The search for Australia’s next top junior weather presenter

The Great Barrier Reef is huge! How citizen scientists across Australia can help monitor its 350,000 square kilometres

Can science + business help us fight the war on waste? Melbourne

Face-to-face with Frill Collins the frill neck lizard and Frida the tawny frogmouth, Darwin

Bob Brown’s battle for the planet, from the Franklin River to Federal Parliament, Sydney

Dozens of interesting environment stories, people and events around Australia for National Science Week this August, including:

• Bringing Queensland’s coast inland with virtual reality, Mt Isa and Longreach
• How Indigenous knowledge can help with urban planning, saving species and fighting climate change, Canberra
• Saving the Great Barrier Reef with super corals and mangroves, Sydney
• Scitech, solar science and sustainable homes, Perth
• Solar-charged kids and race cars, Hunter Valley
• Moving climates: theatre, dance and digital art that deals with the data of disaster, Canberra.

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

Scientists and event organisers are available for interview throughout Science Week. Read on for contact details for each event, or call:

Tanya Ha: tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0404 083 863
Niall Byrne: niall@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0417 131 977

More than 2,000 events are registered for National Science Week 2018, which runs until Sunday 19 August. Media kit at www.scienceinpublic.com.au, public event listings at www.scienceweek.net.au.

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Tuesday 14 August 2018

Highlights from day four of National Science Week

347 events and exhibitions, 20 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.

Adelaide

• How do microbes turn grape juice into wine?
• Why giant cuttlefish do so well in the water near Whyalla

Canberra

• How are mobile devices and apps affecting our mental health and how can they be used as a force for good?
• How will climate change affect whisky?

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• How will apps, mobiles and sensors transform healthcare? Harvard professor in Melbourne
• Wine as medicine and why vineyards were planted in lunatic asylums, Sydney
• Hangry? Ask an expert how hunger influences behaviour, Melbourne
• Technology: good or bad for your mental health? Canberra
• What’s the latest in cancer research and can we find a cure? Adelaide & Sydney

Dozens of interesting health stories, people and events around Australia for National Science Week this August, including:

• Gene editing is as simple as cutting and pasting, Adelaide
• Superbugs: what we need to do to become resistance fighters, Sydney
• The beauty of killers and cures under the microscope, Melbourne
• Assessing your own health in a pop-up laboratory, Darwin
• Recipes to feed yourself and your gut bacteria, Perth
• Young scientists with healthy advice for senior Australians, Adelaide
• Talk about your health for the Health Box Stories podcast, Hobart.

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

Monday 13 August 2018

Highlights from day three of National Science Week

300 events and exhibitions, 19 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.

Adelaide, Darwin & Melbourne

• Are we alone in the Universe? Are there habitable planets outside our solar system? Ask the NASA scientists and planet hunters

Melbourne

• What turns a normal bug into a ‘superbug’? Ask an antibiotic resistance fighter

Sydney

• What makes cancer cells immortal and how will genetics and big data change cancer treatment in the future? Ask Prof Roger Reddel
• How virtual reality helps biomedical researchers ‘walk’ through the human body

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Scientists developing robust method to treat spinal cord injuries using nose cells

Researchers have designed a new way to grow nose cells in the lab heralding hope for sufferers of spinal cord injuries, including those who are wheelchair bound.

Griffith University’s Mr Mo Chen grew nose nerve cells in the lab, which can treat mice with spinal cord injuries.

“My colleagues placed the nerve cells into mice that were suffering from spinal cord injuries,” says Mr Chen. “The mice quickly recovered and could walk again, but we’re still working on improving the therapy”.

One of the difficulties of this kind of research is growing cells effectively in the laboratory.

“Our bodies are 3D not 2D so the best way of growing cells in the lab, is 3D,” says Mr Chen. “With our method we can grow healthier 3D cultures in a shorter time.”

