Here are a few I have come across the last week or so. Note: Each link is followed by a title and a few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.
General Comment
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Only a few sleeps before Christmas and now seemingly heading into a new COVID lockdown. Not quite the Christmas we all wanted.
A few fun bits to browse.
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Vic govt axed IBM i2 from freshly digitised contact tracing system
By Ry Crozier on Dec 14, 2020 12:36PM
Did not meet predictive analytics needs.
The Victorian government stopped using an IBM analytics tool as part of its digital contact tracing system after its requirements changed and the system could not be reconfigured.
IBM was one of two large vendors - the other being Salesforce - that was brought in by the government in July to digitise contact tracing following a surge in coronavirus cases in the state.
However, a parliamentary inquiry into the re-developed system [pdf] has revealed that use of the IBM component was discontinued a month later.
The committee branded the IBM engagement “a misguided and costly mistake” in its report; the government spent almost $4.2 million on the IBM i2 advanced analytics software.
The committee said the government approached IBM in mid July “to determine whether its i2 analyst platform could assist Victoria with Covid-19 data analysis.”
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COVID-19 Results to be available earlier in My Health Record
17 Dec 2020
AMA members are advised that a change will be made in the My Health Record system so that COVID-19 pathology reports are available to consumers in their My Health Record sooner. From 21 December 2020, COVID-19 pathology reports will be available after 24 hours to consumers who have a My Health Record.
All other pathology reports uploaded to My Health Record will continue to be available after seven days, giving clinicians time to check the report first and contact their patient about the results, if needed. A review of the change will be conducted after 3 months.
Further information is available here.
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WA’s East Metropolitan Health Service deploys Philips’ Clinical Command Centre solution
Dean Koh | 16 Dec 2020
Dutch healthcare giant Philips announced the successful deployment of its Clinical Command Centre solution with Western Australia’s East Metropolitan Health Service (EMHS) to improve patient care and proactively detect the risk of patient deterioration.
WHAT’S IT ABOUT
As a cornerstone of EMHS’s Health in A Virtual Environment (HIVE) program, the Clinical Command Centre solution drives a hub-and-spoke model of care utilizing machine learning, and predictive analytics to reduce length of stay as well as complications, avoidable transfers and mortality.
HIVE clinicians are alerted when a monitored patient displays early signs of clinical deterioration. Once alerted, clinicians use the patient's information, data analytics tools and clinical systems to support and collaborate with the ward-based clinical teams using two-way audio and video to respond appropriately.
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December 14 2020 - 7:30AM
E-Scripts simplify the process for doctors, patients and pharmacists
· Rachel Chamberlain
IN the world of telehealth, QR codes are making it easier for doctors to get prescriptions to their patients.
Due to the pandemic, the government has fast-tracked the rollout of electronic scripts and their use is becoming increasingly common.
Over one million electronic prescriptions have been issued since June.
Doctors can send E-Scripts in the form of QR codes to patients' mobile devices via SMS or email.
The code can be forwarded to a pharmacy or brought in to be scanned, allowing the script to be filled.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/govt-pours-millions-into-covid-vaccine-tracking-systems-559175
Govt pours millions into Covid vaccine tracking systems
By Justin Hendry on Dec 17, 2020 3:29PM
The federal government will spend millions standing up tracking and monitoring systems for its planned Covid vaccination program slated to begin in March.
In its 2020-21 mid-year economic and fiscal outlook (MYEFO) [pdf], the government has earmarked a total of $75 million over the next two years to support the immunisation.
While it has not broken out the funding, at least a portion of this will be spent on “tracking and monitoring systems”.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said that $40 million will be used to "streamline processes" for the "approval and distribution, so the clinical information can be assessed in real time"
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Govt readies IT systems for Australia's Covid-19 vaccine rollout
By Tess Bennett on Dec 17, 2020 6:48AM
Inside the supply chain effort.
The Australian government has engaged software and data specialists to set up IT systems capable of managing and tracking the logistics of a Covid-19 vaccination program.
With four promising Covid-19 vaccine candidates progressing through clinical trials - and the first vaccine approved for emergency use in the US and UK - governments worldwide face the task of managing a globally coordinated supply chain effort to vaccinate their populations quickly and safely.
Once a vaccine is approved as safe and effective, which is expected to be early 2021, the Australian government is responsible for safely transporting doses from suppliers to the storage and administration sites.
It will also have oversight of the locations of doses, stock levels, locations for vaccination and who has been vaccinated.
