the night out.  How about you?"
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FOXES NIGHT ON THE TILES DRINKING
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New Finding for Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever

Catching dengue fever is a constant fear in Australia. Like malaria it is spread by mosquitoes. Its full name Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever. You can become very sick indeed if you develop the hemorrhagic form, though it seldom causes death.
A patient with Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever showing red spots of hemorrhage
Drugs made for sepsis infection are being used to treat dengue in mice. They has yet to be used on humans. Hopefully new methods for early detection and treatment with drugs will stop progression to the severe dengue.

A new finding could move treatment along a bit. The dengue virus NS1 protein causes immune cells to "leak" blood vessels. TLR4 is the pathway that triggers the response. Some existing drugs do block this pathway. Ironically, many of them did not stop sepsis. They were failures!

Other diseases also use the NS1 method of infection. Work has to be done to explore the battery of drugs already available to hopefully find successful treatments for these related illnesses.
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SIGNIFICANT FINDING ABOUT DENGUE FEVER
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Tickle Tortoise

Stop tortoise being tickled by a toothbrush
"Stop!  Stop!  It tickles."
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TICKLING A TORTOISE
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