Sydney scientist lands 'the biggest gig' in the world of natural history | juliepower
Rebecca Johnson has landed "the biggest and best gig" in the world of natural history with her appointment as chief scientist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.
But she owed her flight to the top of science in the world's largest natural history museum to Sadako Sasaki, the young Japanese girl who became the face of the children's peace movement.As an 11-year-old at a public primary school on Sydney's northern beaches, the scientist readShe was "utterly devastated" to realise that Sadako's death aged 12 from leukaemia was caused by mankind.
She described the new job in Washington DC was "the biggest and best gig in the world as far as museums are concerned". The Natural History museum's collection includes 146 million specimens. It draws nearly five million visitors a year. Professor Johnson discovered koalas had 26,000 genes, more than a human. They also had more detoxification genes than other species, which explained why they could manage a highly toxic diet of eucalyptus leaves that would kill another species. This has helped scientists treat them for chlamydia.
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