Margaret Gregory

By Abigail R. Hall Blanco, Jennifer Schneible

For a new college graduate, finding a job is stressful. That first job is more than a paycheck. The job represents the accumulation of hours of hard work and a start on a stable future. In a job market dominated by resumes, connections and previous work experience, college students will often turn to internships, paid and unpaid, to gain a competitive edge.

While paid internships are usually seen as similar to other jobs, unpaid internships have come under increased scrutiny. Critics contend that since employers know students are desperate for experience, employers can abuse their interns with long hours and poor work conditions, all without compensation.

Two interns who worked on the film “Black Swan” recently sued their former employer, with one claiming that unpaid internships “rob … people of the value of their labor.”

In light of such concerns, some perhaps well-intentioned critics want unpaid internships outlawed. But there is nothing exploitative about unpaid internships.

The charge that companies exploit unpaid interns is false and misleading. They do receive benefits. Economics teaches us that people engage in exchanges only when each party expects to come out ahead. Unpaid internships are no different. No one forces anyone to take an internship, so students must expect to gain even if unpaid. How so? They expect to learn on the job.

Prohibiting unpaid internships is a bad idea for many reasons. It would make the competition for paid internships skyrocket. An estimated 500,000 to 1 million unpaid interns are employed annually, and there wouldn’t be enough paid internships to go around if unpaid internships were abolished. Many companies may not be able to afford the added expense and wouldn’t hire interns at all. This means many students would miss out on the opportunity to gain work experience.

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Brisbane and Townsville –

Queensland-based company Fibercon has been named among the country’s greats in the area of innovation for its recycled plastic fibre concrete reinforcing product Emesh.

The company, which has offices both in Brisbane and Townsville has taken out the Manufacturing, Construction and Infrastructure category at the prestigious The Australian, Shell and Department of Industry, Australian Innovation Challenge Awards, held in Canberra in December 2015.

As well as the prestige of winning the prize, Fibercon has also been awarded $5,000 from a total pool of $65,000 in prize money spread nationwide.

The win was a team effort involving Fibercon CEO Mark Combe, Fibercon’s Technical Developer Mr Shi Yin, Fibercon R&D Manager Tony Collister and Dr Rabin Tuladhar Senior Lecturer and Associate Dean (Engineering), James Cook University.

According to Mark, concrete represents the second most used material by humankind, second just to water.

“With an annual use of 24 billion tonnes of concrete globally, it’s vital that we improve sustainability performance,” Mark said.

“At the same time, global plastic production every year is more than 300 million tonnes, out of which only 5% is currently being recycled, leading to burgeoning plastic pollution.

“Recycling a part of this plastic waste into fibres provides an opportunity to reduce global plastic pollution.

“Furthermore, use of this recycled plastic fibre in concrete contributes towards sustainable development by reducing the consumption of steel in concrete.”

Mark said the product ticked a number of boxes to win favour with the judges, including: Project Introduction and Novelty, Potential Impact, Environmental Sustainability and End User Benefit and Adoption and Take-up.

“We’re a green product that has been successfully commercialised,” Mark said.

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Wednesday 09 December 2015

Researchers at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre are pioneering the development of a new combination drug therapy to treat advanced blood cancers which has doubled survival times in pre-clinical laboratory models.

Their study, published overnight in Cancer Discovery, builds on a world-first clinical trial already underway at Peter Mac which uses the drug CX-5461 to treat patients with incurable blood cancers such as myeloma, lymphoma and leukaemia.

The trial has shown promising results to date, however the research team has found that CX-5461 could be even more effective when used in combination with another drug, Everolimus, which is already used to treat other cancers.

According to Professor Rick Pearson, Head of Peter Mac’s Cancer Signaling Laboratory, the research findings significantly enhance understanding of pre-emptive strategies to kill off cancer cells before they have the chance to become resistant to therapy.

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