Outgoing speaker Anna Burke has welcomed new MPs to Parliament House this morning, after earlier lashing out at ALP caucus over the opposition frontbench announcements. 

Victoria Police changes mobile speed camera laws.

And Cricket Australia faces criticism for refusing to run a public health service advertisement. 

Triple R Midday News 15 October 2013

By Luke Devine, Luke Henriques-Gomes, Virginia Millen and Andi Yu

Political commentators say former Attorney-General Nicola Roxon's attack on Kevin Rudd shows Labor still has healing to do.

The Australian Medical Association urges the Federal Government to reverse the freeze on Medicare rebates, with medical consultations set to rise. 

And, Australia capitulates in the second test against India, with the locals recording the second-highest run chase of all time.

Image courtesy of Blue Mountains City Library.

Triple R Midday News 17 October

Image: Horia Varian via Flickr

For many undergraduate students, a career in research seen is as a backup plan or a second option. LUKE HENRIQUES-GOMES took a tour of a university medical research lab to see what it's all about. 

FEMALE VOICE: So this is the biomedical science precinct I’ve got …

LUKE HENRIQUES-GOMES: I’m out in Clayton at Monash University. Professor CHRISTINA MITCHELL is the Dean of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences here, and she kindly agreed to show us around. Professor Mitchell has been the Dean here since 2011, but she says that’s more of an administrative position, and what she’s really keen to talk about is research. 

CHRISTINA MITCHELL: So this is my research lab. These are very stressed honours students …

LUKE HENRIQUES-GOMES: Of course it's not uncommon for undergraduate students to think of research as a second option. For Professor Mitchell, it was something she just fell into. 

CHRISTINA MITCHELL: 25 years ago I was training to be a blood specialist. And halfway through my training, I was training to be a haematologist, and I was in charge of 10 patients with acute Leukaemia, and they were all under the age of the 30. And they all died. And I looked after them for that whole year and then they all eventually died. So I found that very stressful and I thought, ‘I’ll take a year off, research looks pretty easy they’re always down having cups of coffee reading the newspaper. It seems like a nice time for a year.’ So I started it, with no expectation of liking it, and I loved it. 

DISTANT VOICE: Their theses are due in at 4 o’clock …

LUKE HENRIQUES-GOMES: Back in the lab, some of the younger researchers are scrambling to finish their work as their deadlines draw nearer.

BRENDAN: My name’s Brendan Wilding. 

LUKE HENRIQUES-GOMES: And what do you do here? 
BRENDAN: I’m trying to finish off my PhD, so in my final year. 

LUKE HENRIQUES-GOMES: How’s it going?

BRENDAN: It’s good. It’s a challenge. And I think it’s life defining doing a PhD and doing an honours. It kind of makes you the person you are at the end of it, I think. Yeah. 

LUKE HENRIQUES-GOMES: Would you recommend it to other people? 

BRENDAN: I would. I would recommend people try it and get a taste for it and see if it’s for them. 

LUKE HENRIQUES-GOMES: On the other side of the lab, PhD student Sandy is working at the benches.

SANDY: I’m working on a model of polycystic kidney disease, so I’m basically characterising a mouse. And trying to work out the molecular mechanism of the cyst development. 

LUKE HENRIQUES-GOMES: Like Brendan, Sandy says she loves her research, though it isn't without its struggles. 

SANDY: Yeah, it’s quite challenging. I think you’ve gotta be quite an optimistic person, because it can be quite hard going at times when things aren’t going your way. You feel like you’re putting in a lot of hours and not getting much in terms of reward. But when you do get good results and things do go your way it’s really rewarding. 

LUKE HENRIQUES-GOMES: While Brendan and Sandy are giving research a try, Professor Mitchell says many undergraduate and high school students don't get the chance to see how fun science can be. 

CHRISTINA MITCHELL: I also think undergraduate science, both at school and even at university, doesn’t always give students a taste of what it’s really like when you’re actually doing it. Because so much knowledge is required to actually do it, you have to go through all that dry, stale stuff. So it’s kind of like, if you’re reading a cookbook, on how to make a cake, and you read it, the whole concept of making a cake is really interesting. But if you actually have to do it yourself it’s much more fun. And then if you take it one step further, and you have to discover a new cake, or a new something, that makes it even more exciting. And so you can imagine if you had to invent a cake, and you invented a cake and no one had ever done it before. So it’s sort of … you’ve gotta experience it to understand the joy of discovery. 

VOICES: Is yours in Daniel? Mine’s In. 


From the cookbook to the kitchen: A career in scientific research

I produced this voice report for City Journal News, RMIT's radio news service. 

"In the fall out from East Timor's presidential elections, observers have praised the island nation's ability to hold a fair and free vote.

Luke Henriques-Gomes reports."