Science in Public’s occasional bulletins to journalists with an interest in science.
On Monday and Tuesday we’re holding three media briefings at Earth on the Edge, the huge earth science conference on in Melbourne covering prediction, survival and ‘The World versus Man’.
Join us online or in the room at the Melbourne Convention Centre. The sessions are being run by the Australian Science Media Centre. Read the full article →
Ocean warming, ice sheets and sea-level rise: what does it mean for Australia? And could we have an earthquake or tsunami here?
Talk with experts on vulcanology; ocean warming; aerosols and pollution; volcanic ash plumes; the global survey of the atmosphere of Venus; the Russian heatwave and other natural disasters. And meet leaders of the Southern California Earthquake Center, French space agency CNES, the US Nuclear Regulatory Authority, the British Antarctic Survey.
Experts on almost every kind of natural disaster are in Australia for Earth on the Edge, an international earth sciences conference being held in Melbourne till Thursday 7 July. Read the full article →
Till next Thursday, 7 July, Australia is hosting a conference earth scientists who will be providing the most up-to-date information on the Japanese tsunami, the safety of nuclear installations, the Christchurch earthquake, Cyclone Yasi, the ash clouds and more.
Earth on the Edge is the 25th General Assembly of the International Union of Geophysics and Geodesy (IUGG) and has attracted almost 4,000 delegates from around 100 countries.
Here are a just a few of the speakers and topics:
Australian researchers have revealed a new pattern of ocean circulation which will change our understanding of marine events.
Research at the University of Melbourne and the Bureau of Meteorology has overturned conventional ideas of ocean circulation. Read the full article → Thin, flexible, cheaper solar cells that are printed rather than manufactured are where we’re heading with new technology patented by Melbourne researchers.
While other researchers have discovered that HIV can hide out in the brain, leading to increased understanding of the link between HIV infection and HIV dementia.
Both of these discoveries were selected for Fresh Science, a national competition that highlights the work of early-career researchers.
Also, a moody earth: extreme natural hazards, selling seawater, tsunamis in the Pacific and recent floods in Pakistan. These are some of the topics being discussed today at Earth on the Edge, an international earth sciences conference in Melbourne from today till Thursday 7 July. Read the full article →
Published by CSIRO on 28 June 2011
The recent spate of major natural disasters in Japan, Chile, New Zealand, Australia and other parts of the world will be the talk of the town in Melbourne from tonight until 7 July at one of the world’s largest Earth science conferences.
Themed Earth on the Edge: Science for a Sustainable Planet, the 25th General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) will involve around 4000 scientists from 100 countries in detailed discussions about the human costs of natural disasters and how to mitigate them. Read the full article →
From tomorrow, for nearly two weeks Australia is hosting a huge meeting of earth scientists – many of them flying directly from their work at recent hot spots.
They will be providing the most up-to-date information on the Japanese tsunami, the safety of nuclear installations, the Christchurch earthquake, Cyclone Yasi, the ash clouds and more. They will also be putting all of this in context and reveal the bigger picture about our planet in all its moods.
The conference is Earth on the Edge, the 25th General Assembly of the International Union of Geophysics and Geodesy (IUGG), and it has attracted almost 4,000 delegates from around 100 countries. Read the full article →
We’re losing our best minds in science and engineering… so what are CSIRO, ANSTO, the ARC, the NHMRC, Cochlear, CSL and others going to do about it?
We’ll find out at a Summit at Parliament House in Canberra this Monday, 11 April. There’s more information below and speakers are available for interview. Most of the Summit is open to the media.
The Summit includes a roundtable at which Minister for the Status of Women, Kate Ellis, along with leaders from CSIRO, ANSTO, IBM, Cochlear, the ARC, the NHMRC, the Bureau of Meteorology and 30 other organisations, will come up with some concrete measures to reverse the trend.
And Tuesday is the 50th anniversary of the first man in space. It’s being celebrated around the world – but not perhaps as widely as it deserves. Yuri Gagarin left the atmosphere, orbited our planet and triggered the space race that put Neil Armstrong on the Moon. He also inspired a generation of school children, fuelling the phenomenal growth of science in the 60s and 70s.
More on both of these below.
Also, some comments on the threats to medical research and science teaching in this year’s budget. Read the full article →
Here’s today’s stories from the physics congress in Melbourne.
