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A brand new Cancer Research Centre is to be built in Darlinghurst, in the research and biotechnology precinct that has rapidly become the largest biomedical hub in NSW. Delta Goodrem, a former St Vincents cancer patient, is the Patron of the new Centre, and intends to dig deep and donate her own money to ensure the establishment of this much needed facility, slated for completion in 2010. Goodrem underwent treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital five years ago, and is now in remission.
The Centre will focus on personalised medicine and be a one-stop shop for cancer patients who can receive various treatments, as well as participate in trials and research. The land for the facility, worth $10 million, has been donated by the St Vincent's Hospital Trust, while $20 million has already been raised from private donations. But with much more dollars required for this $100 million state-of-the-art facility, a series of fundraising events are planned and funding will also be sought from the NSW and federal governments.
Donations can be made on 1800 800 595 or at www.garvan.org.au
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As I often complain about the lack of funding for medical research in Australia, it's only fair that I should recognise when money is wisely invested in this area.
Today the St Vincent's Victor Chang Lowy Packer Building in Darlinghurst, Sydney was officially opened by Danish Crown Princess Mary. This $80 million world class medical research institute is a joint initiative of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute (named after the distinguished heart surgeon who was gunned down in 1991 after a failed extortion bid), St Vincent's Hospital and the Garvan Institute. This new building will allow the Cardiac Institute to expand from their one-floor occupation of the Garvan Institute, to the new 10-floor building which will enable the addition of 5 new research teams and 55 new research staff.
Princess Mary has been involved with the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute since 2005, after losing her mother to cardiac disease in 1997, and follows the tradition set by the late Princess Diana, who opened the previous Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute's premises in 1996.
A host of special guests turned up to greet the Princess, including the Packer family, Morris Iemma and Cardinal Pell. In PM Iemma's words "Facilities like these are where the future of Australia is being determined, where the high-skilled, high-tech jobs are being created, where our reputation for innovation is deepened every single day and where our quality of life is being rewritten."
So high-fives go to the State and Federal governments for funding this building, as well as to the families of Frank Lowy and Kerry Packer who made major contributions. Actually, Frank Lowy gets two high-fives for also making a major contribution to the current construction of the Lowy Cancer Research Centre at UNSW.
The take-home message is: Massive donations, all tax-deductible, everybody wins!
It's been a week since the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games finished. What was the focus of a nation (or at least Channel 7) for 24 hours a day for 2 weeks is now but a distant memory, and the rest of us have shifted our attention to other non-Olympic matters (apart from debating whether Stephanie Rice and Eamonn Sullivan will get back together).
I'm a massive Olympic Games fan, and I loved seeing Australia win gold in Beijing. It's great seeing our country near the top of the medal tally alongside the big nations like China, USA and Russia. But, now a week later with it almost forgotten, is it worth it?
In Beijing, each gold medal cost Australia $17 million (with some reports as high as $50 million - Prof Kevin Norton, Uni of South Aus). So those 2 weeks cost us hundreds of millions of dollars.
And following all that, the Australian Olympic team came home with a "worse than expected medal haul". Well, we exceeded our predicted medal tally, but apparently the colour of the medals was wrong. You can spend as much money as you like, but it wouldn't change the fact that Alain Bernard may have had longer fingernails on the day.
Anyway, due to this "relative lack of success" John Coates now wants at least $200 million so that we can try and keep up with the Brits expenditure for London 2012.
No, it's not a good investment. The USA and Australia being the fattest nations in the world and the fact that they are getting fatter is proof of that.
Elite sport should be funded, but possibly not to the extent that it is, and definitely not to be increased. The sums of money that are being discussed are better spent elsewhere. For a suggestion of where, check out one of my previous posts!
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It's science.
First of all, he struggled with ADHD (attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder) as a child, and so by chanelling his seemingly never-ending energy into swimming laps in the pool, he was soon able to manage his ADHD without medication
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Last week I saw a show on the ABC called Anaesthesia, which described how pain-free surgery came about. Perhaps the most striking thing about this great breakthrough in medical science though, was how much dangerous self-experimentation was involved.
