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Articles by Juice Box
Mining for operational excellence
The word ‘boomtown’ was practically invented for the mining industry, which has a history of gold rush euphoria followed by equally intense busts. The pattern has continued through the past decade, with mining companies buffeted by a global pandemic, trade tensions, and geopolitical conflicts (Exhibit 1). Very few of them have been able to capitalize on the peak periods to prepare for downturns.
Charging Businesses Look To Pick Up The Slack Left By JuiceBox/Enel X
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News! Earlier this month, Enel X Way abruptly closed its doors. Unlike, say, an automotive manufacturer, providers of EV charging don’t really have an obligation to continue customer support as part of any bankruptcy, but many non-manufacturers do at least arrange something basic when they go out of business. Enel X, sadly, ended up having to just dump its customers.
The Valley stewards' report
Date: Saturday 27 January 2024 Track: Good 4 Going Stick: 9.3; Shear 12.6, Penetrate 7.7; Moisture 25% Weather: Fine Rail: True entire circuit Stewards' Panel: Ray Livingstone (Chair), Corie Waller, Reece Wheeler, Rex Terp and Andrew Deakin Race Horse Rider Replaced By Reason 4 Toogoodfortoorak Beau Mertens Damian Lane Dual engagement Race 1 - LADBROKE IT! PLATE - 1500 metres: Acid Wash Raced wide in the early stages until striding forward to settle outside the leader near the 1100m.
The illusion of successful conservation – Environment News | Particle
The last remnant populations of – a critically endangered native mammal – remain in southwest Western Australia. There are other woylie populations across Australia. However, they’re all in conservation areas known as ‘havens’. What exactly is a woylie? | WWF Australia via YouTube Between 1999 and 2006, wild woylie populations decreased by around 90%. Researchers believe that this is due to the presence of introduced species such as feral cats and foxes, which prey on woylies.
How to build a five-star native bee sanctuary – Environment News | Particle
As bee populations decline worldwide, public interest in their conservation is increasing. But how much do we know about helping our local bees? Dr Kit Prendergast – also known as the Bee Babette – is a native bee ecologist who studied at Curtin University. She’s on a mission to find out what WA bees want and how we can give it to them. what’s the buzz? There are over 20,000 known bee species. The majority of research has focused on honey bees—specifically the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera.
Solving Darwin's 'abominable mystery' – Environment News | Particle
When flowering plants appeared in the fossil records, Charles Darwin called it an “abominable mystery”. The plant group’s rapid diversification during the mid-Cretaceous period had the evolutionary biologist stumped. Known as angiosperms, flowering plants now make up the majority of land vegetation on Earth. After millions of years of plants without blossoms, how did flowering and fruiting ones become dominant so quickly? A team of UWA scientists examined this puzzle during a recent study.
Is possum poo the key to beating Buruli ulcer? – Health News | Particle
a perfect storm? Humans pick up Buruli ulcer infections from the environment. Human-to-human transmissions are extremely rare. Animals like possums harbour the bacteria in their gut and pass it on to mosquitoes, which infect humans. Four elements enable human transmission. First, the introduction of the bacteria into the environment and wildlife reservoirs (like native possums) to house and grow the bacteria.
Unlocking the mystery of fairy circles – Environment News | Particle
Aboriginal knowledge unravels ‘one of nature’s greatest mysteries’ Fairy circles are round patches of bare earth surrounded by grass. They occur in the desert near Newman, Western Australia, and in Namibia. For decades, there has been global scientific debate about the cause of this peculiar phenomenon. In 2016, an international team of scientists concluded they were formed by plants competing for water and nutrients.
For peat's sake – Environment News | Particle
But recently, these ecosystems have come under threat. heating up Peatlands are generally too wet to burn, but warmer temperatures and drier summers are drying out the peat in some areas. And dry peat is very flammable. In the northern hemisphere, dried peat blocks have historically been burnt for fuel. The dense, carbon-rich peat burns hot for a long time. So when massive underground stores of peat ignite, it’s a serious problem.
