Dengue-blocking mosquitoes here to stay

This article was first published on Pursuit. Read the original article. Dr Perran Stott-Ross Story Producer: Nerissa Hannink Dengue fever and other mosquito-borne diseases remain a massive threat to human health and wellbeing. Urbanisation and climate change are likely to increase this threat as established mosquitoes spread to new environments and gain a foothold. Eradicating […]


Mini-beast renaturing: A time for local action

This article was first published on Pursuit. Read the original article. Dr Michael Magrath, Dr Steve Sinclair, Hiromi Yagui, Professor Ary Hoffmann and Professor Michael Kearney Insects in our environment are unsung heroes. These ‘mini-beasts’ are often inconspicuous, but they may have a huge impact on the health of ecosystems that sustain humanity. They pollinate […]


Male mosquitoes don’t want your blood, but they still find you very attractive

Original article published in The Conversation The Conversation Perran Ross, The University of Melbourne The whine of the mosquito is unpleasant and often inescapable outdoors on summer evenings. Mosquitoes track you down from tens of metres away by sensing carbon dioxide in the air you breathe out. Within seconds, they home in on exposed skin […]


Using unsorted sweep-net samples to rapidly assess macroinvertebrate biodiversity

Words: Melissa Carew Freshwater invertebrates are the insects, snails, clams, mites, crustaceans, and worms that inhabit streams, rivers, ponds and wetlands. They play an important role in understanding the health of our freshwater environments. The biodiversity of invertebrates present in freshwaters is routinely used by water managers to assess the ecological condition and feeds into […]


Improving mosquito control strategies with population genomics

Words: Tom Schmidt When researchers want to investigate evolutionary processes like adaptation and dispersal, they frequently make use of population genomic methods. Population genomics uses DNA data from across an organism’s entire genome – that is, across all of that organism’s DNA. This DNA data can be compared with DNA from other organisms, which can […]


Fly infertility shows we’re underestimating how badly climate change harms animals

Belinda van Heerwaarden, The University of Melbourne and Ary Hoffmann, The University of Melbourne Evidence of declining fertility in humans and wildlife is growing. While chemicals in our environment have been identified as a major cause, our new research shows there’s another looming threat to animal fertility: climate change. We know animals can die when […]


Variety is the spice of life… and key to saving wildlife

“This article was first published on Pursuit. Read the original article.” Dr Andrew Weeks and Professor Ary Hoffmann In the critical battle against extinction, conservationists use a variety of tactics to try to save species. One of the most fundamental tools is maintaining the amount of variation of genetic material (DNA) in a group of […]

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