December 24, 2010
Podcast from Dec22nd iPad ELFS information night
Listen to 10 minutes of edited hilights from the December 22nd iPad Enhanced Learning for Firstyear Sciences night.
November 2, 2010
October information night for teachers – podcast
This podcast is a recording of the opening remarks by Professor Bob Hill at an information night for teachers held on October 26th. Professor Hill is the executive dean of the faculty of sciences. His remarks give background to the iPad Enhanced Learning in First-year Sciences (ELFS) plan and address the ‘ten big questions’ around which the faculty will structure its offerings.
More information on the iPad ELFS plan and the information night available on the faculty website.
September 3, 2010
Baroness Susan Greenfield-Annual Florey Lecture
The Human Brain is now wired for change 
Date/Time: Friday, 3 September 2010, 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm
Location: Bonython Hall, University of Adelaide, North Terrace
Cost: Gold coin entry at the door with proceeds to Florey Medical Research Foundation
More information: Visit website
August 25, 2010
Are ‘refined’ carbohydrates worse than saturated fat?
The Inaugural Innovation in Food Lecture
Date/Time: Monday 6th September, 4pm
Location: Plant Research Centre Auditorium, Waite Campus
School of Agriculture, Food & Wine Named Lecture Series: Innovation in Food Lecture 2010
Speaker: Professor Jennie Brand-Miller, University of Sydney 
Are ‘refined’ carbohydrates worse than saturated fat?
The take home message from health authorities for the past three decades has been ‘eat less fat, especially saturated fat’. Now a new paradigm is arising: that the processed carbohydrates which replaced the energy from fat, may increase the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease more so than fat – a finding that has enormous implications for the Australian food and agricultural industry. Both quantity and quality of carbohydrate are relevant to the debate. The rate of digestion and absorption of carbohydrates is assessed as their ‘glycemic index’ (GI). This lecture will focus on well-designed studies demonstrating that carbohydrates that are slowly digested and absorbed (i.e. low GI carbs) are good for health and reduce risk factors associated with lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes. Improving carbohydrate quality is therefore a better approach to health and sustainability issues than ‘ditching the carbs’. Professor Jennie Brand-Miller is recognised for her work on carbohydrates and diabetes. Her books under the series title The New Glucose Revolution have sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide and appeared in 12 languages.
The inaugural Innovation in Food Lecture was established to recognise individuals making significant research advances in the areas of food, health and nutrition. The Lecture was named for the world class FOODplus Research Centre which is a joint venture between the Functional Food group at the University of Adelaide’s Waite Campus and the Child Nutrition Research Centre at the Women’s and Children’s Health Research Institute. FOODplus is undertaking research linking sustainable agriculture, food and nutrition to improve human health. This research fosters economic relationships with industry and coal-face agriculture, creates research sustainability and translates nutrition research into food products with real health outcomes.
To be followed by drinks and nibbles
Contact: Dr Amanda Able (email), School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, University of Adelaide, Business: +61 8 8303 7245
July 27, 2010
Waite Research Institute Launch
Congratulations to the Waite Research Institute on its launch!
If you missed the launch, you can listen to Prof Roger Leigh’s talk via this link.
June 11, 2010
World Cup Soccer Ball – the Physics of the Jabulani
The 2010 World Cup is about to commence and there has been a lot of speculation on the accuracy of the new soccer ball. The University of Adelaide’s Professor Derek Leinweber decided to take a closer look this new ball (Jabulani) to investigate further.
If you missed Professor Derek Leinweber’s lecture on the physics behind the new ball, listen to the podcast.
May 4, 2010
Yale University Professor presents:The evolution of the genetic code
Professor Dieter Söll from Yale University will be guest speaker at the 3rd Bob Symons lecture, ‘The evolution of the genetic code: a work in progress‘:
At the time of its elucidation the genetic code was suggested to be universal in all organisms, and the result of a ‘frozen accident’ unable to evolve further even if the current state were suboptimal. How do we see the genetic code today – 40 years after the familiar ‘alphabet’ with 20 amino acids was established? Professor Soll, with over 470 scientific publications, has led the team which discovered selenocysteine and pyrrolysine, the 21st and 22nd amino acids which are directly inserted into growing polypeptides during translation. Based on the realization that protein plasticity is a feature of living cells, man-made expansion of the genetic code has begun by adding non-standard amino acids to the repertoire of the cell. Professor Soll will discuss these present evolutionary developments and how they underpin the creation of new organisms in the realm of synthetic biology.
Date/Time: Monday 24th May, 4pm
Location: Plant Research Centre Auditorium, Waite Campus
School of Agriculture, Food & Wine Named Lecture Series: The Bob Symons Lecture 2010
Contact: Dr Amanda Able, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, University of Adelaide, Business: +61 8 8303 7245
At the time of its elucidation the genetic code was suggested to be universal in all organisms, and the result of a ‘frozen accident’ unable to evolve further even if the current state were suboptimal. How do we see the genetic code today – 40 years after the familiar ‘alphabet’ with 20 amino acids was established? Of course, the ‘genetic code’ is the product of its interpretation by the translational machinery and it is only static as long as the components of this machinery do not evolve or are strictly conserved between organisms. Professor Soll, with over 470 scientific publications, has led the team which discovered selenocysteine and pyrrolysine, the 21st and 22nd amino acids which are directly inserted into growing polypeptides during translation. Based on the realization that protein plasticity is a feature of living cells, man-made expansion of the genetic code has begun by adding non-standard amino acids to the repertoire of the cell. Professor Soll will discuss these present evolutionary developments and how they underpin the creation of new organisms in the realm of synthetic biology.
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