The Circle of Life: Birth, Sex and Death

Crime shows often focus on weapons, DNA and dramatic chase scenes - but real forensic science is far more surprising. In some investigations tiny organisms found on or around a body can help piece together the circumstances of a crime.

Male animals get the ornaments. Females? Don't need to look fabulous, when males are already competing for you! But science sees what it expects. Enter the bean beetle, and a rather inconvenient complication.

Could your local park become home to a new population of wildlife? With the right tools, yes! But we need a lot of information – including on the genetics of the population. This talk will demonstrate how a decade of research and monitoring have helped to establish a robust, genetically healthy population of a favourite Western Australian marsupial right in the suburbs of Perth. Even complex conservation can happen right in our cities, in places people walk past every day.