Biology Newsletter
Newsletter 22 |
Friday 17 August 2007 |
More than the first page: A note regarding reading the newsletter: I am putting a lot of messages that used to be simply circulated by email into the newsletter. This is an attempt to avoid cluttering up your email boxes: so it is worthwhile reading not just the first page and the jokes but skimming the intermediate information.
Lots and lots of things happening as indicated last newsletter!!
Paula
University administration news
HIT Lab NZ Open House
The HIT Lab NZ at the University of Canterbury will be having an Open House Friday, 21st September 2007, 3pm - 7pm.
Members of the public are invited to visit and see the future of human computer interaction. Technologies on display include:
VisionSpace - a three-screen immersive stereo projection system that enables groups of people to view and intuitively interact with 3D virtual data.
The Virtual Retinal Display - a head mounted display that uses a laser to paint images on the retina of the eye.
SenseAble Force Feedback - a haptic device that lets you touch objects that aren't really there.
The MagicBook - the use of Augmented Reality technology to superimpose virtual information over the real world.
AR Tennis - the world's first collaborative Augmented Reality game for the mobile phone.
The HIT Lab NZ is located in the Old Maths Building on the University of Canterbury campus - see http://www.hitlabnz.org for map details
For further information, please contact Daniela Achatz or Donna Salaiau on (03) 364 2349 or email info@hitlabnz.org.
The long awaited revised Micro-organisms Standard has been released and is now on the Biosecurity website at:
http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/border/transitional-facilities/animals/154-03-02.htm
Implementation of the revised standard:
This standard "Facilities for Microorganisms and Cell Cultures: 2007" has been completely revised from the 2002 version. It's scope now covers both transitional facilities and containment facilities, for microorganisms and cell cultures which may be risk goods, including unwanted organisms and new organisms.
Some facilities currently approved to the standard 154.02.17 Transitional Facilities for Biological Products will need to be approved to this standard, if they are holding microorganisms and cell cultures. MAF Biosecurity New Zealand is allowing a year's implementation of the new standard to enable facilities to convert to the standard.
The University has signed up to be part of an international survey on student engagement being run through ACER (The Australian Council for Educational Research).
Twenty Australian Universities and five New Zealand Universities are participating in this pilot project. UCTL will have access to the aggregated results and the raw data for Canterbury. This will give them useful information to support decisions about teaching programmes and learning environments. SEQ is designed to provide measurement of five scales:
- Active learning: students efforts to actively construct their knowledge;
- Academic Challenge: the extent to which expectations and assessments challenged students to learn;
- Student and staff interactions: the level and nature of students’ contact with teaching staff;
- Enriching educational experiences: participation in broadening educational activities; and
- Supportive learning environment: students’ feelings of legitimation within the university community.
The results should provide UCTL with very useful information both in detail for Canterbury and in comparison with the other Universities.
A randomized sample (totaling 2600) of first and third year students at the University of Canterbury has been selected to take part. Email invitations will go out next week and paper surveys will be dispatched the following week.
The selected students are encouraged to complete the survey. Some students will receive both a paper copy and an online request, and the encouragement should be to complete whichever is the most convenient for them, but there is a preference for online.
Golden Key will be collecting for the Cancer Society this Daffodil Day, which falls on Friday 31 August, 2007. They will be visiting the department during the day.
Special Award
50th Anniversary Award for Professor George Knox
On Thursday 9th August, Bill Davison, Dave Schiel and Lyn de Groot attended a special presentation and afternoon tea at the Antarctic Centre to honour Emeritus Professor George Knox’s contribution to Antarctic Research (it being International Polar Year and the 50th anniversary of the NZ Antarctic programme).
Clive Howard-Williams (NIWA) ~ |
George Knox |
Three generations of George’s family were present to hear the addresses by Clive Howard-Williams (Adjunct Professor of Biological Sciences and Gateway Antarctica) and Lou Sanson (CEO of Antarctica New Zealand). Sanson also referred to George’s founding contributions to ecology through his research and leadership roles in INTECOL and the Biomass programme. George was also presented with two paintings by Margaret Elliott*, one depicting “Tent City” at Windless Bight and the other an icy landscape. George’s second edition of the book “Biology of the Southern Oceans” has just been published and featured in the ceremony.
