Fire on the Reef

I often wish that I’d studied marine biology. Of course at school, I was told that there were no jobs in the field and I should do something “real”. Neither my advisors nor I seemed able to imagine that 10 years down the track, I might be living in a country with some of the best diving in the world and plenty of opportunity to explore the sea.

I digress – the point of this post is to show you what a small electrical fault can do to a marine biology research station. Specifically Heron Island station, run by the University of Queensland for over 50 years.

• Reef research weathers island fire – UQ news release
• Pictures of the aftermath of the fire
• Fire Flattens Island Lab – news article from Science
• Heron Island Research Station – general information

Happily there were no casualties and “most of the long-term data sets had been backed up” (well, you’d hope so – in fact you’d hope all of them were backed up).

Algae-munching biologist in underwater experiment

Via ABC News.

Lloyd Godson will submerge himself in a box in wetlands near Albury-Wodonga, on the border of Victoria and New South Wales, for a fortnight.

Mr Godson believes he will be able to survive by growing algae for food and to produce oxygen, and generate electricity by riding a stationary bike.

OK then.

All clear

It’s not every day that you wake up to a tsunami warning. I can report that the east coast of Australia is just fine, in case anyone was concerned. Spare a thought instead for the Solomon Islands.

Web resources: Pacific Tsunami Warning Center; USGS Earthquake Hazard Program. Plenty of scope for data scraping and mash-ups at those two sites.

Australiana

Non-science random thoughts this weekend: On this last day of March – 16.8 mm of rain for the month. March average = 139.5 mm. See some Brisbane climate stats. First weekend of the AFL season! Deep sadness as I realise that the first Swans game won’t be on TV here as it clashes with the Lions. Surely the great Grand Final rematch should be free to air in all states. Wonder how the Pixies sound after all these years? Looking forward to reports from the V Festival.

Science/computing news snippets

The UK government have decided to steal 68 million pounds from the science budget to pay for corporate failures. This is unprecented so far as I know – this is earmarked science money which is now being taken away. If there’s any legal recourse available to the UK research community, I hope that they’re pursuing it.

In local news, the tentacles of the Fairfax media empire have reached Brisbane and according to issue #1 of the Brisbane Times, Australian university students are being offered Microsoft Office for AUD 75. The question is – why? Don’t they know that they could get Open Office for free? If not, they should be told.

Comet McNaught update

Still bright last night with a clearly-visible tail. I had to get a better view and image than the the last attempt, so I wandered up the road to Dutton Park which has clear views west and is reasonably dark. Image at left links to Flickr, which I’ve resolved to make better use of this year (with thanks to Duncan for spurring me on).

Comet McNaught

	Each night this week around sunset I’ve left the house, wandered up the street, squinted in disgust at the clouds on the western horizon and gone back inside. Last night, we finally got lucky with the weather. The visual experience is a good deal more impressive than these pictures suggest. I managed to choose a location with the highest concentration of suspended power lines in Brisbane, balanced the camera on a wheelie bin in the middle of the road and hoped for the best. The first shot includes a passing car for dramatic effect. The second shows the tail quite nicely, if you can ignore the cables and the glaring street lamps. The third is a cropped version of the first. All in all, not a great photographic experience which only enhanced my desire to live in the country! Still, I can say that I witnessed the great comet of 2007 and captured it for posterity. Wikipedia has put together a very nice Comet McNaught entry with plenty of useful links and a great image gallery. Also try Comet McNaught as a Flickr tag.

Falling birds, falling rain

Esperance is a town in Western Australia. It’s currently a natural disaster zone following a freak storm. In a tale worthy of the X-Files, thousands of dead birds recently fell from the skies, until almost no living birds were left. Cause unknown, residents baffled.

In other news from the Australian environment, Brisbane is king of the home rainwater tank:

The council issued 16,581 rebates for tanks in the 12 months to November 30. Yet in the far larger city of Melbourne, only about 13,000 tanks have been installed since 2003, while in Sydney, the nation’s biggest metropolis, 8424 rebates were issued in the 2004-05 financial year.

And at the end of the article:

The maximum rebate available in Sydney is $800, while rebates of up to $1000 can be claimed in Melbourne.

The Brisbane rebate is $1700. Twice the rebate, twice the tanks – coincidence? Or are the Sydney millionaires just not claiming their rebate?

Farewell ferry, hello bridge

This weekend saw the opening of Brisbane’s newest bridge and the end of an era – the last Dutton Park ferry, closing after 40 years of service. If you enjoy reading snippets of local history from other places, read on…

Lights out

Next March, WWF Australia are organising Earth Hour. If all goes to plan, Sydney homes and businesses will switch off the lights for one hour, the city will fade to black and we’ll get an interesting snapshot of energy consumption.

It’s an interesting idea and a good publicity stunt. What I’d really like to see though, are some incentives and/or legislation to make energy conservation in cities the norm, not a one-off event. Do we really need all those office buildings and shop fronts illuminated throughout the night?