When I began my PhD, I was fascinated by a deceptively simple question: how do plants turn genes into colours? Walk through any garden and you’ll see the answer shimmering in red petals, purple leaves, or even blue flowers – colours born from anthocyanins. These pigments don’t just decorate plants; they act as antioxidants, sunscreens, and ecological messengers, protecting tissues,
Back Garden Biology — or from little things big things grow (with respect to Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody) On a sunny winter afternoon during a long Melbourne Covid lockdown, I found myself crawling about in the back garden looking for insects with my daughter as part of her home schooling and we chanced upon a liverwort growing between the
It was a very busy National Science Week for the Centre! Researchers from the University of Tasmania were at the Beaker Street Festival as Roving Scientists and working with high school art students at CoLab. Researchers also gave demonstrations as part of the Young Tassie Scientists Road Trips, and invited attendees at the Festival of Bright Ideas to become Plant Detectives! At
While science outreach can be simply about the joy of giving back to the community, it can also be used to support and accelerate your research career. Universities and research centres are starting to prioritise scientific outreach, and considering the unfortunate escalation in public mistrust in science and scientists, this is a wonderful thing. If you ever get frustrated by
The Best Practice Guidelines for the Collection and Transfer of Genetic Resources are a comprehensive framework designed to guide ethical and scientifically sound practices in the management of genetic resources. Australian law in relation to the collection, transfer, and use of genetic resources is fragmented and incomplete. This creates problems for researchers, access providers, and Indigenous Australians. The Guidelines help
The laboratory strain of Nicotiana benthamiana, a native Australian plant, has been extensively used for the last two decades in plant research around the world. It has an almost unique ability to rapidly express foreign genes in its leaves after simple injection of a bacterium, carrying the foreign DNA. The Waterhouse group has been pioneering an understanding of the species’
Last week was our 2025 Research Retreat, where there was once again a high calibre of posters and presentations from Centre members. This year, we were thrilled to be joined by many invited speakers, including Alison Bentley, Renee Lafitte and Belinda Medlyn, who delivered engaging plenary talks. We were also joined by Tia Squire from Untapped who delivered a fantastic workshop on communication across neurotypes that sparked
The past three years as a postdoc in the Brodribb Lab at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) have been a transformative chapter. After completing my studies in Spain—from undergrad through to PhD—I was lucky to receive a mobility grant from the Spanish government, which launched me into a new adventure overseas. Not only did I relocate geographically, but I also
More than 52 million hectares of Australian land—an area equivalent to eight times the size of Tasmania—is degraded, with severe implications for biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being. In 2022, Australia committed to the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), pledging to restore 30% of this degraded land by 2030, which equates to roughly 15.6 million hectares. Achieving this ambitious goal requires