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Sunday 12 August 2018

Highlights from day two of National Science Week

129 events and exhibitions, 12 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

• A virtual reality tour of the invisible Universe with astrophysicists Alan Duffy and Rebecca Allen at the State Library
• Meet your wild neighbours at Coolart Wetlands

Sydney

• How will humanity live with intelligent machines? Good and bad robots at the Opera House

Bega

• Virtual reality and robotics, Questacon activities, game development, music technology, 3D printing, citizen science, science films, and threatened species at Bega’s Science Festival

Adelaide

• Meet NASA scientist Andrew Rushby, an astrobiologist and planet hunter

Perth

• Can dance help disadvantaged girls to engage with science? Visiting US dancer says yes!
• Census time for Perth’s bugs and slugs

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Dozens of art performances and exhibitions around Australia for National Science Week starting 11 August

• The first robot story, staged in a working medical research lab, Melbourne
• Meet the American ballet dancer using dance to get disadvantaged girls into science, Perth
• You’re never alone when you’ve got a parasite, comedy in Sydney, digital art in Ballarat
• Art explores what makes us human, now and in the future, Sydney
• Moving climates: theatre, dance and digital art that deals with the data of disaster, Canberra

Plus:

• Dissecting the anatomy of a flower, Sydney
• When weather broadcasts become high drama, Darwin
• The power of music for the memories of dementia patients, Sydney
• Australia’s lost megafauna back from the dead as shadow puppets, Darwin
• Bringing dead scientists to life on stage—South Brisbane and Canberra
• Comedy meets the brainstem (the ‘arse end of the brain’), Melbourne
• Painting with light, long exposure photography and 100 volunteers, Sydney

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. Read on for contact details for each event, or call:

Tanya Ha: tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0404 083 863
Niall Byrne: niall@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0417 131 977

[continue reading…]

Sci-fi and the sounds of the Universe in Gingin, WA

Gula Guri mayin: Aboriginal art exploring parasites and your health, Ballarat

Music meets Indigenous astronomy in Perth, Canberra and Sydney

Dozens of Indigenous science stories, people and events around Australia for National Science Week starting 11 August, including:

• How Indigenous knowedge can help with urban planning, saving species and fighting climate change, Canberra
• HealthLAB clinic on wheels tours the Territory
• The wisdom of Elders and knowledge of contemporary Indigenous scientists, Wagga Wagga and Redfern
• Koori youth become science communicators in Bendigo
• 60,000 years of technological advancement and eco-sustainable practices at the MAAS Indigenous Science Symposium, Sydney

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

Scientists and event organisers are available for interview throughout Science Week. Read on for contact details for each event, or call:

Tanya Ha: tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0404 083 863
Niall Byrne: niall@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0417 131 977

[continue reading…]

Saturday 11 August 2018

Highlights from day one of National Science Week

162 events and exhibitions, 12 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.

Hobart

• 100+ roving scientists, talks on eating insects or the dirty side of wellbeing, a forensic murder mystery and more at TMAG’s pop-up science bar and festival

Sydney

• A night of illusions: why your senses play mind games
• ‘See like a bee’ with UV, dissect a flower, and ask experts about the secrets of seeds—inside the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney’s Living Laboratory

Brisbane

• The Element in the Room: a radioactive musical comedy about the death and life of Marie Curie
• Street Science with smoke cannons, liquid nitrogen, flame tests, explosions and cool chemistry

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Launch tonight 5.30pm at Docklands, with volcanic link to Frankenstein. Plus 400+ Science Week events around Victoria:

• Are there habitable planets outside our solar system? Meet NASA scientists and planet hunters
• The first robot story, staged in a working medical research lab
• The world’s most powerful laser. Meet Ceri Brenner, the UK physicist pressing FIRE
• How your brain makes you racist: US neuroscientist Larry Sherman explains prejudice
• Close-up photos of the beautiful killers of biomedical science
• Humans 2.0: what’s the future look like for humanity?
• Can science help us fight the war on waste?
• Comedy meets the brainstem (the ‘arse end of the brain’)
• Parasites take over the Art Gallery of Ballarat
• Help build a better picture of the Great Barrier Reef’s health, without getting your feet wet.