Space makes astronauts blind, but we can see how – Tech News | Particle
“You then put a pressure sensor in the hole.” It’s as unpleasant as it sounds. But Danail and researchers at the Lions Eye Institute in WA have found an indirect way to measure brain fluid pressure by using imaging techniques for mapping space on the eye. The group designed a lab in a box that points a camera at the inside of the eye. By filming blood vessels, they can calculate the pressure acting on the eye. The camera uses light to monitor blood flow within the veins of the retina.
Particle 101: DNA – Health News | Particle
Complex thing with a complex name that makes complex life – simplified. Deoxyribonucleic acid (also known as DNA) contains, among other things, our genetics. Genes are small sequences within your DNA that make you you. They make a tree a tree, a giraffe a giraffe and a beetle a beetle. So DNA is like a recipe on how to make life. It has all the ingredients and tells your cells how to replicate, what to be and how to be it. But it is a little more complicated than just following a recipe.
Mental wellbeing inside an apartment – Health News | Particle
With the cost of living rapidly increasing and a nation-wide rental crisis, many Australians are being forced to only focus on the bare necessities of what constitutes a ‘home’ when trying to secure their next lease. For some, this means downsizing to an apartment. RMIT researcher Dr Sarah Foster is an expert in high-rise living. Her recent study examined the link between apartment standards, perceptions of good design and mental wellbeing in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.
Unravelling an extragalactic enigma – Space News | Particle
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in astronomy. Astronomers categorise them as intense bursts of radio waves that last for milliseconds. Through a radio telescope, they look a bit like pulses from super-dense and energetic stars called pulsars. Theories about their origins range from alien spacecraft to cosmic strings. Currently, the most widely accepted theories use observable evidence about the galaxy they come from.
'Fingerprints' point to liver cancer breakthrough – Health News | Particle
‘Fingerprints’ point to liver cancer breakthrough A recent study led by Curtin University has found it’s possible to predict the chances of an individual developing liver cancer by using RNA sequencing. Over 2000 Australians are diagnosed with primary liver cancer each year. “75% of these people are already in the intermediary or advanced stage of cancer when they are diagnosed,” says Dr Rodrigo Carlessi, the lead author of the new study.
Particle readership survey 2023
Tell us how you really feel. Here at Particle, we strive to bring you all the weird and wonderful scientific developments that are happening in Western Australia and the world. We’re always thinking about how to make our content better and more relevant to your needs.
New filters to fight plastic soup – Tech News | Particle
New filters to fight plastic soup Microplastics may be tiny, but they’re a huge problem. There’s so much plastic in our oceans, it’s often called ‘‘. Dr Masoumeh Zargar is an Engineering Lecturer at Edith Cowan University. According to her, 25% of microplastics released into oceans come from wastewater effluent. To tackle this problem, Masoumeh’s team developed a new membrane filtering technique. And it could change how wastewater is treated worldwide.
Can mussel power save the Swan River? – Earth News | Particle
“So over 90 days, that would be over 40 tonnes of organic matter.” Biodiversity returning to the mussel reefs | Scott Breschkin via The Nature Conservancy NOT ALL SMOOTH SAILING Most of that organic matter comes from upstream in the Swan. Agricultural runoff enters the river, causing algal blooms that choke the waterways. Decreased rainfall has exacerbated the problem. Less rainwater due to a drying climate has increased the concentrations of these pollutants.
How flies track native species – Earth News | Particle
FLY SPY: HOW FLIES ARE TRACKING NATIVE SPECIES Aussie flies are being used to spy on their neighbours. How? Curtin University researchers have used invertebrate-derived DNA – known as iDNA – from carrion flies to track other animals’ movements. The team detected native and invasive mammals in their study of habitats across the WA Wheatbelt.
Particle 101: Male birth control – Health News | Particle
If you’re a woman, you can choose from several contraceptives. Birth control pills, intrauterine devices (IUDs), implants, injections, diaphragms and even the ‘morning after’ pill. Yet there are still only two types of male contraception: condoms or a vasectomy. One isn’t always reliable or preferred and the other is generally permanent. Surely we can make more contraceptives for men, right?
From lush to dust: Nullarbor rocks reveal ancient climate change
How did they measure what was in the rocks? They fired lasers at them. IRONING THINGS OUT Traditional climate dating models predominantly rely on marine sediments. “Because they are often continuous layers, you can date them quite well,” says Max. While this method shows broad, global changes, it isn’t specific enough to pinpoint local environmental changes. “If you really want to figure out how things locally changed, you need to have a local product,” says Max.
