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News

Tuesday, 05 Mar 2019

An international study has found a drought alarm system that first appeared in freshwater algae may have enabled plants to move from water to land more than 450 million years ago – a big evolutionary step that led to the emergence of land animals, including humans. 

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Tuesday, 29 Jan 2019

Human error, not human biology, largely accounts for the apparent decline of mortality among the very old, according to a new report by Saul Newman of the Research School of Biology, ANU. The result casts doubt on the hypothesis that human longevity can be greatly extended beyond current limits.

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Two people looking at a plant in a lab
Thursday, 24 Jan 2019

A scientific breakthrough intended to help boost the yields of food crops has solved a long-standing question of how cyanobacteria, known as blue-green algae, builds the carbon-capturing engines called carboxysomes in a protein liquid droplet formation.

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Tuesday, 18 Dec 2018

Fred Chow has dedicated his working life to the study of photosynthesis.

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Tuesday, 18 Dec 2018

Susanne von Caemmerer is recognised as a worldwide expert for using mathematics to represent the process by which plants convert sunlight, gases and water into sugars and oxygen – photosynthesis.

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Thursday, 13 Dec 2018

Sam Periyannan was born and brought up on a small sugar cane farm in Southern India. He never dreamed he would become a crop researcher, rather than a cane farmer.

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Events

Natalie Tsang
15 Aug 2025 | 3:30pm

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is a key retrograde signal in plants, linking chloroplast-derived stress cues to nuclear gene expression.

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Distinguished Prof Natalia Dudareva, Purdue University
11 Aug 2025 | 1 - 2pm

Plants synthesize an amazing diversity of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that facilitate interactions with their environment, ranging from attracting pollinators and seed dispersers to protecting themselves from pathogens, parasites, and herbivores.

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Jack Wess
1 Aug 2025 | 1pm

Fungal diseases are among the most significant causes of wheat yield loss globally and pose a serious threat to food security.

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Abigail Graetz
20 Jun 2025 | 1pm

Plants don’t exist naturally in isolation. They are surrounded by, colonised by, and interact with, microorganisms.

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Annapurna Devi Allu
30 May 2025 | 3:30 - 4:30pm

Our research explores the concept of priming-induced stress memory in plants, where exposure to mild or non-lethal stress events equips plants to better confront subsequent, more severe stressors.

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Caitlin Moore
28 May 2025 | 12pm

The simultaneous measurement of meteorological variables along with ecosystem physiology has improved our understanding of how native and managed ecosystems respond to external forcings like climate change.

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