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Find out the latest news, announcements and stories about Biology at ANU.
- RSB 50th Anniversary
In 1978, Adrienne Hardham, Brian Gunning and Joanne Hughes published several papers about the mechanics of root meristem function and cell division in Azolla plants. This work was instrumental in understanding the process of cell division and differentiation in Azolla, and the the growth and development of plants.
- RSB 50th Anniversary
Carboxysomes are polyhedral protein micro-compartments in cyanobacteria which concentrate CO2 and increase the efficiency of carbon fixation. In 1993, RSBS researchers Dean Price, Murray Badger and Susan Howitt determined the genetic sequence encoding for the proteins that form the protein shell of a carboxysome.
- RSB 50th Anniversary
The transformation of green, photosynthetic algae from their original simple aquatic life to advanced terrestrial plants was a key event in the history of planet Earth. An early achievement of RSBS was the identification of the extant representatives of the algae that accomplished this major evolutionary advance.
- RSB 50th Anniversary
Opuntia stricta (Prickly Pear) was introduced into Australia around 1840, but became a pest of epidemic proportions in the first two decades of the 20th century.
- Academic profile
In my research, I have been a bit of a jack-of-all-trades, which is well suited to teaching the large first year classes ranging in topics from evolution and ecology through to biochemistry and molecular biology.
- RSB 50th Anniversary
In the 1990s, Ian Morgan was working on retinal neurotransmitters, including dopamine, in RSBS. Every now and then, he came across a paper suggesting that dopamine could slow eye elongation and prevent myopia. This led to the discovery of a fascinating story.
- News
The Australian National University (ANU) Research School of Biology has awarded the inaugural Ralph Slatyer Medal for outstanding biological research to Professor Mark Westoby from Macquarie University.
- RSB 50th Anniversary
In 2000, Mandyam V. Srinivasan and colleagues showed that honeybees use the optical bypassing of the environment to measure distance. Srinivasan’s group trained bees to fly to food though a 6m tunnel lined with optical patterns. The bees overestimated the distance, communicating to other bees a distance of 200m.
- RSB 50th Anniversary
In 2015, for modelling photosynthesis, the world’s most important biological reaction, Graham Farquhar won the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science.
- RSB 50th Anniversary
Hartnup disorder is a rare disorder that is caused by an inability to absorb the breakdown products of protein digestion, namely amino acids. In 2004, Stefan Bröer’s group discovered the gene that is mutated in Hartnup disorder, a transporter that mediates the absorption of amino acids in the intestine and kidney.