23 October 2024 Toad containment zone workshop 2
Working with the fantastic team at Rangelands NRM, we delivered the our second major workshops around the cane toad containment zone (TCZ). The workshop was ...
news
10 August 2024 Climbing arborists assess beetle numbers at Hyde Park
I recently attended a tree climbing event organised by City of Canning and City of Vincent. Not because I am particularly good at climbing trees, but becaus...
9 Aug 2024 Brenton attends World Congress of Herpetology
Brenton recently attended the 10th World Congress of Herpetology, which was held in Kuching, Malaysia. Brenton presented the background and analytical pipeli...
22 Jul 2024 PBG Team Writing Retreat
In late July, the Population Biology and Genomics team (Ben, Brenton, Haylee, Judy, Andy, John, Marta, and Holly) embarked on our first Writing Retreat! The ...
8 Jul 2024 Welcome to Marta Karolak!
We are pleased to welcome Marta Karolak to our team!
03 July 2024 Toad containment zone workshop 1
Working with the fantastic team at Rangelands NRM, we delivered the first of two major workshops around the cane toad containment zone (TCZ). The workshop wa...
01 July 2024 Sustainability Challenge and a little beetle
I recently had the pleasure of engaging with several teams of smart and creative students taking part in Curtin’s annual Sustainability Challenge.
27 Jun 2024 Brenton’s National Science Week video
As part of National Science Week, the WA Museum worked with Brenton to create a video on his research. In the video, titled ‘Northern Quolls: Genetics to the...
19 June 2024 Funding for phase I of the toad containment zone is announced
Cane toads have completely invaded WA’s iconic Kimberley region. Their invasion of the Kimberley has killed hundreds of thousands of native animals and irrev...
26 Jun 2024 Brenton awarded ‘Early Career Researcher’ Award
Congratulations to Brenton! Brenton was awarded the 2023 Early-Career Research Award in the Curtin University Science and Engineering Pro Vice-Chancellor’s S...
24 May 2024 Coding Club is up and running!
We have launched the Curtin University School of Molecular & Life Sciences Coding Club! Presented by PBG, Coding Club will run fortnightly during the tea...
20 May 2024 Welcome to John Ohiolei!
We welcome Dr John Ohiolei to our team!
15 Apr 2024 WABSI and Curtin Urban Biodiversity Forum
We recently hosted a forum between Curtin University and the Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute (WABSI) urban biodiversity program to explore ...
20 Mar 2024 Cost and Feasibility of Eradication Workshop
We recently hosted a two-day workshop on the ‘Cost and Feasibility of Eradicating Invasive Species’. The workshop was presented by Dr Dave Ramsey and Dr Mich...
15 Mar 2024 Ben presents keynote at invasive species management forum
Ben was invited to deliver the keynote address at the Future opportunities and challenges in invasive species management: bringing science and community toge...
8 Mar 2024 Agriculture and Biology Seminar Series presentations
Ben and Brenton were recently invited to speak at the weekly Bentley Agriculture and Biology Seminar Series, hosted by the Centre for Crop and Disease Manage...
2 Mar 2024 PCI Evolutionary Biology commentary piece
Ben recently authored a commentary piece ‘The evolution of a hobo snail’ for PCI Evolutionary Biology. PCI is a new publishing model that looks to avoid pub...
21 Feb 2024 Invasive Species Working Group
Brenton recently attended the first Invasive Species Working Group for the Integrated Pest Management Omics initiative. Brenton met with a variety of experts...
16 Feb 2024 Research priorities for the Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer
Ben attended a research prioritisation workshop organised by Kings Park Science and the Harry Butler Institue at Murdoch university. It was a meeting of con...
13 Feb 2024 Designing toad monitoring with Ranger teams
Ben met with Nyangumarta and Karajarri rangers to design sand plot surveys to enable monitoring of toad-affected species. The work was conducted on Nyangumar...