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https://www.miragenews.com/preparing-australians-for-covid-19-vaccination-roll-out/
December 17, 2020 2:14 pm AEDT
Preparing Australians for COVID-19 vaccination roll-out
An important education campaign will be rolled out to inform Australians ahead of the COVID-19 vaccination program.
The vaccination roll-out will be a complex task and it will be important that people understand the process with the first vaccinations on track for early next year.
Minister for Health, Greg Hunt said the Mid-Year Fiscal and Economic Outlook 20-21 (MYEFO) reinforces the Australian Government’s commitment to continue to protect the community and get lives back to normal through this pandemic.
“The information campaign, with funding of $23.9 million, will work in partnership with the states and medical experts, to explain the regulatory processes, the priority groups, timing and roll-out to assist people to understand how the vaccines work, and to be ready for when they can receive the vaccine,” said Minister Hunt.
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Covid vaccine is bonanza for digital supply chain tracking industry
By Rajesh Kumar Singh on Dec 18, 2020 6:50AM
Sensors, tags crucial for cold chain monitoring.
More than half of vaccines go to waste globally every year because of temperature control, logistics and shipment-related issues.
Logistical hurdles are a significant risk for efforts to rapidly distribute Covid-19 vaccines, but they have resulted in booming business for companies such as private California-based Cloudleaf, Germany's SAP and others that sell technology for monitoring shipments from factory freezer to shot in the arm.
Cloudleaf, backed by Intel Capital, the venture arm of chipmaker Intel Corp, uses sensors attached to material containers to track the location, temperature, humidity, vibration and acceleration.
The sensors send data to the cloud, where an artificial intelligence algorithm can predict if action is needed to prevent a product from becoming exposed to temperatures outside the recommended range, known as excursions.
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GPS to keep track of COVID-19 jabs, with freezer crates ready to roll
Thermal GPS-enabled sensors will be installed in frozen shipper boxes to track the location and temperature of COVID-19 vaccines across Australia and prevent any spoilage.
Pharmaceutical company Pfizer has confirmed it will ensure its vaccines remain stored at below minus 70C during transportation across the country after they arrive by air from manufacturing facilities overseas.
“We will utilise GPS-enabled thermal sensors in every thermal shipper with a control tower that will track the location and temperature of each vaccine shipment across their preset routes,” the company said. “These GPS-enabled devices will allow Pfizer to proactively prevent unwanted deviations and act before they happen.”
Australia has ordered 10 million doses of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine, which was this week approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration in the US and is now being administered to Americans.
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WA clinicians are using My Health Record to provide better continuity of care
Published 17 December 2020
Western Australian healthcare providers are continuing to increase their use of My Health Record, with more than 56,000 views in October.
With the graph still on a steep upward trend, it is clear that clinicians are embracing My Health Record as a vital tool in providing clinical care.
Chief Clinical Information Officer and Emergency Physician Professor Peter Sprivulis said WA Health clinicians are demonstrating with their clicks the value of My Health Record in providing them with health information that is otherwise often difficult, if not impossible, to access by other means.
“The comprehensive picture of clinical issues managed by community providers, patients' medication usage and recent imaging and investigation results all add up to better informed and therefore safer, better quality clinical decision making,” he said.
Uploads to My Health Records in WA in October include 21,500 discharge summaries, 590,000 public and GP-referred pathology reports, 54,000 diagnostic imaging reports and 52 Goals of Care documents.
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https://www.health.gov.au/news/mumbubvax-new-website-for-expectant-parents
MumBubVax – New website for expectant parents
A new website will help expectant parents find reliable information about vaccination in pregnancy and for babies.
Date published: 18 December 2020
Type: News
Intended audience: General public
MumBubVax is a new website to help expectant parents find reliable information about vaccination in pregnancy and for babies.
The website answers common questions about vaccination in pregnancy and for new babies.
The MumBubVax website information is evidence-based and independent.
There is information about:
• vaccination in pregnancy
• vaccination for babies
• the National Immunisation Program.
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https://www.health.gov.au/news/mumbubvax-new-communication-tools-for-health-care-providers
MumBubVax – New communication tools for health care providers
A new online communication package is available to help health care providers conduct effective conversations with expectant parents about vaccinations in pregnancy and for new babies.
Date published: 18 December 2020
Type: News
Intended audience: Health sector
MumBubVax is a new evidence-based communication package to use in primary care or maternity services. It aims to improve conversations about vaccination between health care providers and expectant parents.
