#flinders university

[materialsscienceandengineering]

What's that swirly pattern? It's a moiré, and it has potential power

Just as wave-like patterns can appear on a computer screen when pixels do not align, new research led by Flinders University is investigating atomic-scale "moiré patterns" in the promising field of ferroelectricity. The new study, with experts at Monash University and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, seeks inroads into electrical and optical science by exploring these complex "superlattice" patterns in various ways to create new energy and material capabilities. "Similar to the pixel example, we can overlay single-atom thin layers in non-aligned ways to achieve physical properties not present in regular repetitive materials—including superconductivity, special insulating and conductive states, and ferroelectricity," says Dr. Pankaj Sharma, from the Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Flinders University.

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[sitting-on-me-bum]

This female bee is Fijian bee species (Homalictus hadrander)

Australian 'rainbow' bees

(Image: © James Dorey, Flinders University)

This is another, more uncommon, species of pollinating bee (homalictus tatei)

The Exoneurella tridentate species (a male bee shown here) is thought to have origins in Antarctica.

[nukapooka]

Some more university work for this semester, This was apart of my Keyframe illustrations about Pinocchio being eaten by the dogfish. Thanks to Ned Rogers (an amazing artist and lecturer) For helping me out, i learnt so much.

[pokepeach]

Today was a bright sunny winter's day ☀️

[mindblowingscience]

Giant flying turkey once roamed Australia

"These discoveries are quite remarkable because they tell us that more than half of Australia's megapodes went extinct during the Pleistocene, and we didn't even realise it until now," said researcher Elen Shute.

A giant, flying turkey as tall as a kangaroo once roamed Australia, palaeontologists said Wednesday, after an analysis of fossils and bones from around the country revealed five extinct bird species.

A team from Flinders University in South Australia said they were all chunky relatives of today's malleefowl and brush-turkeys.

The megapode birds lived during the Pleistocene era, between 1.6 million and 10,000 years ago, alongside other giant Australian animals like diprotodons, marsupial lions and short-faced kangaroos.

Scientists had initially thought the fossils, first found in the 1880s, represented a single ancient bird, but fresh examination has led them to conclude they belong to five different species.

Among them was a turkey weighing up to eight kilograms (17 pounds) and standing taller than a grey kangaroo, which can reach 1.3 metres (4ft 3ins)—four times the size of modern fowl.

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[materialsscienceandengineering]

This plastic is made from milk and it vanishes in 13 weeks

Milk protein and clay team up to create a plastic-like film that vanishes in soil in just 13 weeks.

As concerns grow about the environmental and health impacts of plastic waste, scientists are accelerating efforts to develop safer, biodegradable alternatives. At Flinders University in South Australia, several research teams are working on new materials designed to reduce pollution from single use plastics. In a recent study published in Polymers, researchers created a thin, flexible film using calcium caseinate, a commercially available form of casein, the primary protein found in milk. They blended it with modified starch and bentonite nanoclay, then added glycerol and polyvinyl alcohol to improve durability and flexibility. The goal was to produce a material that performs like conventional plastic while being far more environmentally friendly.

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[materialsscienceandengineering]

This breakthrough turns old tech into pure gold — No mercury, no cyanide, just light and salt

An interdisciplinary team of experts in green chemistry, engineering and physics at Flinders University in Australia has developed a safer and more sustainable approach to extract and recover gold from ore and electronic waste. Explained in the leading journal Nature Sustainability, the gold-extraction technique promises to reduce levels of toxic waste from mining and shows that high purity gold can be recovered from recycling valuable components in printed circuit boards in discarded computers. The project team, led by Matthew Flinders Professor Justin Chalker, applied this integrated method for high-yield gold extraction from many sources - even recovering trace gold found in scientific waste streams.

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[materialsscienceandengineering]

Breakthrough sulfur polymer kills dangerous fungi and bacteria while sparing human and plant cells

Antimicrobial resistance is becoming a global burden in human health and food production, so affordable new materials are needed to overcome this growing problem. To answer the call, a multidisciplinary research team led by Flinders University with U.K. experts has discovered a novel solution for safe and effective use in antimicrobial and antifungal applications. The World Health Organization has warned that antimicrobial resistance, including deadly pathogens Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, non-typhoidal Salmonella and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is one of the most serious global health threats in this century. "Importantly, the antimicrobial does not harm human or plant cells, so it has potential in medicine and agriculture," says Professor Justin Chalker, whose research group recently invented an innovative photochemical reaction used in their latest study just published in Chemical Science.

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