7 Feb 2024 New paper! Managing northern quoll populations
Brenton has led a new research paper on managing populations of the endangered norther quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus). The paper, ‘Conservation prioritisation o...
7 Feb 2024 Teaching materials about cane toad invasion for Yr 9s
Ben recently provided teaching materials for a year 9 science class, in the form of two pre-recorded presentations. The idea is for the students to hear fro...
12 Dec 2023 We have a lab!
Over the past month Haylee and Brenton have been working to establish the Population Biology and Genomics Group laboratory, and we are pleased to say, it is ...
1 Dec 2023 MLS Annual Symposium
Ben was recently invited to deliver the plenary talk at the annual Curtin University School of Molecular and Life Sciences research symposium. Ben’s presenta...
WABSI Symposium
Brenton was recently invited to give a small talk at a symposium being held at the official signing of the 2024-2028 Western Australian Biodiversity Science ...
13th Nov 2023 Ben featured in ABC video on cane toads
Ben was featured in a short video from ABC News Perth on the “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to prevent cane toads from spreading in parts of Western Austra...
31st Oct 2023 Ben quoted in ABC article on the the status of the cane toad invasion in WA
ABC News environment reporter, Peter de Kruijff, reported on the impending invasion of cane toads further into Western Australia in the article ‘Doubts cane ...
New podcast episode
Brenton was recently invited to contribute to the Forrest Research Foundation’s podcast series, Clever Quokkas.
Little beetle, big problem.
I recently spent a day with the Polyphagous Shot-Hole Borer Incident Response Team (PSHBIRT for short). Mind blown.
Mammal Society Plenary
Brenton was recently invited to give a plenary talk at the 69th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Mammal Society.
11 Sept 2023 Biodiversity Conference
Members of the Population Biology and Genomics Group attended the Biodiversity Conference 2023: Listen to Country, where they presented on the impending cane...
Tash Harrison wins travel grant
Congratulations to Tash Harrison, this year’s recipient of the Ada Jackson Irwin Street Commemoration Award in Zoology, at UWA.
All quiet on the western front
The toad invasion front is now 150km from Broome.
Announced!
We’ve been announced!
WA Naturalists Seminar
Brenton was recently invited to give a talk to the Darling Range Branch of the WA Naturalists’ Club.
Arrival
Ben and Brenton have arrived at Curtin and are working through the onboarding process. We have been ably assisted by our School business manager, Gail Wesco...
blog
Coronavirus forecast
I've made a shiny app that gives a ten-day forecast, by country, on likely numbers of coronavirus cases. The app is designed to give people a sense of how...
Tired of the profiteering in academic publishing? Vote with your feet.
Are you an academic? Want to do less, and make your research accessible to all? Read on. Academic publishing companies make vast profits by selling acce...
Picking pairs for climate change
Let's start with a doomed species. The white lemuroid possum is a spectacular creature that lives in the high altitude rainforest of Australia. As climate c...
Genetic back burning to halt invasions
Rather than cut and paste, here's a link to a quick article explaining the idea. Read it and then read on... How on earth did we ever come up with th...
Evolution makes invasions unpredictable
Pop quiz: what have cancer and cane toads got in common? Well, as it turns out, quite a lot. They're both examples of a spreading population. In the case of...
Evolution of immune systems during invasion
It goes without saying, perhaps, that your immune system is important to you. Without it, you'd rapidly be consumed by bacteria and fungus, and in the short...
The evolution of virulence during range shift
All these fascinating results showing that things on expanding range edges evolve in certain ways got me thinking. When pathogens spread through ...
Stopping the toad invasion
Cane toads are really good invaders. They move astonishing distances, and they breed like maniacs. A female toad can lay thousands of eggs at a ...
Snakes and Toads
You may or may not have gathered by now, but I care about snakes. In fact, it could be argued that I misspent my youth chasing them. In these ad...
Cane toads and advancing range edges
In northern Australia, the cane toad front pushes westward at around 55km per year; more than five times faster than it used to advance when toads were...