Ask a Scientist: More questions about space!

Welcome to Ask a Scientist, where we answer your most pressing science questions! Today, we are joined by Senior Postdoc Dr Hendrik Falk, who works in Discovery Technology at the Cancer Therapeutics CRC.

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Do you have any significant proof that there is life beyond Earth? – Corbin, 12

Scientists are still researching this, for instance a type of molecule thought the be produced by living cells was discovered recently in the Venus’ atmosphere (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02785-5) But it turned out there are more questions about what the measurement really means – good proof of life anywhere else but Earth is still a dream. Maybe you’ll find it one day?

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What is the universe made of? – Victoria, 10

All made from the same stuff as earth and our surrounding solar system, just loads more of it, and a lot of empty space in between!

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I would like to know if the end of space has ever been seen. – Vinh, 11

Nobody knows if it is even visible, it is also too far away and moving further away all the time. There’s a pretty cool video about the expanding universe that you can look at here.

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Who invented the moon? – Dylan, 9

Who invented Earth? Both don’t need humans, they were already there before us.

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How can there not be any gravity in space but more on earth? – Vihaan

There is a little gravity in space. On board the International Space Station they call it microgravity, but it is not noticeable because the space station is falling around the Earth all the time. Only beyond the last planets of the solar system there would be not gravity observed.

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In the future will there be another planet that we can live on? – Ryan, 8

Doesn’t seem likely with the knowledge and resources we have today. Can you imagine sending your family, house, garden, sports club and whatever to a place as far away as Mars and setting everyone up there to live safe and happy? Further imagine this for your friends, the friends of your friends, and so on to all people in Australia? That will be a big ask…

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Dr Hendrik Falk’s work covers the first steps in creating a new treatment for cancer patients. In drug discovery, scientists identify and refine molecules that modulate a specific function of cancer cells or the rest of the body, for instance to boost the immune system to better fight cancer. This work builds on the innovative findings of other researchers, and it is the exchange with other scientists that he enjoys the most. 

Sharing his knowledge with students is a great way to nurture their interest in the world!

Meet a Scientist: Assoc. Prof. Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat

Today’s interview is with Marie-Liesse, a Division Head at WEHI, and a keen runner who has been part of our Relay team since 2019. Marie-Liesse has worked on leukaemia and on breast cancer, and now works on lung cancer. Today, she talks about how her career evolved, and how she became interested in research.

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Ask a Scientist: Dinosaurs!

Today’s Ask a Scientist post is brought to you by Lizzie Lieschke! Lizzie is a PhD student working on cancer research, but she also has a keen interest in all things prehistoric. Today, she is answering all your most burning questions about dinosaurs.

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How many dinosaurs were there in the past? – Gabriel, 8

So far scientists have discovered and named about 900 dinosaur species from fossilised remains. But we are discovering more all the time. About 50 new dinosaurs get named every year! It is also very likely that there were dinosaurs that lived that we will never know about because none of their bones or remains were fossilised.

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How did the dinosaurs become extinct? – Vincent, 8 and Lucy, Grade 3

Scientists believe that the dinosaurs became extinct because a large meteor hit the earth around 66 million years ago. This would have caused lots of rock and dust to fly into the air causing it to turn dark for a long period of time (months to years), as well as cool the temperature of the earth. There is a crater in Mexico that supports this theory.

There were also a lot of volcanic eruptions happening and most scientist believe the eruptions would have also played a part in making the world colder and darker. Dinosaurs were not the only animals that became extinct at this time. Lots of plants, and other animals like fish and insects, also died out.

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How are some old animals extinct, but some are not? – Destino, 9

Animals, or species, can go extinct for many reasons. Some things that can cause extinction are loss of the species’ habitat, climate change, competition with other animals or a reduction in the animal’s food supply. If these changes happen too quickly and the species cannot adapt to the new conditions (e.g. find a different food, move to a more suitable area to live), these animals become extinct. Sometimes the animals will be able to change and adapt to these challenges and survive.

Species go extinct all the time due to natural causes and sometimes many go extinct all at once, like the dinosaurs, in mass extinction events. There have been 5 mass extinctions in the history of the earth where up to 95% of species of animals and plants died out, but some always manage to survive, and repopulate the world.

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Why do some people say dinosaurs went extinct due to a volcano while other people say they went extinct from an asteroid? – Sadie, Grade 3

The only way to know for certain why the dinosaurs died would be to go back and see what happened but unfortunately, we don’t have a time machine yet! So, we have to make the best guesses we can based on the evidence that we can find.

