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Singapore to boost defences against animal-borne diseases with six new research projects
The projects will help Singapore better anticipate public health risks that can arise from climate change and the cross-border movement of people, animals and agents that carry and transmit diseases. ST PHOTO: JASEL POH SINGAPORE – Amid a surge in pet ownership and human-wildlife interactions, the National Parks Board (NParks) has awarded grants to projects that investigate how animal-borne diseases spread here. Announced on Aug 5, the projects are funded by the $15 million Biosurveillance Research Programme, which taps the local research community to deepen scientific knowledge of animal-borne diseases and develop strategies to manage them. Led by researchers from Duke-NUS Medical School, the National University of Singapore (NUS), and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), the projects will help the Republic better anticipate public health risks that can arise from climate change and the cross-border movement of people, animals and agents that carry and transmit diseases, said NParks. Six of the seven proposals submitted were selected. Chua Tze Hoong, group director of veterinary health at NParks’ Animal and Veterinary Service, noted that even as Singapore remains free of major animal-borne diseases such as rabies, the Republic is a major transit hub for migratory birds and animal products, and is located in a region with many animal-borne diseases. The research supplements Singapore’s biosurveillance efforts during “peacetime”, said Chua. Under the grant, researchers will study novel molecular approaches and paint a clearer picture of the complex interactions between disease-carrying organisms, humans, animals and the environment. This includes analysing how land use and human behaviour influence animal movement and disease distribution. One project, led by Gavin Smith, professor and director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School, will investigate disease pathways in settings like dog runs, veterinary clinics and animal shelters, among other things. The project will involve sampling the environment for diseases of concern as well as lesser-known bacterial parasites and viruses, painting a clearer picture of how they move between humans and animals, said Smith. By understanding how diseases spread, the authorities can implement simple but effective interventions, such as targeted cleaning protocols, to reduce the spread of specific disease-causing agents, he added. Veterinary consultant Teo Boon Han, who is a co-investigator of the project, said: “Given how close we are with our pets; how we hug them, kiss them... there has been an increase in interest and new evidence regarding the interactions and transmission pathways of certain pathogens from companion animals to humans.” On a personal note, Teo, who is a managing partner at VetTrust Singapore, said the research will help him better protect his veterinary care staff by studying the poorly understood risks that they face on the job. Another project will assess and quantify the risk of diseases spreading from local wild mammals to humans through shared environments. Led by Janelle Thompson, an associate professor from NTU’s Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, the team will focus on otters, civets, plantain squirrels and fruit bats, as these are commonly found in urban spaces. Thompson said the team will cast a wide net by measuring biomaterials shed in both nature reserves and high-traffic human-animal interfaces, such as housing estates and parks. She added: “The point of our project is not to pick one pathogen and focus on it, but to use an approach that could handle any pathogen.” The Biosurveillance Research Programme, launched in 2025 under Singapore’s Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2025 Plan, is rooted in the World Health Organization’s “One Health” approach.