In the 19th century, Horace Wells had been attending "laughing gas" parties, common back then, and so began pioneering anesthetics by self-administering nitrous oxide, ether and chloroform. After some trials, Wells decided to make himself the guinea pig and was the first to go under nitrous oxide and had his own wisdom tooth extracted, successfully and painless, for the first time. Now officially recognised as the person who first demonstrated anaesthesia, Wells actually became addicted to chloroform which brought on a state of mental derangement which resulted in a hostile act for which Wells was imprisoned. He later committed suicide by slitting an artery, and yes, blocked out the pain with chloroform
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If I were to say “Name a famous scientist”, what would you say? Most probably Einstein or Newton. Or maybe Galileo, Darwin or Copernicus. This makes me wonder, in a few hundred years, will anyone remember the scientists of today? I’m not so sure.
Take Aristotle for instance. He managed to write books on physics, poetry, zoology, logic, government and biology. Crikey, if anyone did that today I suspect they would be remembered for a long time too! Today however, there are so many scientists, each working in a very specific and focussed field, that the window for world-wide recognition is very small. Within each field there are of course famous scientists that are highly honoured and respected by their colleagues and peers. And there is the Nobel Prize – the highest honour in science – which is an opportunity for a scientist to gain fame, if only for a day or two. But do we all remember who they are now? Even the most recent ones? Don't think so
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I can remember clearly learning in science class during junior high school that there are 3 states of matter: solid, liquid and gas. Cool, easy, got it.
Although working in the field of science today, I've managed to avoid as much information about physics and chemistry as I can. I'm better at other things. Anyway it's obviously worked, because the other night at the pub someone mentioned something about a fourth state of matter - plasma. I thought, hey cool
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The Tasmanian Devil is under threat of extinction because of a new transmittable parasitic cancer called Devil Facial Tumour Disease. With the first official case only identified in 1995, the decline in population is estimated to be as high as 50% due to this horrific facial cancer.
The cancer cells themselves are infectious and can be transmitted through biting or shared feeding habits. It is believed that the tumour is able to be spread because of a lack of genetic diversity among Tasmanian devils, and so the cancer cells are not recognised as foreign and are not rejected by the animal's immune system
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Australia is becoming a healthier nation with a very high life expectancy, only second to that of Japan! Continued investment in medical research and development is critical for both our health and our economy. Australian researchers have been described as “punching well above their weight”, meaning that the global financial gain in wellbeing is well above what we invest in Australian R & D. Relative to the GDP, the UK, US, Germany, France, Denmark and Canada all invest more than us in medical R & D, so this is not an unreasonable request.
Not surprisingly, it can be money well spent. For example, by decreasing the incidence of Alzheimer's disease by just 5% through Australian R & D, this would result in savings around $10 billion by 2050, and the development of the Gardasil vaccine expects to have returns in terms of wellbeing of around 2.5:1. Therefore in addition to the obvious health benefits, increasing R & D investment would be highly beneficial economically
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These days in science so much of the research is conducted through group work and collaborative efforts that new findings, ideas and data are now rarely named after their discoverer. This leaves the scientists themselves with the privilege of coining their own names as they so wish. As is the case with many gene names, this can result in a glimpse into the creative, curious, and sometimes bizarre, imaginations of some researchers.
Human gene names can probably be the most mundane over all. They are often very straight-forward, describing the function or significance of a gene, such as SLC11A1 (soluter carrier family 11 member 1). This means doctors can normally avoid having to explain to patients that they are afflicted with a life-threatening illness caused by a gene named after a cartoon character. However, there still are human genes with names like Pokemon, Sonic Hedgehog, Tigger, and ARSE
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Comment by Heidi
on Is Schapelle Corby Smoking A Joint?
BUT... having seen multiple cases where people get off so easy for horrific crimes, for example, speeding at 50 kmph over speed limit and killed 2 people = 4.5 years, and a brutal murder of 5 year old boy Cody Hutchings = 10 years....
I just find it different. Well I guess, if anything, this conversation suggests that Australia's Government needs to punish criminals much more harshly. No complaints here.
P.S. It wasn't just the Corby incident. I think David Hicks should've been dealt with back here earlier, and there's other cases overseas, if you're interested to hear.