UNBSSI – planting the seeds of space exploration

by Daryl Ilbury

There are two indisputable yet oft-forgotten facts about space exploration: space belongs to no one, and you don’t need to enter space to study its immense wondrousness. For centuries, cultures across the world have stared up at the night sky and wondered what lies among the stars. Exploring space needs a keen eye, an inquiring mind, a basic understanding of any of the space sciences, and access to some of the troves of data pouring in from space every day. Knowing this, one organisation within the United Nations is quietly and resolutely expanding the frontiers to space exploration by making education, teaching, and research a key part of its focus. In the process, it has bridged the perceptual and infrastructural barriers around reaching out to space and highlighted the benefits of networking and sharing knowledge.

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Learning from people who inject drugs

by Daryl Ilbury

It’s convenient to dismiss people who inject drugs (pwid) as criminals or, at best, the victims of their own bad decisions. But this approach not only eschews our responsibility to help marginalised and vulnerable people, it also keeps us impervious to broader social issues. Top-down, authoritarian policies steered by legal priorities don’t address these issues, and those based on medical knowledge, even with the best intentions, risk being condescending and unhelpful. The alternative is to listen to the people the policies are supposed to support. That is precisely what two senior public health researchers did. What they discovered was a series of recurring themes that challenge our biases and give clearer direction for co-designed harm-reduction approaches.

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The success of simple metaphors in communicating brain science

by Daryl Ilbury

The Alberta Family Wellness Initiative, supported by the Calgary-based Palix Foundation, has succeeded in achieving individual, organisational, and systems level change regarding brain development, epigenetics, mental health, and addiction. The Brain Story, which uses simple metaphors to communicate complex brain science, has proven an effective tool to achieve this change and move towards building more resilient individuals and communities.

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Valuable insights into caring for women with heavy menstrual bleeding

by Daryl Ilbury

It’s estimated that as many as one in four premenopausal women suffer from heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB). Also known as menorrhagia, it is a chronic condition characterised by abnormally heavy or prolonged bleeding. While some cases have a physical cause, such as fibroids (benign uterine tumours) most do not. Common though the condition may be, that doesn’t make it necessarily bearable. HMB not only poses a significant health risk but also interferes with a woman’s physical, emotional, social, and material quality of life. Unfortunately, given cultural sensitivities around menstruation in general, little is done to make women aware of the condition and that treatments are available. A significant long-term study by the University of Nottingham in the UK is helping to change that.

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Multiple benefits of molasses nutrient blocks for cattle

by Daryl Ilbury

In Southeast Asia, with its burgeoning economies, smallholder livestock production is in a promising transition stage, yet overall remains inefficient. Dr Peter Windsor, Professor Emeritus at the Sydney School of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney, Australia, and a team of researchers in Laos, have adapted the humble feed block into an effective multi-intervention livestock development strategy that could also play a crucial role in climate change management.

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The critical role of local food systems and democratized science

by Daryl Ilbury

Feeding a rapidly growing global population is nearly impossible. Food production is increasingly controlled by powerful organizations, climate change is negatively impacting food production, inequality is growing globally, and menacing geopolitical shifts are likely to make matters worse. Dr William Lacy, a leading sociologist and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Human Ecology at the University of California Davis, USA, has looked back on 40 years of research in the journal Agriculture and Human Values. He uncovered clear guidelines as to how local food systems and democratized science can encourage the necessary changes.

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Steering STEM education development through play

by Daryl Ilbury

The growing importance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for learning at school and beyond is placing increased emphasis on building the framework for their experiences in early childhood. However, designing the learning progressions children experience during this time undervalues a remarkable fact: children’s connection with STEM is intuitive. Chelsea Cutting of the University of South Australia’s Mount Gambier-based campus, and Professor Tom Lowrie of the University of Canberra’s STEM Education Research Centre, have shown how early childhood education can capitalise on this.

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The serious fallout from information compression

by Daryl Ilbury

It’s tempting to think that consumer ratings of the next item you buy online are a healthy guide to finding the best product, but the reality is different. The clustering of items rated 4.5 stars out of five may suggest a constellation of safer choices, but it is a false beacon, and has ramifications in an era when people increasingly make decisions from online information. A team of leading researchers in information systems and marketing has produced a theory about this phenomenon and discovered that, while the fallout of this for shoppers may just be a purchase that doesn’t work, the costs can be much more severe when ratings are applied elsewhere. What they’re proposing challenges some of the fundamental thinking among their peers.

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Should pre-anaesthesia consultations be done telephonically?

by Daryl Ilbury

It’s tempting to think that a patient undergoing surgery has little to do to ensure the operation is a success – after all, they’re anaesthetised or sedated – but the reality is that a patient should be an active participant in the procedure. Whereas the focus may be on the surgeon during the operation, the most significant responsibility in ensuring the patient is best prepared for their role usually falls on the anaesthesiologist. One Austrian anaesthesiologist and critical care physician is drawing attention to an increasingly important part of patient preparation.

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FAME – the green revolution of conventional biodiesel

by Daryl Ilbury

The global shift away from petrochemical production towards bio-based solutions has given a boost to conventional biodiesel producers. However, they’re facing a challenger ‘from the inside’ – renewable biodiesel. Undaunted, a team of chemists and engineers from Airable Research Lab in the USA, led by Dr Dylan Karis, has revealed that conventional biodiesel – or fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) – has remarkable properties. In a leap forward for green chemistry, the researchers found that FAME makes an excellent substitute for petrochemicals in a raft of applications beyond fuel.

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