张曦娜最新小说集《欢乐岛》描绘跨越百年岛国众生相
张曦娜出版小说集《欢乐岛》，以10篇小说描绘走丢的历史轨迹。 （互联网） 1980年代，情窦初开的男女前往露天影院看琼瑶电影；害怕被捕而走进森林的马共成员；因双语政策而出现的“双流教师”；被贴上左倾标签的文艺团体；庶民美食辣椒螃蟹发展为国菜……跨越百年的岛国众生相，尽在《欢乐岛》里。 《欢乐岛》是张曦娜的全新小说集，从旧报纸、口述历史、回忆录汲取素材，描绘岛屿边角，以10篇小说拼贴新加坡的历史轨迹。本书属于联合文学40周年“当代华文小说家”系列，主编范铭如形容作家“用10篇国族叙事的番外篇，黏贴起那些被官样论述扫入缝隙里的历史碎片”。 《欢乐岛》将在国家图书馆举行新书发布会，除作者张曦娜外，现场与谈嘉宾还有作家尤今、南洋理工大学人文学院副教授张松建和新加坡社科大学中文系客座讲师伍木。活动由友谊书斋主办，台湾联合文学出版社联办，免费报名，活动后提供简餐。 ▲《欢乐岛》新书发布会 8月30日（星期日） 傍晚6时30分至晚上8时30分 地点：国家图书馆16楼观景阁 报名链接：mahayuyi-260830.eventbrite.sg
NDP 2026: Behind the scenes of NDP’s largest-ever lighting production with over 1,600 moving lights
NDP 2026 lighting director Michael Chan decided to scale up the production to create an immersive experience for spectators. Set designer Randy Chan, 56, jumped into preparations for the set shortly after the previous NDP wrapped up. Kwek Qing Wei, senior programme manager (unmanned systems) for land systems at the Defence Science and Technology Agency, said that there will be 12 standby drones on Aug 9. The camera director’s room at the National Stadium on July 31. LTC Koh Jun Kiat, chairman of show management (in red), in action at the National Stadium on July 31. ST PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY SINGAPORE – For more than a year, lighting designer Michael Chan has been mapping out and tinkering with every beam, colour change and transition for Singapore’s upcoming 61st birthday celebrations. His efforts culminate in over 1,600 moving lights which will illuminate the National Stadium on Aug 9 and become the largest lighting production in National Day Parade (NDP) history. The 42-year-old spent months designing and programming every lighting cue before the production even entered the stadium. But coming up with the plan was not easy. “It was actually convincing ourselves and the committee that it is worth the investment,” he said, explaining that his team requested about 50 per cent more equipment than when the parade took place at the Padang, to match the National Stadium’s much larger scale. The lighting system for NDP 2026 comprises 54 laser units, 1,654 entertainment lighting fixtures and 170 special effects units. Chan, who is participating in the parade for the third time, told media on July 31 that the team decided to scale up the production to create an immersive experience for both spectators at the stadium and at home. The trickiest part of the parade for the lighting plan is the fourth act, which features a medley of television and theme songs that transition every 30 to 50 seconds, he said. “We have to find a unique look for every single one, while moving seamlessly from one to another, but at the same time making it cohesive as one chapter.” The need for seamless transitions also shaped the stage itself. Set designer Randy Chan, who had worked on six previous parades, came up with an arrow-shaped stage stretching over 160m after studying the National Stadium’s scale, audience sight lines and operational requirements. It is equipped with six stage lifts and eight tunnel entrances and exits, enabling faster transitions and more dynamic choreography. “After many months of meetings, understanding the multimedia, the storyline, the formation of this set is the culmination of many people’s feedback,” the 56-year-old said. This year’s parade will also see 300 drones put on a synchronised light show, alongside singer Jasmine Sokko and two aerialists. Kwek Qing Wei, a senior programme manager (unmanned systems) for land systems at the Defence Science and Technology Agency, said there were several challenges to pulling off the segment effectively. The 40-year-old said: “One of the challenges that we faced was getting all 300 drones to fly together in a synchronised manner onto the stage and perform with the aerialists. It must also be in sync with the music and the lights.” Preparations such as getting the indoor positioning system into place so that the drones are able to receive signals took almost a month. For safety, each drone maintains at least 3m from performers. They can fly as high as 24m. On the rare occasion that a drone loses connection during rehearsals and lands, the programming allows a backup drone to take its position. Such incidents have occurred in less than 1 per cent of flights, Kwek said. There will be 12 standby drones during the parade. The responsibility of keeping every moving part running smoothly falls to the NDP show management committee, headed by Lieutenant-Colonel Koh Jun Kiat. Koh said spotters are stationed around the stage and beneath it, while quick response teams stand ready to deal with mishaps like stray props or stalled floats. After each rehearsal, the team makes adjustments to choreography, timings and entry and exit points for over 2,600 performers, based on debrief pointers and feedback given to improve the show. The 34-year-old added: “For everything on the ground and in the air that the audience sees on stage, the show management committee is working steadily behind the scenes to operationalise the creative vision for NDP (this year) and deliver a show that will wow our audience.”
