2021-04-09 06:06:09 GMT2021-04-09 14:06:09(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
CANBERRA, April 9 (Xinhua) The opening of China s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) to international scientists could enhance collaboration of scientists from different countries, said Australian astrophysicist Naomi McClure-Griffiths. The telescope is brand new. Many people want to use it, and there s a lot of competition to use the telescope, said McClure-Griffiths in an interview with Xinhua. As we move into the future, I hope to be able to use it more.
FAST is in southwest China s Guizhou province. As world s largest filled-aperture and most sensitive radio telescope, it officially opened to the world starting March 31.
Opening of China s FAST telescope to int l scientists enhances collaboration, says Australian astrophysicist
1 2021-04-09 14:28:34Xinhua
Editor : Zhang Mingxin
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The opening of China s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) to international scientists could enhance collaboration of scientists from different countries, said Australian astrophysicist Naomi McClure-Griffiths. The telescope is brand new. Many people want to use it, and there s a lot of competition to use the telescope, said McClure-Griffiths in an interview with Xinhua. As we move into the future, I hope to be able to use it more.
FAST is in southwest China s Guizhou province. As world s largest filled-aperture and most sensitive radio telescope, it officially opened to the world starting March 31.
For months, the Australian Academy of Science and mRNA experts have urged the Australian government to help develop a domestic mRNA manufacturing capability. That capability has not been developed.
In February, the academy used a pre-budget submission to warn Australia and the region would be vulnerable to supply limitations without the ability to produce mRNA vaccines.
Associate professor Archa Fox, a leading mRNA expert with the University of Western Australia, said it was frustrating that the country was yet to develop mRNA manufacturing capability.
But she said it was not too late.
Fox said it was difficult to be too critical of government, given the uncertainty around the various vaccine candidates – particularly the relatively new RNA vaccine technologies – in the early stages of the pandemic.
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Australiaâs foremost coral reef scientist Professor Terry Hughes says government plans to restore the Great Barrier Reef are doomed to failure because theyâre too small and expensive, while the rate of catastrophic bleaching events are already recurring faster than corals can recover.
A recent Australian Academy of Sciences report said that if the world warmed by 2 degrees Celsius just one per cent of corals would survive. The earth has already warmed by 1.1 degrees and medium-range estimates forecast 1.5 degrees of warming by 2045 to 2050.
Coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef.
Credit:Tom Bridge / www.tethys-images.com
Professor Hughes of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies said coral bleaching events, which are driven by hot weather and clear sunny days, now occur on average every six years and their frequency is set to rise.
Australia’s foremost coral reef scientist Professor Terry Hughes says government plans to restore the Great Barrier Reef are doomed to failure because they’re too small and expensive, while the rate of catastrophic bleaching events are already recurring faster than corals can recover. A recent Australian Academy of Sciences report said that if the world warmed by 2 degrees Celsius just one per cent of corals would survive. The earth has already warmed by 1.1 degrees and medium-range estimates forecast 1.5 degrees of warming by 2045 to 2050.
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The Australian government has committed NZ$108 million for reef restoration projects which include cooling the water, sun shields and ‘coral gardening’.