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Feral honeybees key to controlling deadly parasite

July 1, 2022

By Professor Stephan Winter Published on July 1, 2022 After discovering the honeybee-killing parasite Varroa destructor in Newcastle late last week, New South Wales authorities have acted quickly to try to stop the spread. Hive ‘lockdowns’ are in place (banning movement of hives across the entire state), and hives within 10 kilometre buffer zones of infested locations are being destroyed. A Varroa destructor mite pictured on honeybee larva. Picture: Wolfgang Kumm/picture alliance/Getty ImagesMillions of bees have been killed in the past week alone, with the parasite discovered at eight sites so far – some up to 100 kilometres away from Newcastle.

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The art and science of dance

June 30, 2022

By Professor Emma Redding Published on June 30, 2022 I started dancing later than many, at age 11. But it quickly became the only extra-curricular activity I did. An insightful careers teacher at secondary school suggested I pursue it full-time, so I enrolled in a dance foundation course at a further education college, which gave me the chance to dance every day alongside my academic studies. The college was in Lewisham in London, which is a low socio-economic-status area.

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How the VCA’s history can help shape Melbourne’s future

June 29, 2022

By Professor Emma Redding Published on June 29, 2022 As Melbournians emerged, blinking, from one of the world’s longest lockdown last year, their much-loved arts school was also easing itself back to life. The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) had only just moved into its impressive new buildings at the heart of the city’s Southbank arts precinct a few months before the pandemic struck. The VCA moved into its new buildings just a few months before the pandemic started.

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A window on memory loss in Alzheimer’s

June 28, 2022

By Dr Chris French Published on June 28, 2022 Alzheimer’s is a particularly cruel disease. It erodes people’s memories – loved ones are in many ways ‘lost’ well before they ever pass away. But we are gradually learning more about how Alzheimer’s Disease happens and why – and treatments are improving. An as yet unanswered question is whether the memory problems in Alzheimer’s Disease are related to the recording of memories, or whether it makes it harder to ‘replay’ memories.

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The making and unmaking of the East-West Link

June 27, 2022

By Dr James C. Murphy Published on June 27, 2022 It is a Monday in April 2013. Ken Mathers, head of Victoria’s road megaprojects agency, the Linking Melbourne Authority, is enjoying a celebratory beer on the rooftop of an inner-city bar, looking out at the city. He has just spent hours stuffed in a meeting room a few blocks away – a committee meeting of the Victorian Cabinet – where the state’s most senior government ministers had gathered to make a final decision about his pet project: a massive, multi-billion-dollar proposal that, in just a few short months, will become an all-consuming political controversy for Victoria.

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