Whakaari / White Island

We visited an active marine volcano, located on the subduction zone between the Indo-Australian plate and the pacific plate.

The volcano as we could see it from the boat when we arrived.

The steam is very rich in sulfur dioxide and that can be quite uncomfortable that's why the tour guides provided gas masks.

Steam coming out of the crater. There is only hot water and steam visible from the surface. At its nearest point, the magma chamber is located 1km below the surface.

Hot water and steam, looks like a boiling pot of soup.

This big steam column appeared only a few months ago, it is deposing a lot of sulfur dioxide on the walls behind. The sulfur will turn yellow when exposed to the atmosphere.

The yellow color is sulfur deposits and the orange color is due to iron.

The impressive lake inside the crater, temperate varies between 38 and 90 degrees in this lake. It is a super saturated solution of acid, PH is equal to -1!

Merry Christmas

We are very behind with the updating of our blog! We've been to so many amazing places!!! 

Brisbane - Stradbroke Island - Adelaide - Yankalilla - Kangaroo Island - Perth - Margaret River - Boranup Forest and now we're heading towards Braidwood. 

Sooooooooo many beautiful beaches and panoramas, strange birds and animals on our ways, as koalas, seals, sealions, huntsman spiders, kangaroos, wallabies, quokkas, kookaburras, gang gang and so on. We snorkeled and biked on the islands and played music with many people. For sure, we'll put some pictures of our travels soonish on the blog!!! :-)  

For Christmas, Australians do not decorate their houses for Christmas, but themselves!! Plenty of people dress up in white-red Christmas clothes or as reindeer:-) Merry Christmas!

Margaret River

After a visit to our Friends Claire and David in Perth, we are currently working as "wwoofers" on an Olive Plantation in Margaret river, 275 km South of Perth. They sell their products under the Brand "34 Degrees South". It is the latitude of Sydney and Cape town in South Africa and it is also the latitude of Margaret river. It rains more in this region and the paddocks are still green. There is no lack of water around here. Their Olive trees are irrigated and look very big for 8 year old trees.
This morning, we've been packing dukkah in little 100g bags. It is a traditional dish from north Africa composed of nuts and spices like cumin and cardamon. They dip bread into olive oil and eat it with the dukkah.

Alpacas on the farm

A Rainbow on a rainy morning

Goulburn

Goulburn, home of the big merino is a country town, located 90km to the north east of Canberra.

Bush and pastures constitute the typical landscape around Goulburn.

It had been raining, and the pounds were full of water.

A destroyed windmill, probably damaged by a strong wind.

A view of Goulburn from the war memorial.

A description of Aborigines from this region. Goulburn is part of the traditional land of the Gandangara people. (click on the image to see a wider version)

The main street.


The car I'm driving is a Mitsubishi Magna Executive. It has over 360000 km.

Magpies singing

Magpies are about the size of a small raven. But they fly and walk a lot closer to humans than the ravens we have in Europe. People in Canberra could tell you stories about magpies attacking them while riding bicycles, or stealing jewellery.


Fiacre was playing the guitar while a few magpies game to sing with us.


Magpie in a Eucalyptus in Goulburn.

Monopoly of US corporation over Human Genes - Issue of Public health in Australia

BRCA1 and BRCA2 - Tests for Breast and Ovarian Cancer

As I am doing an Intellectual Property course this semester, I am more involved in patent issues, especially concerning the patenting of the unpatentable... human genes.

The US corporation Myriad Genetics is the patent owner of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
These genes in question are responsible for up to 10% of cases of breast cancer.

For several years Australian women who have a family history of breast cancer have been able to use the DNA test in public hospitals to see whether they are genetically predisposed to the disease.

None of the testing laboratories has been granted a license by Myriad Genetics, patent owner of BRCA1 and BRCA2. There is only one licensed DNA-testing company in Australia and in New Zealand, Genetic Technologies.

Genetic Technologies has decided to enforce its rights and has consequently ordered laboratories across Australia to stop tests for a genetic mutation in genes linked to breast cancer.

Therefore it will be the only and sole laboratory throughout Australia that continue providing this breast cancer predisposition test.

The consequences are very alarming!!
The access to that test for women will become much more difficult. Furthermore, no competition will impose Genetic Technologies to maintain the price at its current level of $2,100 and will let them free to raise it to much higher levels!

There is a great deal of controversy in Australia, especially the Australian Council for Cancer is concerned. Although, there are ways the Australian Government could prevent the corporation from imposing its monopoly (through compulsory licenses or crown-use), it is extremely unlikely at the moment that action will be taken before the 6th November, the absolute deadline for the 10 laboratories in Australia to stop testing breast cancer.

The laboratories asked to stop testing are not going to defend these matters of public health, as, as you can imagine, they themselves own patents over human genes.

.... this is one example of the current developments and impacts of patent law and public health.

It is of great concern to see that over 20% of the human genome are already monopolised by US patent owners. I don't know if I should be more concerned about private companies or public bodies. Both private and public seem to capitalise the most benefit out of it.

DEVELOPMENT OF PATENT LAW

A long time ago, patents were deemed to protect inventions in order to enhance research and technology transfers.

Nowadays, an invention is no more something really inventive.

To satisfy the threshold criteria of inventive step it is sufficient to isolate an element from its natural environment. The process of isolating (a human gene) constitutes satisfactory human intervention in order to apply for a patent.

Instead of human INVENTION we are considering human INTERVENTION ?!?!?!?!?!

It is true that the granting of patent facilitate the transfer of knowledge, because each patent owner has to disclose the entirety of his invention.

But can another researcher make use of the disclosed knowledge? ... not in the 20 or 25 years of the patent life.

In the meanwhile, the monopolisation of the patent matter prevent enhancing research and forces researchers to request licences from more and more patent owners worldwide.

The critical point is, that there is no logical restriction separating genes and living beings...animals have been patented,as oysters and mice.

The only legislative limit is that an entire human being is unpatentable... but what if I just INTERVENE ....

Yass nursery - Eucalyptus - pots - and watering system

At Yass nursery, I've potted Eucalyptus plants.


The first plants we took care of where Eucalyptus polyanthemos also called "Red Box". The round juvenile leaves are somewhat similar in shape to those of the judas tree (cercis siliquastrum).

Eucalyptus melliodora also called "Yellow Box".


Eucalyptus Bridgesiana, also called "apple Box".

A Eucalyptus Bridgesiana photographed at the ANU college of law.


We protected those plants with a net to prevent the kangaroos from eating them.

Those special pots have holes on the end of little cones covering the sides of the pot. Those holes increase the aeration of the potting mix. This helps the root system develops nicely.

Roots of a eucalyptus plant after one year in this type of pot.


The building these pots is easy and fast.

The Yass river is located at 500m distance to the nursery.

This is the heart of the water system.


Trees are being watered every three days approximately. They shouldn't be watered to often because the river water is salty.


The owner of the nursery decided to plant a demonstration garden, to show plants to his customers. This photo is a part of the drought resistant plants that we planted last week. He says he plans to open a cafe-restaurant over looking the garden at the top of the hill. "But that's for the next owner..."