The MumBubVax package includes:
• VaxChat eLearning modules for healthcare providers
• a website for expectant parents with questions about vaccination in pregnancy and for new babies.
The MumBubVax VaxChat eLearning modules help providers adapt their approach to more effectively recommend vaccination during pregnancy. It will also help providers to answer questions from expectant parents.
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Issue identified with the Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service IHI Inquiry web services, affecting the date of birth field
Topic: Identification & Authentication
Date: Thursday, December 17, 2020
An issue was identified with the Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service IHI Inquiry web services, affecting the date of birth field. This issue resulted in a timezone to the consumer date of birth value in the IHI search response.
An issue was identified with the Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service IHI Inquiry web services, affecting the date of birth field.
This issue resulted in a timezone to the consumer date of birth value in the IHI search response. For example:
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Typical Response |
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http://ns.electronichealth.net.au/hi/xsd/common/CommonCoreElements/3.0">1973-06-09+10:00 |
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Defective Response |
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http://ns.electronichealth.net.au/hi/xsd/common/CommonCoreElements/3.0">1973-06-09+10:00 |
If your software was impacted, this may have affected My Health Record Interactions between the 5 December to 9 December 2020.
We therefore urge you to assess the potential impacts and take appropriate actions.
Please contact the Agency Customer Care Team on help@digitalhealth.gov.au if assistance is required.
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Report arrives following breaches earlier this year from emails spoofing Office 365 warnings.
By Chris Duckett | December 18, 2020 -- 04:51 GMT (15:51 AEDT) | Topic: Security
The NSW Auditor-General Margaret Crawford has released her office's report into how Service NSW handles personal and business information, following the agency being breached earlier this year.
In May, the agency fessed up to the phishing attack, which led to 47 staff email accounts being compromised. The breach was said to have impacted 186,000 customers and exposed up to 738GB of customer information contained within 3.8 million documents.
The Audit Office said in its report that the breach was actually a pair of phishing attacks across late March and early April -- the spoof email mimicked an Office 365 warning -- that led to a fake Office 365 log-in page from where credentials were harvested. Even though Service NSW had previously highlighted it did not have multi-factor authentication on its systems in 2018 and said it would be done by June 2019, it was not implemented until the breach occurred.
Even though Service NSW played down the impact of the breach in terms of customers affected this week, the Audit Office said it has not seen the data behind that statement and, at any rate, it was a serious breach and showed Service NSW needed to improve.
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Victoria was not fit to deal with COVID-19 and 'misguided' in choosing IBM health tracing
The state has also found the COVIDSafe app's effectiveness to be insignificant.
By Campbell Kwan | December 14, 2020 -- 03:52 GMT (14:52 AEDT) | Topic: Innovation
A parliamentary inquiry into Victoria's contact tracing system and testing regime has found that the state was not fit to deal with any escalation of cases, which eventually led to significant errors during its second wave of the pandemic.
This finding, made by the Victorian Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee, came with 46 others along with 19 recommendations that were published in a 260-page report [PDF] on Monday morning.
According to the report, the Victorian government's communicable diseases track and tracing system, called the Public Health Event Surveillance System (PHESS), experienced an unprecedented volume of data during the pandemic, which "affected system performance and reporting timeliness".
This led to the government seeking out vendors to provide automated health tracing capabilities.
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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=a5a05493-ef96-46fb-aa4d-fff30f09d04d
Health Bulletin 15 December 2020
Australia December 15 2020
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Russell Kennedy Principal to Chair new Advisory Group to explore patient information sharing amongst hospitals
The Victorian Government has appointed a Health Information Sharing Legislation Advisory Group, chaired by Russell Kennedy Principal Michael Gorton AM to explore information sharing amongst public hospitals in Victoria.
It is a key consideration of the Advisory Group that any proposal it puts forward does not replicate the national My Health Record. The Advisory Group will consider privacy and consent matters, and measures that can be put in place to prevent improper use and access to personal and sensitive health information.
The intent of the Advisory Group is to enable public hospitals to safely and securely share electronic patient records, in close to real time. This means that in emergency situations, full patient records can be made available to treating practitioners, at the point of care. Such regimes are already in place in other Australian states.
The Advisory Group intends to make recommendations for legislation in 2021.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/year-review-racgps-exam-disaster
Year in review: The RACGP's exam disaster
Australian Doctor looks back on the stories that shaped general practice in 2020
16th December 2020
This is the third instalment in a series running all week on the events and stories that impacted GPs in 2020.
It was the biggest disaster to engulf the college in 20 years.
