Zoology

• Amid the controversy surrounding preliminary flight paths for Western Sydney’s new airport, another potential challenge is looming: turtles on the tarmac.
• In recent years, a freshwater turtle was found wandering around Sydney Airport, which is built on Botany Bay.
• And at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, employees carried 1,300 turtles off the tarmac in one nesting season alone.
• Read more:
  Our turtle program shows citizen science isn't just great for data, it makes science feel personal

Western Sydney airport is turtle nesting habitat

• And data collected through the 1 Million Turtles citizen science tool TurtleSAT reveals Western Sydney is a roadkill hotspot.
• Wetlands, including the area around the new airport at Badgerys Creek, serve as prime nesting habitat.
• A spokesperson for Western Sydney airport, contacted for comment on this story, said all of the required wildlife and risk management procedures would be in place when the airport opens in late 2026.
• She said the turtle habitat was well outside of the airport site, so the risk of turtles on the runway was negligible.

Turtles at the crossroads

• Turtles are often little more than an afterthought in hectic construction plans and timetables.
• While groups such as Turtle Rescue NSW can relocate wildlife such as turtles, eels and fish, many animals die when streams and wetlands are drained and filled during development.
• This is important to ensure the long-term survival of turtles in the region.

It’s not too late for Western Sydney’s turtles

• The likely presence of turtles on runways at Western Sydney’s new airport warrants immediate attention.
• We acknowledge the vital contribution of Western Sydney University masters student Harriet Gabites to research on the turtles of Western Sydney and this article.
• James Van Dyke receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian Federal Citizen Science program.

• The top scholarship winners included:
  Jeffrey Fung, of Los Altos, Calif., a fourth-year college student studying chemistry at Harvard College.
• Mallory Sutherland, of Bakersfield, Calif., a second-year college student studying Agricultural Business at California State University, Fresno.
• Veronica Baralt, of Bakersfield, Calif., a first-generation college student and first-year college student, who will study electrical engineering at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
• Raef Makrai, of San Mateo, Calif., a second-year college student studying data science and economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

• Rigorous certification standards help to verify the high level of animal welfare provided by SeaWorld Abu Dhabi.
• The event took place at the National Press Club and included remarks from SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment; owner and operator of SeaWorld Yas Island Abu Dhabi, Miral; and Global Humane celebrating the milestone for animal welfare.
• “We are thrilled that SeaWorld Abu Dhabi and Yas SeaWorld Research & Rescue have joined their U.S. counterparts in meeting the standards to become Global Humane Certified,” said Dr. Robin Ganzert, President and CEO of American Humane.
• Our partnership with SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment and our certification by Global Humane reinforces our dedication to raising the standard for animal welfare in the region."

• This knowledge of DNA allowed for a deeper understanding of how DNA stores information and how it is replicated.
• For most of the past 70 years the names Watson and Crick have been synonymous with DNA.
• And the three papers were the result of direct input from seven authors: Rosalind Franklin, Raymond Gosling, Maurice Wilkins, Alec Stokes, Herbert Wilson, James Watson and Francis Crick.

Nevertheless she persisted

• In Watson’s 1968 book The Double Helix he frequently disparages Franklin, making negative comments about her appearance, her feminist principles and her emotions.
• It was a photograph generated by shining x-rays through a crystal of DNA, using a technique called x-ray crystallography.
• The image is known as Photo 51, and it contained critical information on the physical dimensions of DNA.

Things could have been different

• One based in King College London, which included Wilkins and Franklin.
• The article describes an exchange of information, including Franklin “checking the Cavendish model against her own x-rays’ data”.

Unlocking the role of DNA

• Without an understanding of DNA’s role in biology Watson and Crick would not have been at all interested in DNA.
• She produced the first x-ray images of DNA.
• Bell’s work also gave her an inkling of DNA’s critical role in biology.
• They used bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, to show that DNA, not proteins, carried genetic information.

Taking the credit

• The male authors of the 1953 DNA paper enjoyed long careers in academia.
• But Chase only had a brief spell as a researcher before losing her job, for reasons that are unclear.
• Franklin’s achievements were cut short by her death from ovarian cancer in 1958 at the age of 37.
• And Elizabeth Fulhame introduced to science the concept of catalysis, 40 years before its “discovery” by Jons Jakob Berzelius in 1835.