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Launch tonight 7pm at the Adelaide Convention Centre. Plus 280+ Science Week events around SA:

• Who will win tonight’s South Australia’s Science Excellence Awards?
• Are there habitable planets outside our solar system? Meet NASA scientists and planet hunters
• Why does food taste different when you have a cold? And how do your neurons communicate? Meet your brain and find out
• What can maths and science tell you about politics and voting?
• Grape expectations: what’s the future of wine? And what causes white wine haze?
• Revisit Coober Pedy when it was under sea: paeleontology meets musical theatre
• A mobile observatory on wheels tours regional SA
• GM-food aside, should humanity edit our own genes? Ask the experts
• Help build a better picture of the Great Barrier Reef’s health, without getting your feet wet.

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

Launch today 11.30am at the Kingston Transport Depot, plus 125+ Science Week events around ACT:

• Who will win the ACT Scientist of the Year?
• How will climate change affect whisky?
• Indigenous knowedge can help with urban planning, saving species and fighting climate change—find out how
• Canberra’s critters, daleks, science careers and knitting for brain health at Science in ACTion
• Meet the UK actor bringing dead scientists (Einstein and Curie) to life on stage
• Moving climates: theatre, dance and digital art that deals with the data of disaster
• Music meets Indigenous astronomy, exploring the Southern night sky
• Girl guides meet women in science
• Help build a better picture of the Great Barrier Reef’s health, without getting your feet wet.

[continue reading…]

280+ Science Week events around Queensland

• From up-start to start-up: Taj Pabara and Fiftysix Creations tour regional Queensland
• The world’s most powerful laser. Meet Ceri Brenner: the UK physicist pressing FIRE, in Toowoomba
• Our prehistoric past in theatre and song: palaeontology meets ‘rock’ music
• What is the past, present and future of Queensland’s coral reefs? The ocean comes to the outback
• Ask a flying scientist, a coral watcher and a fossil finder what it’s like to work in science, in Longreach
• Meet the UK actor bringing Albert Einstein and Marie Curie to life on stage
• Tech, butterflies, drones and science shows at the Gold Coast’s pop-up science centre
• Building, electrifying and making water drinkable: engineers for humanity show how it’s done
• Help build a better picture of the Great Barrier Reef’s health, without getting your feet wet.

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Launch 10am: Minister gets experimental at QVMAG, Launceston. Plus 150+ Science Week events around Tasmania

• Why do wasps have sex with orchids, and can we climate-proof pinot? Ask a scientist over a drink at a pop-up science bar
• A geologist who blasts rocks with lasers, a brainy researcher studying our super senses, and an Antarctic expeditioner with a passion for Pokémon—meet the Young Tassie Scientists
• The surprising beauty of slime moulds
• The secrets are hidden in Antarctica’s ice and snow
• The pros and cons of eating insects
• Are there habitable planets outside our solar system? Meet NASA scientists and planet hunters
• What is the point of snot, pus, wee, saliva, ear wax, and all that other gross stuff? Ask science!
• Help build a better picture of the Great Barrier Reef’s health, without getting your feet wet.

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Launch tonight 6pm at Brown’s Mart Theatre, with dramatic weather. Plus 100+ Science Week events around NT:

• Face-to-face with Frill Collins the frill neck lizard and Frida the tawny frogmouth
• Who will win the ultimate drone challenge?
• What’s the weather like on Mars, and are there habitable planets outside our solar system? Meet NASA scientists and planet hunters
• The women changing the world and Costa’s green science in the garden, Alice Springs
• HealthLAB goes remote, taking a mobile health clinic on the road from Darwin to Tiwi Islands to the Gulf of Carpentaria
• Weather small talk becomes high drama at the Darwin Festival
• Help build a better picture of the Great Barrier Reef’s health, without getting your feet wet.

