Bulletins

Robot battles, nature’s superpowers, coffee in space, and more

Sunday 11 August 2019

Highlights from day two of National Science Week

106 events and exhibitions, 10 online activities, and dozens of great stories and talent.

National and international talent, researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country. Plenty of photo opportunities.

Melbourne

Ground Control to Major Tom: what does it take to turn an astronaut into a barista? 

Frogs, water bugs, birds, koalas… and a NASA exobiologist: science in the part at Coolart Wetlands. 

Hobart

What does environmental change mean for landscape painting? Hear from scientists, artists and curators.

Mt Annan (near Sydney)

Super sight, super hearing, super strength and camouflage: hear about nature’s superpowers.

Adelaide

RoboRoos student teams battle it out in a robot scrimmage. 

Why does food taste different when you have a cold? Meet your brain and find out. 

Perth

Girls network with women in science mentors at an Innovators’ Tea Party.

Read on for more on these, including event contact details.

Also today:

▪ Sydney: go on an Indigenous science harbour cruise and learn from the Mari Nawi‘s Aboriginal crew.

▪ Alice Springs: Costa Georgiadis gets dirty with soil science and growing healthy gardens.

▪ Canberra: explore butterflies, bugs and beetles through hands-on scientific drawing.

▪ Brisbane: National Science Week visits the Firebirds Queensland netball match.

National Science Week 2019 will run from 10 to 18 August.

Media kit at www.scienceinpublic.com.au. Or visit the National Science Week website for the details of events in your area: www.scienceweek.net.au.

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Life on Mars, science behind bars, and marine parks for sharks

Launch Saturday at the State Library with Minister and International Space Station flight controller Andrea Boyd. With 270+ Science Week events around WA:

▪ Young artists, music with birdsong, Indigenous science, neuroscience and creativity workshops, and more take over the State Library.

▪ What’s the potential for life on the Red Planet? Ask astrophysicists and NASA scientists.

▪ Science behind bars: forensics and criminology at Fremantle Prison

▪ The science of this planet, and in the cosmos beyond at the Goodness Science, Sustainability and Innovation Festival, Geraldton.

▪ What do big parks mean for big sharks? Ask a scientist studying marine parks.

▪ Science careers: meet the woman mapping a panoramic stretch of the Universe.

▪ Sustainability in the suburbs: from soil microbes to microbats.

▪ Fiona Wood: from treating burns to spray-on skin.

▪ Ecology, seed science, genetics and plant conservation: meet the science Queens of Kings Park.

▪ 60 interactive stalls, explosive experiments, native animals, science theatre, and roving performers: Perth Science Festival returns.

▪ Take the Aha! Challenge and test your brain’s creative insight.

More on these highlights below, and others at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/science-week, and on Twitter at @SciWKMedia.

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Firebird scientists, coral reefs, Pokémon, and a cancer-themed escape room

More than 280 National Science Week events around Queensland:

▪ Three Firebird Queensland netball players are Science Week ambassadors. Find out why they’re into science.

▪ Meet a planet hunter, a mathematician measuring barramundi numbers, and a pharmacologist developing treatments for diabetes and blood pressure.

▪ Pokémon: how much reality is behind these imaginary creatures?

▪ Liquid nitrogen, flame tests, explosions, and cool chemistry experiments at Brisbane Science Festival.

▪ Reefs are in trouble worldwide: how can you help?

▪ Think, puzzle and learn your way out of a cancer-themed escape room.

▪ Rapid-fire science education: 20 slides shown for 20 seconds each in a PechaKucha Night in Cairns.

▪ A library of life: delve into the Queensland’s State Collection’s skulls, skeletons, taxidermy birds and animals, and other curios of natural history.

▪ Get out your smartphone: find and photograph where the wild things are.

▪ Take the Aha! Challenge and test your brain’s creative insight.

More on these highlights below, and others at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/science-week, and on Twitter at @SciWKMedia.

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Sensory science, Antarctic adventures and finding where the wild things are

Saturday 10 August 2019

Highlights from day one of National Science Week

132 events and exhibitions, 5 online activities, and dozens of great stories and talent.

National and international talent, researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country. Plenty of photo opportunities.

National

  • Like Pokémon Go! but with real animals: spot wildlife with your smartphone in the Great Aussie BioQuest.

Hobart

  • The Science Cowboy, the chemistry of colour, cat behaviour, insect eyesight, Antarctic secrets, a VR tour of old Hobart and more at the Festival of Bright Ideas.

Sydney

  • Days of our hives: science meets comedy meets bee-keeping.
  • Killing cancer, super coral, magma, and microbes: science talks on a soapbox at The Rocks.

Adelaide

  • Icy science:Dr Karl Kruszelnicki’s Antarctic adventures.

Melbourne

  • Changing how food tastes with virtual reality, seeing patterns in the sky, reading a map without your eyes: the science of messing with your senses.

Alice Springs

  • How will The Territory meet its 50 per cent renewable energy taret?

Perth

  • Making music with animals, interweaving Noongar culture with science, a recycled disco, and more: science and youth arts collide at Moonboorli (Beyond).

Read on for more on these, including event contact details.