Here is what we know:

1. We know which rocks we find dinosaur skeletons in, and we know how old they are. On top of this, we find rocks that are made during a meteorite impact – and we have a meteorite crater in Mexico that would have made these rocks. Then in the rocks created after the meteorite, there are no dinosaur skeletons. This is pretty good evidence that the meteorite did something to wipe out the dinosaurs.
2. We also know that there was a lot of volcanic activity going on just before the meteorite, and just after. We can test the age of the rocks to find out when they were made. This amount of volcanic activity would be changing the climate, and this wouldn’t have been good for the dinosaurs either.

Looking at all the evidence, some scientists think it is option 1 is better, and some think option 2 is better. Some people even think that both of these events could have played a part in the extinction of the dinosaurs! I guess we won’t know for sure until someone invents a time machine.

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Lizzie Lieschke is a PhD student and scientist studying why people get sick with cancer. She is researching how one of our genes protects our normal cells from becoming cancer. She hopes that by gaining more knowledge into how this gene works, we can make our current treatments for cancer more effective.

Lizzie has always had a passion for learning about the natural world. In Grade 1, her teacher suggested she should become a palaeontologist, and when she came back from a holiday, her sister told her she needed to take more photos of people than of rocks! At university Lizzie had a hard time deciding on which science she liked best, so she tried to do them all, by taking subjects in biology (animal, human and plant), geology, climate science, and chemistry. However, when she had the opportunity to work in a cancer research lab over the summer, she found this was what she was meant to be doing. She loves how as a scientist you are constantly learning, and that what we do aims to benefit others.

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Science at Home: Balloon Rocket

This is a cool experiment that demonstrates Newton’s Third Law of Motion: for every action there is an equal (in size) and opposite (in direction) reaction.

Dr Lahiru Gangoda is a cancer researcher and a member of Team WEHI. Her research is on finding better ways to treat skin cancer. Don’t forget wear your sun screen! You can read more about Lahiru here.

*Science is great fun! But please, always check with an adult before you start your experiment*

Ask a Scientist: Space and Atoms

Today’s answers to your burning questions come from Lahiru Gangoda and Catherine McLean.

Why can’t you hear in space? – Maggie, 9

Everything in the universe is made of atoms, tiny particles that are too small to see. These atoms can stick together to make molecules, such as water or salt or carbon dioxide.

Sound travels through the vibration of molecules in a medium (such as air or water), and the closer together the molecules are, the faster it can travel. This is why sound travels faster underwater, and it’s also why tin can telephones can work – the molecules that make up a piece of string are packed very closely together and so they can vibrate and transmit sound very efficiently!

But space is a vacuum with no molecules. So, there is no medium for the sound waves to travel through, and so you cannot hear any sounds in space. – Lahiru Gangoda and Catherine McLean

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Why is the moon so bright at night? – Abi, 10

Every planet and moon in our solar system reflects the Sun’s light. During the day, the sun illuminates the earth’s atmosphere. Looking into the sky during daytime you will see it is not dark, making it hard to see the moon in the sky. The moon only seems bright in the night sky because it is so close to the earth and because your surroundings are so dark at night. – Lahiru Gangoda

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How big is Jupiter? – James I, 11

Jupiter is more than 300 times bigger than Earth. If Earth were the size of a grape, Jupiter would be the size of a basketball. – Lahiru Gangoda

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Why is the sun hot? – Natalie, 8 and Dre, 8

The sun is basically a giant nuclear reactor at the centre of our solar system. The sun creates its energy by nuclear fusion. This brings us back to atoms again! The centre of any atom is called a nucleus – which is where the word nuclear comes from.

The sun takes hydrogen atoms and subjects them to intense pressure and heat, until their nuclei stick together, or ‘fuse’, to create a new sort of atom – helium. During this process, a huge amount of energy is released, and this provides the light and heat for all life on earth. – Lahiru Gangoda and Catherine McLean

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How does ice melt in summer? – Giovanni, 8

Remember our molecules from Maggie’s question? Well, how closely individual molecules stick together determines their texture or state. When you put water in the freezer, this slows the molecules down until they stick together, forming solid ice (salt does this already at room temperature!).

Ice melts during the summer when heat energy from the sun is absorbed by the ice surface. The heat energy causes the water molecules to move faster, breaking the bonds between molecules to form liquid water.

And if you heat the water right up to boiling point, the molecules will move faster and faster again until they break away from each other entirely and become steam – a gas. – Lahiru Gangoda and Catherine McLean

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Dr Lahiru Gangoda is a cancer researcher and a member of Team WEHI. Her research is on finding better ways to treat skin cancer. Don’t forget wear your sun screen! You can read more about Lahiru here.

Catherine McLean is the captain of Team WEHI, and not a scientist at all! She did, however, study Genetic Counselling, as the only Arts graduate in the course, and this left her with a passion for science communication. You don’t need to be a scientist to be interested in science!

