Resistance Radio – Gordon Grigg – 03.06.16

Gordon Grigg enjoyed a career as an academic zoologist who managed to spend a lot of time working in the field. Apart from interests in crocodylians that go back to 1971, he studied thermoregulatory biology of free-ranging echidnas and platypus in Australias high country, and flew aerial surveys of kangaroo populations for nearly 30 years. His PhD came from a study of fish biology at the University of Oregon. He then had 20 years on the academic staff at the University of Sydney followed by 20 years at the University of Queensland where he is now an Emeritus Professor. (A well balanced career!) His primary research interests are in vertebrate zoology, particularly their physiology, ecology and evolution and he has authored or co-authored about 200 peer-reviewed publications, about one quarter of which are on crocodylians. Today we talk about crocodylians.

ARE WE OVERLOOKING THE REAL ARSENIC RISK?

Geologist Qusheng Jin had “a wild hypothesis” in 2008 that a bacterial process was at work in an arsenic-contaminated aquifer in Oregon’s southern Willamette Valley. In a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, Jin’s team shows the process is in play and concludes the practice of just monitoring total arsenic levels for groundwater safety is not enough. They suggest organic …