ScienceNetwork WA

DESPITE  its polarising title, Dr Derek Elsworth promised ‘Shale Gas and Frac[k]ing: Environmental Saviour or Devil Incarnate’ would be an even-handed look at hydraulic fracturing.

WITH its free-floating fibrous roots and rapid growth rate, the water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is one of the most invasive aqueous weeds in Australia and, for many countries around the world, a serious environmental and economic issue.

A TEAM of Perth researchers is causing a major rethink on geological history after a study showed major iron formations in Australia, about 1.8 billion to 1.9 billion years old, were synchronous with those found in North America.

COLLISION avoidance technology and remote control programming have led to an award-winning mining system being developed in WA.

GIVEN Chinese supply restrictions and increasing future demand, WA is well positioned on Rare Earth Oxides (REOs).

THE National Information and Communications Technology Australia (NICTA) is applying machine learning to locate ‘hot rocks’ suitable for geothermal energy production.

THE ongoing debate on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has gotten more interesting with Environment Minister Bill Marmion’s decision to allow the controversial technique to go ahead in WA.

THE Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) – one of the world's leading collaborative research organisations focusing on carbon capture and storage (CCS) – has successfully completed a second stage of research at the Otway Project in Southwest Victoria, which focused on CO2 storage in saline formations (deep porous rocks that contain water).

RESIDENTS of Carnarvon will soon have their homes and workplaces powered by the energy of the sun, following the completion of a new solar power station.

AS the global population exceeds 7 billion, leading sustainability researchers from the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute (CUSP) suggest that urban population growth may be the key to making Australian cities more sustainable.