The Daintree Rainforest is a region on the northeast coast of Queensland, north of Mossman and Cairns. At around 1,200 square kilometres, the Daintree is a part of the largest continuous area of tropical rainforest on the Australian continent; the Daintree Rainforest is a part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland Rainforest, that spans across the Cairns Region. The Wet Tropics Rainforest is the oldest continually surviving tropical rainforest in the world. Along the coastline north of the Daintree River, tropical forest grows right down to the edge of the sea. In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Daintree Rainforest was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as a "Natural attraction"; the rainforest is named after an Australian geologist and photographer. The area includes the Daintree National Park, some areas of State Forest, some owned land, including a residential community of upwards of 5 people; some of the owned land north of the Peninsula Range is being progressively purchased for conservation purposes under a $15 million government scheme involving equal contributions from the municipal, which includes the former Douglas Shire council), State and Australian Federal governments.

As of May 2011, 72% of the properties earmarked for buyback or compensation had been secured. These'buyback' areas of tropical rainforest included 215 blocks of land purchased by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, 13 purchased by private conservation agencies; the Daintree Rainforest contains 30% of the frog and marsupial species in Australia, 90% of Australia's bat and butterfly species. 7% of bird species in the country can be found in this area. There are over 12,000 species of insects in the rainforest. All of this diversity is contained within an area. Part of the forest is drained by the Daintree River; the roads north of the river wind through areas of lush forest, have been designed to minimize impacts on this ancient ecosystem. The tropical rainforest ecosystem of the Daintree Rainforest is one of the most complex on Earth, its plant diversity and structural complexity is unrivaled on the Australian continent and represents the origins of other Australian flora. Millions of years ago, the Australian continent was warm and humid and rainfall was plentiful.

During this time rainforest thrived in places such as the Uluru region. As Australia became more arid and fewer places rainforests were able to survive. In the Daintree region, the climate and topography were ideal, so the area became a last remaining refuge for the rainforest. Within this refuge, many species were able to live comfortably without reason to change, their descendants that are still living today retained many of their ancestors' primitive characteristics, some dating back 110 million years. One species in particular, Idiospermum australiense known as the idiot fruit, is one of the rarest and most primitive of the flowering plants, its discovery in 1970 was arguably Australia's most significant botanical find increasing scientists awareness of just how ancient these forests are. From a total of 19 primitive flowering plant families on Earth, 12 families are represented in the Daintree region making the highest concentration of these plants worldwide; these ancient plant families may be helpful for discerning the origins of the flowering plants.

The Daintree region combines tropical rainforest, white sandy beaches, fringing reefs just offshore, a rare combination. Due to the distance between attractions, driving is the the simplest way to navigate between them; the Daintree National Park boasts many walking tracks and there are a number of accommodation options within the Daintree Rainforest itself. To the west of Cape Tribulation stands Mt Pieter Botte with its massive granite outcrops; the summit providing expansive vistas of undisturbed forest and to the south, the skyline is dominated by the giant granite boulders of Thornton Peak – one of Queensland's highest mountains. Much of the Daintree Rainforest is part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site, being listed by UNESCO in 2015 in recognition of its universal natural values highlighted by the rainforest. Amongst the attributes provided as evidence for the World Heritage value of the Wet Tropics, which include the Daintree Rainforest, the Australian Government lists the following: They preserve major stages of the earth's evolutionary history - ancient plants representing some of the earliest land plants, the Psilotopsida and the Lycopsida.

Vibrio alginolyticus is a Gram-negative marine bacterium. It is medically important since it causes otitis and wound infection, it is present in the bodies of animals such as pufferfish, where it is responsible for the production of the potent neurotoxin, tetrodotoxin. V. Alginolyticus was first identified as a pathogen of humans in 1973, it causes eye and wound infections. It is a salt-tolerant species and can grow in salt concentrations of 10%. Most clinical isolates come from superinfected wounds that become contaminated at the beach. Tetracycline results in cure. V. alginolyticus is rare cause of bacteremia in immunocompromised hosts. Type strain of Vibrio alginolyticus at BacDive - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase

Boureima "Vieux" Farka Touré is a Malian singer and guitarist. He is the son of Grammy-winning Malian musician Ali Farka Touré. Touré was born in Niafunké, Mali in 1981 to Ali Farka Touré. Despite his father's discouragement and his family's lineage as a tribe of soldiers, Touré secretly took up the guitar and enrolled in the Institut National des Arts in Bamako, Mali. In 2005, Eric Herman of Modiba expressed interest in producing an album for Touré; this led to his self-titled debut album, produced by Modiba and released by World Village on 12 February 2007. The album featured Toumani Diabaté as well as his late father. Following the release of a remix album, UFOs Over Bamako in 2008, multiple tours, Vieux released his second studio album in May 2009. Fondo peaked at #5 on Billboard's World Albums chart the week of 11 July 2009 and was included in the Village Voice's Top 100 list for 2009. In June 2010, Vieux was invited to perform at the Opening Celebration of the 2010 FIFA World Cup; that month, Vieux released his first live album, LIVE.

Vieux released his third studio album, The Secret, on 24 May 2011. The album was produced by Soulive guitarist Eric Krasno and features Dave Matthews, Derek Trucks, John Scofield, it features the last collaboration between Touré and his late father. The album reached the #1 spot on CMJ's New World chart on 10 June 2011. Vieux's fourth studio album, Mon Pays, was released by Six Degrees Records on 28 May 2013; the title, French for'My Country,' refers to his native Mali, serves as a reminder of its beauty and culture in the midst of the territorial conflict between Tuareg and Islamic populations that have threatened it since January 2012. His latest album Samba was released in spring 2017, it was recorded in front of a live studio audience in Woodstock, NY. The title "Samba" has nothing to do with the Brazilian style of music. Dominic Valvona of Monolith Cocktail praises the work, writing, "This is the devotional, earthy soul of Mali, channeled through a six-string electric guitar." A chance meeting at an airport in Germany with Israeli singer-songwriter Idan Raichel led to an impromptu get together at a small studio in Tel Aviv in November 2010.

Joined by Israeli bassist Yossi Fine and Malian calabash player Souleymane Kane, this recording session – acoustic and improvised – resulted in the birth of The Touré-Raichel Collective. The group's debut album, The Tel Aviv Session, was released by Cumbancha on 27 March 2012; the Touré-Raichel Collective completed a North American tour in spring 2012 and European tours in autumn 2012 and spring 2013. In 2014, the pair released a second record, "The Paris Session," that The New York Times notes "has tracks ranging from a prayer sung in Hebrew to love songs in Bambara and Songhai." African fingerstyle guitar African music Vieux Farka Touré Vieux Farka Touré Remixed: UFOs Over Bamako Fondo LIVE The Secret Mon Pays Touristes Samba The Tel Aviv Session The Paris Session Official website