Meet a Scientist: Associate Professor Kate Sutherland

For today’s profile, we interviewed Kate Sutherland, a Laboratory Head at WEHI who is working on lung cancer. Kate began relaying with Team WEHI in 2019, and fortunately her enthusiasm doesn’t melt in a shower, because she wound up relaying through a pretty big rain storm! Here, Kate talks about her passion for addressing discrimination and prejudice in health research, and about her excitement in discovering new things.

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Ask a Scientist: Trees and plants

Welcome to Ask a Scientist, where we answer your most pressing science questions! Today, we are joined by PhD student Lizzie Lieschke and Senior Postdoc Dr Hendrik Falk, to answer two questions about green and growing things.

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My question for the scientist is how many trees are there left in the world today? – Harriet, 8

This is a tricky question to answer as it would take too long to count every single one, and people keep chopping down trees, but also planting new ones.

Because we can’t count them all, this means we have to use models to estimate the number. We can use satellite images to see how much area of the world is covered in trees. Then we send people to count trees in a small area. We can then use maths to calculate how many trees there would be if all the world had the same number as the small are. When a group of people did this, they said there were 3 trillion trees in the world! – Lizzie Lieschke

This link has a video that shows you how the trees are distributed across the world.

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If the plant goes out of the space, how will it grow? – Harriet, 8

Are you asking about plants growing too big for the space they are in, or about growing plants in space?

If you want to know about plants outgrowing their space, you could try that in an experiment. Take a plant and restrict its space and see what happens.

What I expect to happen depends on what the plant is missing. Typically plants try to grow towards unoccupied spaces. If the plant is missing light, it will try to grow towards any remaining light spot. On the other hand, if is lacking water or nutrients it may die before it can grow roots long enough to find a new water source.

As for growing plants in space, scientists have grown plants on the International Space Station, so the plants don’t need gravity – but you still need to provide air (carbon dioxide), water, salts, warmth! – Hendrik Falk

This link has a video about growing plants on the International Space Station!

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Lizzie Lieschke is a PhD student and scientist studying why people get sick with cancer. She is researching how one of our genes protects our normal cells from becoming cancer. She hopes that by gaining more knowledge into how this gene works, we can make our current treatments for cancer more effective.

Lizzie has always had a passion for learning about the natural world. In Grade 1, her teacher suggested she should become a palaeontologist, and when she came back from a holiday, her sister told her she needed to take more photos of people than of rocks! At university Lizzie had a hard time deciding on which science she liked best, so she tried to do them all, by taking subjects in biology (animal, human and plant), geology, climate science, and chemistry. However, when she had the opportunity to work in a cancer research lab over the summer, she found this was what she was meant to be doing. She loves how as a scientist you are constantly learning, and that what we do aims to benefit others.

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Dr Hendrik Falk’s work covers the first steps in creating a new treatment for cancer patients. In drug discovery, scientists identify and refine molecules that modulate a specific function of cancer cells or the rest of the body, for instance to boost the immune system to better fight cancer. This work builds on the innovative findings of other researchers, and it is the exchange with other scientists that he enjoys the most. 

Sharing his knowledge with students is a great way to nurture their interest in the world!

Science at Home: Milk Flower

This is a lovely and colourful experiment that shows how soap works! It is brought to you by Lahiru and Malinthi.

Dr Lahiru Gangoda is a cancer researcher and a member of Team WEHI. Her research is on finding better ways to treat skin cancer. Don’t forget wear your sun screen! You can read more about Lahiru here.

Malinthi is in grade 5. She loves science and looking after the environment. She is an environmental leader as her school and this year she participated in the Science Victoria’s Science Talent Search “Deep Blue: innovations for the future of our oceans” and NATA Young Scientist of the Year competition on Food Safety. She also loves dogs, dancing (ballet, tap, jazz) and playing music (piano, trombone and guitar).

*Science is great fun! But please, always check with an adult before you start your experiment*

Ask a Scientist: Weather and Floods

Today’s answers to your burning questions come from AC and Lizzie Lieschke!

I would like to ask what machine they use to check the weather? – Olivia, 12

Scientists use lots of machines to check the weather. Some are: thermometer (temperature), barometer (air pressure), anemometer (wind speed), rain and snow gauge, hygrometer (humidity), and wind vane (wind direction). You could set up your own simple weather station in your garden and record the observations daily. – Lizzie Lieschke

Here are some instructions on how to make some of the instruments for a weather station of your own!

Meet a Scientist: Hema Subas-Satish

Today, we meet Hema Subas-Satish, a scientist who is at the very beginning of her career as a cancer researcher! Hema became an unofficial member of Team WEHI since 2018, when she joined us not to walk, but to demonstrate science experiments at our ‘Science Never Sleeps’ marquee. She had so much fun that she joined us as a full team member in 2019, and and in 2020, walked the word ‘Life’ across the Cartlon Gardens – twice, because one of the letters went wrong the first time. That’s dedication for you…!

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