Good Aussie home wanted for gravitational wave detector
The physics of money – testing the stability of the system
Superconductors reveal their secrets
First results from the ATLAS experiment
Sun sneaks up on winter workers
Watching electrons in action
Laser beams on steroids
Light rays treat tumours
Contact Read the full article →
Over the next week we’re talking immortality, biodiversity, lies, chaos and the end of the world at a series of science events in Melbourne and Canberra, with several media stories available each day.
Tomorrow the Prime Minister will present her Prizes for Science. The embargo is 5 pm on Wednesday 17 November 2010.
The winners will be at Parliament House from 11 am tomorrow morning and available in the Press Gallery from 1 pm.
Other science news: a L’Oréal award and $100,000 for an Aussie scientist discovering bacteria everywhere; Chinese science leaders in Australia marking 30 years of collaboration; CERN director here soon for physics congress; the end of the world; and…
‘When you’re up to your arse in alligators, it’s hard to remember that your original intention was to drain the swamp.’ This quote sets the scene for a black comedy on biodiversity staged in the skeleton gallery of the Australian Museum tonight and Thursday. Read the full article →
Next Wednesday evening the Prime Minister will present her Prizes for Science. The embargo is 5 pm on Wednesday 17 November 2010.
Other science news coming up includes: a black comedy on biodiversity staged in the skeleton gallery of the Australian Museum; Chinese science leaders in Australia marking 30 years of collaboration; CERN director here soon for physics congress; the end of the world; the future of transport and more.
Here’s the details: Read the full article →
Thank you for your interest in the 63rd UN DPI NGO global health conference held in Melbourne recently. We appreciate the efforts of all the accredited journalists.
I’m writing to report back on the media coverage, and to alert you to the Secretary General’s summit starting in New York later today. Several Australians are in New York for the summit. Read the full article →
In two weeks Australia will play host to a major UN conference focusing on global health and the Millennium Development Goals. More than 70 countries and over 300 organisations will be represented. There will be many compelling stories that matter to Australia and our region. More details and downloads below.
Also, in Canberra today the Australian Academy of Science Think Tank is tackling questions regarding Australia’s mineral deposits. Will we run out of minerals? How much more mineral wealth is still to be found? Do we have the technologies to find it and extract it safely? The media releases are online at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/blog
These issues are being discussed in Canberra at a forum on 19 and 20 August. The media are invited to day one and the speakers are available for interview. The findings will be published later in the year. Read the full article →
In two weeks Australia will play host to a major UN conference focusing on global health and the Millennium Development Goals. More than 70 countries and over 300 organisations will be represented. There will be many compelling stories that matter to Australia and our region. I’m holding briefings for ABC staff at Ultimo today at 3.30 pm and at Southbank on Monday at 12.30 pm. I’m happy to do the same for other major media.
RACI Symposium – Cereals & Disease Prevention, Tuesday 4:30pm
Paul MacLean, University of Colorado
Resistant starch could transform our breakfasts, our gut health and help us lose weight.
Paul MacLean has shown that replacing simple sugars and digestible starch with starch that is resistant to digestion in the small intestine can have big consequences.
IUPAC Symposium 1A – Formulation: Efficacy and the Environment
Ingo Fleute-Schlachter, Cognis, Germany
Friendlier pesticides are on the way. Every pesticide contains an active ingredient. But there is more in the can. The formulation may need additives and adjuvants which boost performance: working as emuslifiers, wetters, dispersants, or sticking agents to deliver the pesticide to where it’s needed – the surfaces of leaves for example.
A young Tasmanian electrical engineer, Natalia Galin, has turned US technology into a robust helicopter-borne radar system that can accurately measure the thickness of snow on polar sea ice.
Could it really happen—a secret geo-engineering project financed by a billionaire eco-warrior in frustration at the lack of government action on climate change? It is possible, but how likely? ABC’s Bluebird alternative reality project explores real issues in geo-engineering.
Getting fire-safety messages into the home, using bacteria to break down rocks, cleaning up soil with ultrasound and the meat quality of beefier cattle were just some of the fascinating research projects about which I heard at the Cooperative Research Centres Association (CRCA) Conference in Alice Springs last week. Read the full article →