A major IT failure derailed the all-important RACGP fellowship exams, leaving 1400 candidates distraught after what had already been an exceptionally tough year.
The college adopted the online ‘at home’ exam as a way of overcoming restrictions which had forced the closure of testing centres around the country.
This new format required candidates to be scrutinised by proctors through webcams while they typed their answers into an online program specially built by Genix Ventures.
“We had no other choice [but to opt for a remote exam]; the safety and wellbeing of candidates and those administering the exam demanded we make these changes,” then-acting RACGP president Associate Professor Ayman Shenouda told Australian Doctor in October.
Free eLearning course to help promote awareness about cyber security
15 December 2020
The Australian Digital Health Agency have created an eLearning course to help people working in the health sector recognise and manage cyber security risks.
The Digital Health Security Awareness course includes 5 modules. The modules include examples that relate specifically to healthcare organisations.
ADHA developed the course in consultation with representatives from a range of healthcare settings, including medicine, nursing, pharmacy, practice management and allied health.
Next steps
Access the Security Awareness Course through the Australian Digital Health Agency Cyber Security Centre.
You’ll need an account to access the course. It’s free to create one.
Page last updated: 15 December 2020
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$2.0M extension to milestone deal with South Tees NHS Trust
Key Highlights
- South Tees contract extended to cover Smartpage, cloud hosting, managed service for cloud hosting, and business change management services
- Additional $2.0M increases TCV of South Tees contract to $11.3M (1) over 5 years
- Announcement follows Alcidion’s milestone deal with South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for Miya Precision suite & ePMA announced on 9 November
Melbourne, Australia – Alcidion Group Limited
(ASX:ALC) is pleased to announce an extension of its contract with South Tees
Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (South Tees) to include cloud hosting on
Microsoft Azure, a managed service of the hosted environment, Alcidion’s
Smartpage clinical communication solution and business change management
services.
The total contract value (TCV) for the extension is $2.0M, which now increases
the TCV of the entire South Tees contract to $11.3M.
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Project iRAD: expanding the cloud-connected community health network
Tuesday, 15 December, 2020
One of the biggest challenges facing healthcare delivery is the sharing of clinical datasets from multiple services and disparate systems. It is broadly accepted that easy and timely access to patient information across different sites — for example, the patient records of a general practice and a hospital situated in the same community — enables clinicians to be better informed, leading to improved patient health outcomes.
Interoperability in the Australian healthcare system continues to stagnate. Efforts are in place to remedy this but accessibility, timeliness of information and lack of quality data remain significant challenges. Ensuring a continuum of care is a major priority in Australia and around the globe.
South Western Sydney Primary Health Network’s (SWSPHN) innovative Integrated Real-time Active Data (iRAD) interoperability project has enabled healthcare organisations to share patient-consented health records across the continuum of care.
SWSPHN is one of 31 Primary Health Networks (PHNs) across Australia. Funded by the federal government, these non-profit organisations were established to improve patient care and to, generally, make health care in Australia more efficient and effective. They support local doctors, health workers and patients in the communities they serve. Primary health care is generally the first line of service in the Australian healthcare system — typically, general practitioners. One of the major objectives of PHNs is to improve the links between local health services and hospitals.
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Digital platform tackles isolation in aged care
Monday, 14 December, 2020
CollabCare has released FamilyShare — a digital platform designed for older Australians living with or without dementia. Developed as a result of extensive research at Monash University, the platform uses messages, videos, music and personal photographs to stimulate long-term memories.
The system has been shown to provide independence, pleasure, engagement, alleviation of boredom and loneliness, as well as a reduction in agitation, aggression and depression in people living with dementia.
CollabCare’s Dr Kanvar Nayer designed and documented the development of the platform as part of his research at Monash University — The Development of a Personalised Multimedia System for Individuals with Dementia. He explained that the elderly have a different attitude towards technology than the technologically experienced younger generation.
“Age-related challenges informed the design of the FamilyShare platform, in terms of colour choices, architecture, auditory amplification, screen illumination, large visual detail and the need for users to be seated if a screen-based non-medicinal intervention was to be used,” he said.
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MEDIA RELEASE:
Motorola Solutions extends mission critical managed service for Victorian Government
Advanced data communication to support Ambulance Victoria’s future vision for world-class service and connected paramedics
Melbourne, Australia. – December 17, 2020 – Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI), has extended its agreement to provide the Victorian Government with a dedicated emergency data communications managed service for use by Ambulance Victoria.
