Lee Berger wins Frank Fenner prize for life scientist of the year while ANU emeritus professor Kurt Lambeck wins prime minister’s prize for science
The sudden crash of several frog species in Australia and central America between the late 1970s and 1990s was a global mystery. Six species were lost in Queensland alone. The prevailing wisdom was environmental factors must be to blame for their extinction. Could it be rising pollution? Or ultraviolet radiation from the growing hole in the ozone layer?
It turned out it was neither. A group of Australian scientists showed environmental change was not responsible, and in the process upended conventional thinking about what can trigger species loss. It started as a theory from Rick Speare, a Townsville-based doctor and vet: that an infectious disease was spreading north through Queensland, wiping out frog species as it went. He invited Lee Berger, a veterinary science graduate from the University of Melbourne, to join the investigation as a PhD candidate.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2QQczN8
via
0 Comments