Singapore to boost defences against animal-borne diseases with six new research projects
The projects will help Singapore better anticipate public health risks that can arise from climate change and the cross-border movement of people, animals and agents that carry and transmit diseases. ST PHOTO: JASEL POH SINGAPORE – Amid a surge in pet ownership and human-wildlife interactions, the National Parks Board (NParks) has awarded grants to projects that investigate how animal-borne diseases spread here. Announced on Aug 5, the projects are funded by the $15 million Biosurveillance Research Programme, which taps the local research community to deepen scientific knowledge of animal-borne diseases and develop strategies to manage them. Led by researchers from Duke-NUS Medical School, the National University of Singapore (NUS), and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), the projects will help the Republic better anticipate public health risks that can arise from climate change and the cross-border movement of people, animals and agents that carry and transmit diseases, said NParks. Six of the seven proposals submitted were selected. Chua Tze Hoong, group director of veterinary health at NParks’ Animal and Veterinary Service, noted that even as Singapore remains free of major animal-borne diseases such as rabies, the Republic is a major transit hub for migratory birds and animal products, and is located in a region with many animal-borne diseases. The research supplements Singapore’s biosurveillance efforts during “peacetime”, said Chua. Under the grant, researchers will study novel molecular approaches and paint a clearer picture of the complex interactions between disease-carrying organisms, humans, animals and the environment. This includes analysing how land use and human behaviour influence animal movement and disease distribution. One project, led by Gavin Smith, professor and director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School, will investigate disease pathways in settings like dog runs, veterinary clinics and animal shelters, among other things. The project will involve sampling the environment for diseases of concern as well as lesser-known bacterial parasites and viruses, painting a clearer picture of how they move between humans and animals, said Smith. By understanding how diseases spread, the authorities can implement simple but effective interventions, such as targeted cleaning protocols, to reduce the spread of specific disease-causing agents, he added. Veterinary consultant Teo Boon Han, who is a co-investigator of the project, said: “Given how close we are with our pets; how we hug them, kiss them... there has been an increase in interest and new evidence regarding the interactions and transmission pathways of certain pathogens from companion animals to humans.” On a personal note, Teo, who is a managing partner at VetTrust Singapore, said the research will help him better protect his veterinary care staff by studying the poorly understood risks that they face on the job. Another project will assess and quantify the risk of diseases spreading from local wild mammals to humans through shared environments. Led by Janelle Thompson, an associate professor from NTU’s Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, the team will focus on otters, civets, plantain squirrels and fruit bats, as these are commonly found in urban spaces. Thompson said the team will cast a wide net by measuring biomaterials shed in both nature reserves and high-traffic human-animal interfaces, such as housing estates and parks. She added: “The point of our project is not to pick one pathogen and focus on it, but to use an approach that could handle any pathogen.” The Biosurveillance Research Programme, launched in 2025 under Singapore’s Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2025 Plan, is rooted in the World Health Organization’s “One Health” approach.