Known as the Mobile Data Network (MDN), the network was the first emergency communications network to be procured under a build, own and operate public-private services model in Australia. It was first deployed in 2005 and provides secure mission-critical data communications for Ambulance Victoria, primarily across the greater Melbourne metropolitan region, to support their Ambulance dispatch capabilities.
Under the extended agreement, Motorola Solutions will keep Ambulance Victoria at the forefront of innovation by integrating a number of its technologies within a single platform. This will ensure the state’s paramedics receive the right information at the right time so they can deliver better care and outcomes for all patients.
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Friday, 18 December 2020 11:23
NBN Co set to take Sydney Festival content to regional Australia
NBN Co has been named Sydney Festival’s first Regional Partner in a move the National Broadband operator says will help connect audiences across Australia with creative content and cultural performances.
The partnership with with Sydney Festival, with see NBN Co help enable digitisation of the arts and support the rollout of creative content across the country.
NBN Co says this is the first time that Sydney Festival will showcase 100% Australian content and will be the first time the festivalwill be accessible online to anyone with an Internet connection.
As part of the regional partnership, NBN will take a recorded performance of “Spirit: a retrospective 2021” by Bangarra Dance Theatre, on a roadshow, creating pop-up events in five regional locations across Australia in 2021.
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Tuesday, 15 December 2020 23:22
TasmaNet completes NBN fibre connections rollout to Tasmanian schools
Tasmanian communications provider TasmaNet has completed the rollout of dedicated NBN fibre connections to 59 public schools around the State.
Hailing the completion as another milestone in the Tasmanian ‘education revolution’, TasmaNet said it now delivers dependable fibre connectivity with symmetrical download/upload speeds up to nearly 1 Gbps to more than one third of all Tasmanian schools and colleges, including services for the Tasmanian Department of Education, Catholic Education Tasmania, and independent schools.
“Completion of this build means that TasmaNet now delivers dependable fibre connectivity to more than 100 Tasmanian schools and colleges, helping to remove historical barriers to learning for students previously unable to access the digital resources and online collaboration essential to a modern education,” said TasmaNet CEO Rob Vernon.
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NBN Co disables instant online quotes for user-pays fibre upgrades
By Ry Crozier on Dec 15, 2020 12:18PM
A fortnight after soft launching the tool.
NBN Co has pulled its instant online quote generator that could be used to price an upgrade to fibre after a fortnight, saying the tool needed to be further “optimised”.
“Due to the high volume of interest for more complex applications, the online quote tool is temporarily unavailable at this time,” a short message on the quote page reads.
“We’ll continue to explore ways to further optimise the customer experience of the tool.
“We apologise for any inconvenience this might cause.”
The calculator was pulled offline at lunchtime on Sunday.
An NBN Co spokesperson was contacted for additional comment.
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https://www.itwire.com/telecoms-and-nbn/5g-fixed-wireless-ready-for-takeoff-analyst.html
Monday, 14 December 2020 16:58
5G fixed wireless ready for takeoff: analyst
Analyst firm Frost & Sullivan predicts that 5G fixed wireless is about to replicate the success of 4G for this application.
The firm says 4G fixed wireless access (FWA) has been launched by an estimated 406 mobile operators in 164 of the 195 countries in the world.
Fixed wireless was the first use case for 5G when it was launched in 2018, and the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the characteristics of of 5G mean it can affordably address gaps in digital connectivity. It is expected to play a significant role in expediting digital transformation by redefining access technology to enable critical and vital broadband as the foundation for market disruption.
Examples include Softbank in Japan (offering download speeds of up to 350Mbps in some areas but with an average speed of just 40-50Mbps) and Zain in Saudi Arabia (which gained tens of thousands of subscribers within a year, with at least four times the ARPU of 4G subscribers).
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Asteroid samples leave Japan scientists ‘speechless’
· AFP
Scientists in Japan were left “speechless” when they saw how much asteroid dust was inside a capsule delivered by the Hayabusa-2 space probe in an unprecedented mission.
The Japanese probe collected surface dust and pristine material last year from the asteroid Ryugu, about 300 million kilometres away, during its six-year mission. This month it dropped off a capsule containing the samples, which created a fireball as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere, and landed in the South Australian desert before being transported to Japan.
Scientists at the Japanese space agency JAXA on Tuesday opened the inner container. “It was more than we expected,” said JAXA scientist Hirotaka Sawada. “It wasn’t fine particles like powder, but there were plenty of samples that measured several millimetres across.” It is hoped the dust will shed light on the formation of the universe.
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Enjoy!
David.
