Media Release
August 14 2003
Science is a 4-letter word
One of the world’s most loveable four letter words will be used to
launch the Mawson Lakes Science Expo as part of National Science Week in
Adelaide.
The word is “f-r-o-g”, and these slippery amphibians will be the central
focus of a science exposition hosted by the University of South
Australia’s Mawson Lakes campus designed to make parents and young
people realise that science is an absorbing career that offers exciting
challenges and opportunities.
Professor Michael Tyler, one of the world’s leading authorities on
frogs, will present “FROG is a four letter word” at the Mawson Lakes
Hotel, Thursday August 21, at 4.30pm in an event that will officially
launch the Mawson Lakes Science Expo.
Professor Tyler will discuss ways in which frogs have the potential to
assist our lives and to be the source of cures for diseases such as
golden staph, to provide pain killers far more powerful than morphine
yet non addictive, and to also provide mosquito, bird and rodent
repellants.
“We can learn so much from frogs, for they are - in many ways – nature’s
barometer of what is happening in our world. They have the most complex
skin in the world, and by studying them we can learn an extraordinary
amount about the future.”
And he jokingly points to the fact that frogs represent the only society
in which the female is silent.
Chairman of the Mawson lakes organising committee, Mr. Peter Turner,
says that it is vital for Australia’s future that more young people
enter science as a career.
Our nation will fall behind the rest of the developed world unless we
rapidly do something to remedy the situation of a severe shortage of
science and maths teachers, and young people are turning away from the
sciences.”
Mr. Turner said that on Sunday August 24, UniSA’s Mawson Lakes campus
will showcase the application of science in our everyday lives through
interesting displays, rocket workshops, activity sessions, environmental
interpretive trails, science shows and for our budding scientists,
information careers in science.
Further information
http://www.mawsonlakes.sa.edu.au/scienceexpo
Peter Turner 0408 824021
Professor Mike Tyler 8278 2734