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

Launch tonight 5.30pm, with dancer and engineer turned science champion. Plus events around the state:

• Can dance help disadvantaged girls to engage with science? Visiting US dancer and algebra teacher says yes!
• What’s the weather like on Mars, and are there habitable planets outside our solar system? Meet NASA scientists and planet hunters
• How to make yourself sick and win a Nobel Prize—Barry Marshall Skypes into Geraldton
• Counting minibeasts: it’s census time for Perth’s bugs and slugs
• What are the science-related future career and business opportunities for rural areas?
• Science and recipes for feeding yourself and your gut flora
• Hear the sounds of the Universe and songs of Indigenous astronomy
• Help build a better picture of the Great Barrier Reef’s health, without getting your feet wet
• And science festivals in Perth, Geraldton, Shark Bay and Gingin.

[continue reading…]

Lasers, wild Westies, sporty science, music and memory, and more

• Our galaxy is on a collision path with Andromeda. Ask astrophysicist Lisa Harvey-Smith what will happen.
• Can we use music to manage dementia? Ask neuroscientist Muireann Irish about how your brain remembers the past and imagines the future
• The problem with light pollution, and why we need a national park in the night sky
• What science is learning from 60,000+ years of Indigenous knowledge
• The world’s most powerful laser. Meet Ceri Brenner, the UK physicist pressing FIRE
• Vitamins: health revolution or expensive pee? Talk with Derek Muller and the scientists behind Vitamania
• The Wild West: what creatures live in Sydney’s western suburbs?
• Regional science festivals in Bega, Wagga Wagga, Lismore, Illawarra, and the Hunter Valley
• Help build a better picture of the Great Barrier Reef’s state, without getting your feet wet.

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The Great Barrier Reef is big, so big that scientists need your help to track its health.

We’re inviting every Australian to dive through their computer screens into the Reef by taking part in Virtual Reef Diver—the ABC’s online citizen science project for National Science Week and the International Year of the Reef.

“We need the community to pitch in to help us classify thousands of underwater images of the Reef,” says spatial scientist and project leader Dr Erin Peterson from Queensland University of Technology.

“Tell us whether you can see coral, algae or sand, and we’ll be able to get an estimate of the coral cover in that image.”

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Macquarie University and UWA scientists will join forces with two Australian companies to search for new antibiotics in 500,000 species of Australian microbes.

Background information below.

The project will be supported by a $3 million CRC-P grant announced by Australia’s Assistant Minister for Science, Jobs and Innovation, Senator Zed Seselja.

“We have samples of over 500,000 Australian microbes,” says Dr Ernest Lacey, Managing Director of Sydney-based company, Microbial Screening Technologies (MST), and the leader of the project.

Microbe-covered plates. Image credit: Andrew Piggott

“We’ve collected them from the soil in backyards, in paddocks, and forests. We’ve collected them from insects, plants and animals. We’ve gone everywhere to find Australia’s unique microbiome.”

“Each microbe contains a unique cocktail of metabolites. When we find an interesting new molecule, we’ll be relying on Macquarie University researcher Dr Andrew Piggott and his team to help us to work out its structure and mode of action.”

“Then Dr Heng Chooi from UWA will use genomics to unravel how the microbes assemble these metabolites and then boost their productivity.”

“Advanced Veterinary Therapeutics (AVT) is led by Dr Stephen Page and will focus on animal health potential,” says Dr Lacey.

“The CRC-P Program helps businesses, industries and research organisations to work together on short-term projects to develop practical solutions to challenges in key industry sectors,” Assistant Minister Seselja said at the project launch.

The three-year project, “BioAustralis, towards the future”, will harness MST’s unique collection as a source of next-generation antibiotics capable of overcoming microbial resistance. [continue reading…]