Preventing a deadly virus via passive immunisation – Health News | Particle
“This is called passive immunisation.” FUSION CONFUSION The vaccine doesn’t have a commercial name yet. It’s currently referred to as the RSVpreF vaccine. The name describes how the vaccine training the body to target the fusion protein on RSV particles. ICYMI, fusion proteins allow the virus to fuse with the membrane of human cells. But the same protein that allows the virus to infect human cells also becomes its greatest weakness. How?
Attack of the hitchhiking armyworms – Environment News | Particle
Attack of the hitchhiking armyworms Spodoptera frugiperda, commonly known as the fall armyworm, is a moth species whose larvae wreak havoc on a wide range of plants, including crops. Its common name comes from mass movements of the caterpillars during autumn. After devouring whole crop fields, the species is said to ‘march’ out looking for more. Native to tropical regions of the Americas, the fall armyworm was first reported in West Africa in 2016.
Particle 101: Hostile architecture – People News | Particle
DESIGNS AGAINST HUMANITY The original intention of preventing anti-social behaviour seems reasonable enough. However, it’s become a polarising topic due to its effect on the most vulnerable members of society. Anti-homeless spikes don’t just prevent people sleeping rough – they restrict people from simply resting their feet. This can be a problem for the elderly, pregnant women, children or people with disabilities.
Shorebird breakfasts come with a side of plastic – Earth News | Particle
Who ordered the large side of plastic? Not Australia’s shorebirds. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s on the menu at our beaches. And it’s ending up in the excrement (also known as guano) of some of our most vulnerable species. A study in Tasmania has found that the amount of plastic in different birds’ guano might boil down to their prey choices and foraging strategies. SIZE MATTERS When plastic breaks down (which can take hundreds of years), it doesn’t disappear.
Mental health behind closed doors – Health News | Particle
That’s much higher than what’s reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. “It could be a function of the approach, that [door-knocking] was much better at reaching disadvantaged communities,” says Lisette.
PARTICLE 101: SOLAR ECLIPSES – Space News | Particle
An eclipse is an incredible natural phenomenon to witness (). It also offers scientists a chance to study the structure and activity of the Sun’s corona – a jacket of super-hot gases that surround the fiery planet. The magnetic fields that influence the behaviour of these gases can cause solar flares and solar winds. These events can mess up communications equipment and satellites, so it’s valuable to measure the corona to predict when they may occur. WHAT IS A SOLAR ECLIPSE?
Please Look Up – Podcast | Particle
Join the Particle crew for a monthly guide to the WA night sky. In each episode, our crew will highlight all the different things you can spot in WA night sky such as constellations, planets, asteroids and more. If anything noteworthy happens in the broader space industry, we’ll be sure to let you know as well. Please Look Up is available now on all your favourite podcast platforms.
Particle 101: Fungus – Environment News | Particle
While most fungi may look like plants, they have no chlorophyll – the stuff that makes plants green and helps them turn sunlight into food. Since they can’t make their own food, fungi have to feed on other organic matter. This is how those leftover noodles hiding in the back of your fridge slowly turn into a semi-sentient ecosystem. Fungi reproduce through tiny spores that they send off into the world. When these spores touch down on a suitable moist surface, they grow into bigger fungi.
Bunnies and bilbies: Friend or foe?
Bunnies and bilbies: Friend or foe? The introduction of rabbits has had a devastating impact on Australian native flora and fauna. However, their role as the traditional European symbol of fertility and new life has made it difficult for us to see them as destructive pests. Come Easter time, there has been some effort to ‘replace’ the Easter Bunny with Australian native species such as bandicoots, bilbies and bettongs.
Understanding ancient Antarctica via octopus genes – Environment News | Particle
In March 2022, a floating ice shelf in East Antarctica the size of Rome totally disintegrated in 2 weeks. Events like this contribute to rising sea levels. Between 1979 and 2017, the Antarctic Ice Sheet lost an average of 31 gigatonnes of ice per year. Main culprit? Warmer, deep salty water eroding its glaciers. For scale, 1 gigatonne of water . THE OCTOPUS GENES HAVE IT The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) contains . Its complete collapse would raise sea levels by at least 3.2 metres.
