He’s got the paua
A high-school student in New Zealand has
invented an award-winning tool to prevent
small shellfish from being killed by divers.
Diving for the shells of the edible abalone
(below) is legal in New Zealand, but they have
to be 12.5cm long to be fished or they must be
discarded, and levering them off the rocks for
measuring means they often die anyway.
This needless waste inspired 18-year-old
Mitchell Hollows, a keen diver, to invent his
‘Koru Paua’ tool (right). Paua is the Maori word
for the mollusc (which has a mushroom-like
taste) and koru means life or new growth.
Hollows used CAD design software and his
school’s (South Otago High School) 3D printer
to create his prototype. The tool, which is
still in development, works by being placed
above the mollusc, then uses parallel lasers
to harmlessly gauge its exact length.
His ‘no-contact’, low-cost invention
certainly impressed the judges of the 2016
ASB Bright Sparks competition, which gave
him a ‘supreme innovator’ award. In the
future, Hollow’s laser-tech solution could
be used to prevent human interaction from
damaging other forms of marine life.News
of the
Earth
A spine-tingling
fishing expedition
Scientists from Duke
University have discovered the
Connective Tissue Growth
Factor A (CTGFA) protein in
zebra fish. Why is this
important? Because it helps to
heal spinal-cord damage.
Tests showed that when the
zebra fish’s spinal cord
ruptured, a bridge of cells
formed, followed by nerve
cells and tissue. In about eight
weeks, paralysed fish were
swimming again. Professor
Kenneth Poss said: ‘We need
to look to animals like zebra
fish for new clues about how
to stimulate regeneration.’Words: Yashi Banymadhub. Photographs: Ashton Tourell; iStock; Shutterstock; Science Photo Library
016 / / JANUARY 2017Zebra fish could
hold the key to
reversing spinal
damageThis invention by a
New Zealand student
measures shellfish in
situ to protect them from
premature harvesting