张曦娜最新小说集《欢乐岛》描绘跨越百年岛国众生相
张曦娜出版小说集《欢乐岛》，以10篇小说描绘走丢的历史轨迹。 （互联网） 1980年代，情窦初开的男女前往露天影院看琼瑶电影；害怕被捕而走进森林的马共成员；因双语政策而出现的“双流教师”；被贴上左倾标签的文艺团体；庶民美食辣椒螃蟹发展为国菜……跨越百年的岛国众生相，尽在《欢乐岛》里。 《欢乐岛》是张曦娜的全新小说集，从旧报纸、口述历史、回忆录汲取素材，描绘岛屿边角，以10篇小说拼贴新加坡的历史轨迹。本书属于联合文学40周年“当代华文小说家”系列，主编范铭如形容作家“用10篇国族叙事的番外篇，黏贴起那些被官样论述扫入缝隙里的历史碎片”。 《欢乐岛》将在国家图书馆举行新书发布会，除作者张曦娜外，现场与谈嘉宾还有作家尤今、南洋理工大学人文学院副教授张松建和新加坡社科大学中文系客座讲师伍木。活动由友谊书斋主办，台湾联合文学出版社联办，免费报名，活动后提供简餐。 ▲《欢乐岛》新书发布会 8月30日（星期日） 傍晚6时30分至晚上8时30分 地点：国家图书馆16楼观景阁 报名链接：mahayuyi-260830.eventbrite.sg
NDP 2026: Behind the scenes of NDP’s largest-ever lighting production with over 1,600 moving lights
NDP 2026 lighting director Michael Chan decided to scale up the production to create an immersive experience for spectators. Set designer Randy Chan, 56, jumped into preparations for the set shortly after the previous NDP wrapped up. Kwek Qing Wei, senior programme manager (unmanned systems) for land systems at the Defence Science and Technology Agency, said that there will be 12 standby drones on Aug 9. The camera director’s room at the National Stadium on July 31. LTC Koh Jun Kiat, chairman of show management (in red), in action at the National Stadium on July 31. ST PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY SINGAPORE – For more than a year, lighting designer Michael Chan has been mapping out and tinkering with every beam, colour change and transition for Singapore’s upcoming 61st birthday celebrations. His efforts culminate in over 1,600 moving lights which will illuminate the National Stadium on Aug 9 and become the largest lighting production in National Day Parade (NDP) history. The 42-year-old spent months designing and programming every lighting cue before the production even entered the stadium. But coming up with the plan was not easy. “It was actually convincing ourselves and the committee that it is worth the investment,” he said, explaining that his team requested about 50 per cent more equipment than when the parade took place at the Padang, to match the National Stadium’s much larger scale. The lighting system for NDP 2026 comprises 54 laser units, 1,654 entertainment lighting fixtures and 170 special effects units. Chan, who is participating in the parade for the third time, told media on July 31 that the team decided to scale up the production to create an immersive experience for both spectators at the stadium and at home. The trickiest part of the parade for the lighting plan is the fourth act, which features a medley of television and theme songs that transition every 30 to 50 seconds, he said. “We have to find a unique look for every single one, while moving seamlessly from one to another, but at the same time making it cohesive as one chapter.” The need for seamless transitions also shaped the stage itself. Set designer Randy Chan, who had worked on six previous parades, came up with an arrow-shaped stage stretching over 160m after studying the National Stadium’s scale, audience sight lines and operational requirements. It is equipped with six stage lifts and eight tunnel entrances and exits, enabling faster transitions and more dynamic choreography. “After many months of meetings, understanding the multimedia, the storyline, the formation of this set is the culmination of many people’s feedback,” the 56-year-old said. This year’s parade will also see 300 drones put on a synchronised light show, alongside singer Jasmine Sokko and two aerialists. Kwek Qing Wei, a senior programme manager (unmanned systems) for land systems at the Defence Science and Technology Agency, said there were several challenges to pulling off the segment effectively. The 40-year-old said: “One of the challenges that we faced was getting all 300 drones to fly together in a synchronised manner onto the stage and perform with the aerialists. It must also be in sync with the music and the lights.” Preparations such as getting the indoor positioning system into place so that the drones are able to receive signals took almost a month. For safety, each drone maintains at least 3m from performers. They can fly as high as 24m. On the rare occasion that a drone loses connection during rehearsals and lands, the programming allows a backup drone to take its position. Such incidents have occurred in less than 1 per cent of flights, Kwek said. There will be 12 standby drones during the parade. The responsibility of keeping every moving part running smoothly falls to the NDP show management committee, headed by Lieutenant-Colonel Koh Jun Kiat. Koh said spotters are stationed around the stage and beneath it, while quick response teams stand ready to deal with mishaps like stray props or stalled floats. After each rehearsal, the team makes adjustments to choreography, timings and entry and exit points for over 2,600 performers, based on debrief pointers and feedback given to improve the show. The 34-year-old added: “For everything on the ground and in the air that the audience sees on stage, the show management committee is working steadily behind the scenes to operationalise the creative vision for NDP (this year) and deliver a show that will wow our audience.”