Also today:

  • Brisbane: robots battle it out to see which is the best at soccer, theatre, rescue and problem-solving at the RoboCup Junior 2019 Queensland Championships.
  • Canberra: Interactive Science: robots, drones, reptiles, performers, expert speakers and food trucks take over The Shine Dome.
  • Adelaide: gravitational waves explained by scientists, sounds, video art and poetry at Particle/Wave.
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Retro aviation, future climate, beer goggles, and Indigenous astronomy

Launch Saturday at Darwin Festival with artist Caro Macdonald. And 70+ Science Week events around the Territory:

  • What will Darwin look like under climate change? Artists journey to the future through virtual reality.
  • Costa Georgiadis gets dirty with soil science and Craig Reucassel brings the war on waste to Alice Springs.
  • Beer goggles and fitness tests with a health clinic on wheels.
  • How will the Territory meet a 50% renewable energy target?
  • Aviation history as theatre: the 1919 air race from London to Darwin brought to life on stage.
  • Learn from Indigenous astronomers how to use the night sky to navigate, determine the time of year and predict weather
  • A 3D outer space experience in Starlab’s Cosmodome Science Theatre & Planetarium
  • Spin until you’re dizzy and compare your reflexes to those of a Formula 1 driver: the science circus comes to town.
  • Take the Aha! Challenge and test your brain’s creative insight.

More on these highlights below, and others at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/science-week, and on Twitter at @SciWKMedia.

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Art meets astrophysics, cocktail chemistry, women’s woo, and wild weather

National Science Week kicks off in Canberra this Saturday – with 75+ events around ACT:

  • Robots, drones, reptiles, performers, expert speakers and food trucks take over The Shine Dome.
  • Sense and sensibility: how pseudoscience helps market wellness woo to women.
  • Physics meets archaeology: how a new chamber was discovered in the Great Pyramid of Khufu.
  • Artists, animators and astronomers present the Universe in four dimensions.
  • Meet the medical inventor behind the cochlear ear and a nutrition scientist using one.
  • Can Canberra adapt to live with drought, wild weather and climate change? Ask an expert panel.
  • A science comedy quiz show that aims to save our species.
  • Art inspired by the rocks, minerals, crystals and fossils of Geoscience Australia.
  • Spot wildlife with your smartphone in the Great Aussie BioQuest.
  • Take the Aha! Challenge and test your brain’s creative insight.

More on these highlights below, and others at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/science-week, and on Twitter at @SciWKMedia.

Scientists, artists, performers and event organisers are available for interview throughout Science Week.

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Spotlight on STEM for National Science Week

Joint media release from the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, the Hon Karen Andrews MP; and the Minister for Education, the Hon Dan Tehan MP

Australians from all walks of life are invited to celebrate all things science and technology at more than 1,900 registered events across the country for National Science Week.

Held from 10-18 August, National Science Week is the annual opportunity for Australians to meet scientists, discuss hot topics, do an experiment and celebrate the social and economic impact of science on our nation.

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Gut reactions, beer goggles, and mind over faecal matter

Great health stories up for grabs now around Australia.

Why is so much pseudo-science aimed at women? What happened when the Spanish flu hit Parramatta? Can you beat the world’s only cancer-themed escape room? How do you feel about spitting for science?

These are just a few of the exciting, and occasionally stomach-churning, questions tackled at exhibitions, shows and talks across Australia during National Science Week (August 10 to 18).

Check out the state-by-state selection here, and if you’re after more great ideas for highly visual stories, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/science-week, and on Twitter at @SciWKMedia.

Scientists, artists, performers and event organisers are available for interview throughout National Science Week.

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Smartphones, the Internet, fighting robots, the Mars Rover and the power of urine

Science and technology go together like Twitter and hashtags – great stories from around Australia for National Science Week.

Are smartphones really making us stupid? And why buy an expensive charger when you can power up your Nokia using your own pee?

These are just two of the important questions set to be answered around Australia during National Science Week which runs from August 10 to 18.

In South Australia, teams of robots are set to battle out in a fight to the techno-death.

In Canberra, astronomers, dancers, animators and photographers are set to team up for a spectacular interpretation of the universe.

Meanwhile, in Sydney, the important contribution of women to the development of the internet comes into sharp focus, while, in Perth, the tech challenges to living on Mars are the topic du jour.

More on these highlights below. Find more at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/science-week, and on Twitter at @SciWKMedia.

Scientists, artists, performers and event organisers are available for interview throughout National Science Week.

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Indigenous secrets of the Midlands, chemistry in dance, and a pop-up science bar

Launch Friday at the Festival of Bright Ideas with school kids and minister. And 200+ Science Week events around Tasmania:

▪ The Science Cowboy, the chemistry of colour, cat behaviour, insect eyesight, Antarctic secrets, a VR tour of old Hobart and more at the Festival of Bright Ideas.

▪ The Tassie devil’s advocate, a sneezing scientist and a seaweed lover: Young Tassie Scientists tour the state.

▪ Dinosaurs, science shows, Moon-landing memories and a night at the museum, in Launceston.

▪ Will the Y chromosome become extinct, and can we bring the Tassie tiger back from extinction? Hear from science academy experts.

▪ Invasive species cocktails, engineering coral reefs, and exploring the tech of retro videogames at a pop-up science bar.

▪ Three elements, three choreographers, three composers and 18 performers: it’s chemistry in dance.

▪ Comedy meets science: laugh about why you make poor choices.

▪ Learn about Tasmania’s Midlands from thousands of years of Aboriginal science.

▪ Take the Aha! Challenge and test your brain’s creative insight.

More on these highlights below, and others at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/science-week, and on Twitter at @SciWKMedia.

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