Spinifex fibres ideal new ingredient for medical gels – Tech News | Particle
Triodia pungens, commonly known as spinifex, is more than just a useful plant. Traditional Owners have known about its astonishing properties for a very long time. It’s drought and fire resistant and used to heal wounds and make tools such as spearpoints, axes and knives. It’s also naturally abundant. To add to its list of uses, the cellulose nanofibres extracted from spinifex will now be used in injectable medical gels to treat arthritis and osteoarthritis.
Seedbanks need time to be fire ready – Environment News | Particle
Restoring natural ecosystems to their pre-disturbance state is complicated. Whether the disturbance is mining, pollution or a natural disaster, environmental restoration projects are no mean feat. Over millions of years, Australian wildlife have adapted unique responses to their local environment. A good example is the response of Australian flora to fire events.
Homegrown tech could give Australia an edge in green hydrogen – Tech News | Particle
As the transition to a green economy gathers pace, green hydrogen is cited as both a (potential) renewable fuel and an industrial game-changer. In 2019, the federal government released a , seeking to position Australia as a “major global player by 2030”. However, industry figures such as Andrew Forrest, Executive Chairman of Fortescue Future Industries, have warned Australia may miss out on the opportunity to reach this goal if we don’t give incentives to the energy industry.
Life on the forest edge might not be too bad – Environment News | Particle
HOW CAN WE GROW? The Thousand Island Lake research highlights the importance of light and diversity in forests. So how can we use this information to improve practices in WA? Healthy forests naturally develop gaps as trees fall and die. This allows for light penetration and floral growth, which helps our pollinators. So one of Raphael’s suggestions is to “overplant to allow for death but leave the gaps that are [eventually] created”.
Particle 101: Lawn – Environment News | Particle
Particle 101: Lawn A lush green lawn has been a source of pride, a place for children to run around and the home of backyard cricket since Europeans first settled in Australia. Lawns are so popular they cover an estimated 11% of our capital cities. But they aren’t always easy to keep alive. Introduced grasses guzzle huge amounts of water – something that can be hard to come by in our dry, heatwave-prone country. Lawns also contribute to pollution through the use of fertilisers and lawnmowers.
Particle 101: How do plants grow? – Environment News | Particle
Let’s talk about the green machines that rule the world – plants! Over is made up of plants. From tiny mosses to towering trees, plants come in all shapes and sizes. But have you ever wondered how they know what form to take? Like animals, plants begin life as a single cell – the smallest living particle. Once the first cell divides, it kickstarts the plant’s growth. ZYGOTTA BE KIDDING ME All plants start from a single cell called a zygote.
Superbugs are teaming up! – Health News | Particle
This discovery has significant implications for hospital screening methods and treatment options. Klebsiella pneumoniae (red) and Acinetobacter baumannii (yellow) growing together on differential media | Dr Lucie Semenec, Macquarie University Top of the list for resistance There are six escape pathogens, or ‘superbugs’ as we know them, that form most hospital-acquired infections.
Particle 101: Endometriosis – Health News | Particle
More than 11% of Australian women, girls and those who are gender diverse suffer from endometriosis at some point in their lives. It’s estimated that endometriosis costs the Australian economy $9.7 billion each year. Around two-thirds of this cost is attributed to a loss in productivity, with the remainder directly related to healthcare costs. For individuals, not only is endometriosis painful but it’s also expensive and difficult to diagnose and treat. What is endometriosis?
The invasion of sea vomit – Environment News | Particle
ATTACK OF THE SEA VOMIT In March 2021, carpet sea squirt was discovered on a wharf at Garden Island. It was the first time the invasive pest had been detected in Australian waters. Last month, it was found on wharfs at the Australian Marine Complex in Henderson. So how did it enter Australian waters? What threat does it pose to WA? That’s where the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) comes in.
How climate change messes with microbes – Earth News | Particle
Now and then: How climate change messes with microbes During the early Eocene period of Earth’s history, the climate changed. Despite taking centuries to occur, it’s considered a fast event. And it triggered massive ecosystem changes. Kenny Travouillon is the Curator of Mammalogy at the WA Museum. “The early Eocene is roughly 10 million years after the dinosaurs went extinct,” says Kenny.
