FameLab 2014 stories in the media

2014 FameLab Australia finalist Lydia Tong. Photo: Andrew Taylor.

Meet the 2014 FameLab Australia finalists - and learn about their work - in this selection of media stories and interviews.

Media Contacts

All media enquiries can be directed to British Council Australia:

Amber McCulloch, amber.mcculloch@britishcouncil.org.au, 61 2 9362 6730

Image: FameLab Australia 2014 finalist Lydia Tong from this article in the Herald Sun.

Credit: Andrew Taylor.

Cars can be lighter, faster, stronger - but they need more arms

Lighter-weight, fuel-efficient cars may be closer to reality thanks to Geelong researchers who are giving carbon fibre the gripping power it needs to be able to stand up to impacts from motorists.

Future fuels will come in orange flavour – but researchers have to teach yeast to make it

Queensland researchers are persuading baker’s yeast to produce orange-flavoured renewable jet fuel from sugar.

A ‘tango’ between light and mirrors could help find signs of life on Mars, and identify minerals and water deposits here on Earth

Dr Francis Torres, a physicist at the University of Western Australia, has developed the mirror device at the heart of a new amplifier technology, which uses an interaction between a high-powered laser and mirror motion to magnify subtle metal, temperature and biological vibrations so they are more easily detected.

Jetlag skin patch may prevent brain damage in newborns

A simple and affordable ‘jetlag’ skin patch could help prevent deaths and disabilities of two million babies worldwide each year by reducing brain damage caused by low oxygen during birth.

Worm spit heals then kills; sends Cairns scientist to the UK in search of fame

Cairns researchers have discovered a wound-healing and cancer-causing hormone in the spit of a liver worm that lives in over nine million people and infects adventurous Australian tourists. The Southeast Asian liver fluke munches through the liver repairing the damage as it goes. But after many years of infection it can cause liver cancer and kills 20,000 people each year in Thailand alone.

Prostate cancer survivors can improve their sex life at the gym

Perth researchers have shown that twice-weekly exercise can improve sexual function in prostate cancer patients by 50 per cent.

Cannibalistic cancer eats itself to survive treatment

Stubborn cancer cells play a cunning trick when faced with treatments designed to kill them — they eat themselves to survive. But SAHMRI researcher, Lisa Schafranek, has found a way to starve the cancer cells, making them more susceptible to cancer therapy.

Killer bees looking for a tree near you!

Dr James Makinson evicts bees from their homes for a good reason—to figure out how they collectively decide on the next place to live.

External links

FameLab on ABC radio National's Science Show with Robyn Williams