Back row: Bill Davison ~ |
|
The afternoon was highly successful in that there was recognition of a scientist and his lifetime achievements but also that his family were included in the function.
*Artist in Residence and Gateway tutor in the UC postgraduate course.
[The 50th Anniversary Award would have been presented by the Minister at a formal ceremony in Wellington but George’s ill health prevented him attending.]
Events
Trivia and Truffles (Changed from 7pm Monday 20 August to Wednesday 19 September, Coppertop)
This event has been postponed due to a clash with a scientific meeting in town. It will now be held on Wednesday 19th of September, during the 2nd week of the UC 4th term. If you have already entered your entry will be held over unless you advise otherwise.
Paula
Library News
The following items recommended by your department have been recently received by the library. If you have any queries please contact the Collection Services Department of the Library.
Author: |
Oldroyd, Benjamin P. |
Title: |
Asian honey bees : biology, conservation, and human interactions |
Location: |
New book display, Central Library QL 568 .A6 .O44 2006 |
Erskine Visitors
Scott Wissinger (28 August - 16 November) is a Professor at Allegheny College, a small, but top-class liberal arts college in Pennsylvania. He has been chairperson of both the Biology and Environmental Science Departments at Allegheny, and has been heavily involved in the administration of the College, including chairing many institutional-level committees. As well as receiving many commendations for his teaching, Scott is also an accomplished researcher. He studies the community ecology of wetland and pond ecosystems. He has received a Presidential Young Investigator from the National Science Foundation and has previously visited New Zealand as a Fulbright Senior Scholar. During his visit he will be helping to teach the Freshwater Ecosystems course.
Ben Sheldon will be visiting the department as an Erskine Fellow from
1 September - 6 October. He is a Professor who heads the Edward Grey Institute for Field Ornithology in the Zoology Department at Oxford, and has published over 80 papers in this field (including many in Nature, PNAS, etc.). He is a leading researcher in Evolutionary Biology and Behavioural Ecology, and in addition to a departmental seminar (date to be advised) he will be running a workshop on this subject at the Edward Percival Field Station in Kaikoura from 7-8 September. The workshop is open to all academics and graduate students. Please contact Jim Briskie for more details.
People
Addition to the family
Just a quick note to let you know that our little surprise arrived this morning at 11:54. Corey Philippe Tremblay was 7 lb 7 at birth, which is not so little considering the size of the parents... Overall, Cara was simply amazing and everyone at Christchurch and Lincoln hospitals have been fantastic and made this day a memorable one.
All the best,
Cara and Louis
Cara Lowe (PhD supervised by Bill Davison) and Louis Tremblay (Adjunct)
Safe in Peru: Michelle Greenwood
Michelle just gave us a quick call, she’s safe and well, which is great news.
They were having dinner on the deck of a restaurant and basically dived outside as the quake happened. One women was trapped in the building and another guy was injured and lost his fingers by a crushed beam (apparently the dog ate them the next morning). Anyway they are sleeping in tents in the desert for a second night before heading into Ica to try and get a bus north to Lima where they catch a plane to Equador.
She seems quite cheerful considering with her usual sense of humor about it all. Guess they are just going to have to be patient while transport infrastructure comes back on stream over the next few days. Interestingly we probably know more about what has happened than she does. She was still unsure about the level of damage in Ica, even though it is only 5 km down the road. Strange how the world media works…
Steve Pawson
Scholarships
Summer scholarships
You will be aware that the call has gone out for applications for summer scholarships. These are competitive scholarships, 10 offered by UC and three offered by the Canterbury Medical Research Foundation. Details and application forms can be found at the Research office web page. In light of the discussion at the last TLC meeting people should be aware of the rules relating to these scholarships and honours projects. The following is taken from the guidelines. The awards are to fund participation in research projects which are not the student’s project that will be submitted for credit.
