You may not know it, but you are using and eating products with seaweed in them every day.

A derivative from seaweed called carrageenan is used as a thickening or stabilising agent in dozens of everyday products including toothpaste, lipstick and diet soft drinks. The farming of seaweed is a multi-billion dollar industry and it is growing.

The University's publishing company has been short-listed for an award from the Australian Book Industry.

A place in the final four being considered for Small Publisher of the Year is a huge vote of confidence in UWA Publishing from the book industry.

While some families enjoy a UWA tradition, with generations following each other here, there are not many who can claim the Mackenzie brothers' feat.

In 1996 Petra Buergelt was an unsettled immigrant from Germany, living in New Zealand and wanting to go home.

She did not return home to Germany to live but now, 16 years later, Dr Buergelt has used her personal experiences to gain rare in-depth insights into the migration process, and turned them into an MA, a PhD, extensive publications and a research speciality that resulted in an invitation to address a meeting of 17 Western nations in Geneva recently, as they discussed migration issues.

Bruce Bennett, one of the most respected and admired scholars and teachers in Australian literary studies, has passed away after a long illness.

Medical text books make way for novels, poetry, diaries and letters in the classes of Professor Femi Oyebode.

The Raine Visiting Professor from the University of Birmingham uses literature to teach psychiatry to medical students. "Humanities teach us about life, and diseases manifest in a person's life, not just their bodies," he said.

One of the biggest excuses for giving up exercise is not having enough time.

But when Roberto Busi found his life getting busier, he took up running - and 18 months later, won his first cross country race.

Cafes and shopping bags - trappings of the western world - are the latest projects for SIFE students to make a difference in the developing world.

Local high school students have impressed the world with their knowledge and skills, thanks to mentoring by UWA scientists.