Particle 101: Radiocarbon dating – Tech News | Particle
WA is home to the earliest fossil evidence of life and human culture on Earth. But when an archaeologist reveals a relic or a palaeontologist finds a fossil, how do they know how old it is? The answer, my friends, is radiocarbon dating. Carbon dating helps us uncover WA’s geological and aboriginal history by measuring the ratio of carbon-14 atoms to carbon-12 atoms in organic material. But for most of us, it’s not totally clear what that actually means.
Losing our black cockatoos – Earth News | Particle
In the crisp, still, morning air, not a sound breaks the silence. If you close your eyes, you could almost be anywhere in the world. But when the silence is shattered by a raucous screech, followed by an echoed chorus as the flock takes flight for its morning forage, you know – beyond a shadow of a doubt – that you’re in Western Australia. The cry of the black cockatoo is so synonymous with the landscape of southwest Western Australia, it’s easy to forget how special they are.
Living inside a cannibal – Space News | Particle
Galaxies don’t just hang around, motionless in space. They rotate around their dense cores and attract nearby galaxies . Sometimes these galaxies get so close they collide. Galactic cannibalism is a version of this collision where the bigger galaxy absorbs the smaller one. When cannibals collide Around 25% of the galaxies within the observable universe are merging with each other. In fact, the Milky Way ripped its five most distant stars from another galaxy during an ancient merger event.
Harnessing the brain's ability to self-heal – Health News | Particle
Harnessing the brain’s ability to self-heal About 200 years ago, a railway foreman named had a very bad day. While clearing up large rocks with the aid of explosives, misfortune struck and a 6kg metal rod, known as a tamping iron, shot up at Phineas and went straight through his head. Miraculously, Phineas survived the event. However, it’s alleged that his personality changed drastically. To make his story even more incredible, this sudden change in personality only lasted a few years.
Stem cell serendipity – Health News | Particle
A chance discovery in the lab could be a game-changer for medicine. “It was terrific,” is how University of New South Wales Associate Professor Kristopher Kilian describes the moment his research team realised what they were seeing. Kris’s research group had done something no one had done before. They’d prompted human stem cells to undergo a process called .
Big find for patients with rare brain disease – Health News | Particle
Cerebellar ataxia is a rare neurodegenerative condition that causes people to slur their words and lose their overall coordination and balance – giving the impression that they’ve had too much to drink. It usually develops when people are around 40 years old, stopping them from working and living the life they once had. There is currently no cure and no treatment. Patients use aids such as crutches and wheelchairs to stop them from falling and keep them steady. What is ataxia?
Fighting bacterial infections FASTer – Health News | Particle
Antibiotics are powerful drugs used to treat bacterial infections. Although they have saved countless lives, their overuse has caused drug-resistant superbugs. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when microbes develop resistance to the drugs designed to kill them. The World Health Organization says AMR is one of the top 10 global public health threats. In 2019, – more than HIV/AIDS or malaria. But a new test developed by WA scientists could be a game-changer.
Turning plants into biological factories – Earth News | Particle
Humans have been using genetic manipulation for millennia, long before we worked in lab coats. From cute dogs to edible fruit, selective breeding has long been used to cultivate plants and animals of high value. These days, scientists carry out more-precise genetic manipulation in labs. But the results haven’t always been perfect. Up until recently, genetic modification could be a little clunky, producing organisms that might thrive in a lab but not in real-world conditions.
Solving the mystery of supermassive black holes – People News | Particle
When an unlucky star wanders into the path of a supermassive black hole, it results in one of the most violent events in the Universe. Over a few days, the star is ripped apart and swept into a disc around the black hole. They can be some of the brightest events we know of. The impacts can be observed years later. “When these stars are destroyed, it releases a huge explosion of energy and light,” says astrophysicist Dr Adelle Goodwin.
The cost of being extremely swole – Health News | Particle
Steroids have . The anabolic component is related to higher bone density, faster recovery from injury and increase in muscle growth. The androgenic component (also known as ‘masculinising’) is related to developing and maintaining the body’s male characteristics such as higher muscle mass, a deep voice and body hair. Scientists and used it to treat depression. Its misuse started at the 1954 Olympics when Russian weightlifters were given testosterone to enhance their performance.
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