Closing date for applications, including departmental rankings is 3rd September. Applications should be passed to Lyn by 29th August as we need to rank them before sending them over to Research.
Applications for the 2008 Doctoral and Master's Scholarships are now open
The closing date is 15 October 2007. Application forms are available from:
http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/scholarships/resources/applicationforms.shtml
Please note that both domestic and international students apply for the standard Doctoral Scholarship. Applicants will also be considered, without separate application, for the higher value Canterbury Scholarships (domestic students) and International Doctoral Scholarships (international students).
The Master's Scholarships are also open to both domestic and international students, provided the research component of their degree is at least .75 EFTS for the year of tenure.
Candidates have again been instructed to provide the Head with the report form and a copy of the scholarship application to enable the Head to complete the form. The student must lodge the original application directly with the Scholarships Office.
Seminars
Thursday 23rd August, 12:00-1:00, Room 456
Stephen On - Campylobacter: the root of the problem or the tip of the iceberg?
Institute of Environmental Science & Research (ESR)
Bacteria assigned to the genus Campylobacter are known to be the most frequent cause of human gastroenteritis in the developed world, with a rate of infection several orders of magnitude greater than other enteric pathogens including Salmonella, Yersinia and Escherichia coli O157. New Zealand has the unenviable distinction of being the country with the highest recorded incidence of campylobacteriosis - some three times greater than the United Kingdom and tenfold of that reported by the United States. The purpose of this talk is to give an overview of the main issues concerning campylobacteriosis, notably in understanding their epidemiology, and outline potential explanations for the high incidence here in NZ, and worldwide, with reference to recent advances. The possibility that the problem is far greater than is being currently envisaged will also be explored.
Recent Publications
Firth, C.A., Yang, Y.-T. and Gieseg, S.P. (2007). Lipid oxidation predominates over protein hydroperoxide formation in human monocyte-derived macrophages exposed to aqueous peroxyl radicals. Free Radical Research 41(7): 839-848. |
"Scales of Biology"
Part VII of the thrilling multi-part story on Bacillus thuringiensis
How much cry toxin are we now exposed to from commercial transgenic organisms?
Cry toxin reaches concentrations as high as 115mg/g in corn seed (see previous newsletters). The yield of Cry protein ranges from 1.7 x 10e-7 – 7 x 10e-7mg/spore produced in a fermenter. Fermenter yields could be as much as 10-100 times the yield in nature. But using these conservative figures, the Cry load in soil at the B. thuringiensis detection limit is 1.7 x 10e-4 - 7 x 10e-4mg/g. Although Cry concentrations vary considerably among cultivars, even the commercial corn producing at the low end of the scale (MON810 at 0.19mg/g) would be the equivalent to eating between 150 and 520g/kg body weight of soil (Table). If we assume that the actual Cry load in soil is 10 times less, the average American would have to consume 1.5-6kg/kg body weight of soil a day to match the exposure from MON810. It is obvious from these figures that an average American would have to eat their body weight in soil each day to ingest the same quantities of Cry toxin that they may be exposed to from BT11 corn even using the most conservative assumptions.
Cry exposures in equivalent grams of soil/kg body weight*
mg Cry/g seed |
ng Cry/g soil |
|||
|
0.02 |
0.05 |
0.2 |
0.7 |
0.2 (MON810) |
5,200 |
2,100 |
520 |
150 |
1.4 (BT11) |
36,000 |
15,000 |
3,600 |
1,000 |
20 |
520,000 |
210,000 |
53,000 |
15,000 |
40 |
1 x 10e6 |
400,000 |
100,000 |
29,000 |
115 |
3 x 10e6 |
1 x 10e6 |
300,000 |
86,000 |
* based on average American consumption of corn
and now for something completely different….
Sponges grow in the ocean. That just kills me. I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be if that didn't happen.
All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand.
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.
OK, so what's the speed of dark?
Contact details
If you have items of news or interest that you would like included in this newsletter, contact the admin office before noon on Thursday at bioladmin@canterbury.ac.nz or phone 6071.