The national festival that reaches more than 3 million people through over 2,000 events is back from 9 to 17 August.
There will be stories for every round including food, arts and books, future of farming, sport, disabilities, education, and science.
Over a thousand events have registered already at ScienceWeek.net.au/events. Look for public and private events in your area or your round. Or check out some of our highlights below, and we have state and territory highlights here.
Early highlights
- Canberra: How will farmers use AI to feed us and boost sustainability and profit?
- National: A band of physicists go on a dark matter road trip, visiting cities and regional centres.
- Hobart: Voyage to Antarctica’s floodgates. Meet the scientists who braved three months aboard RSV Nuyina icebreaker investigating the remote and rapidly melting Denman Glacier.
- Melbourne: Artists and scientists explore your attention… and losing it… in DISTRACTION exhibition.
- Sydney: Why bushfire season is now year-round, with the Canadian author of Fire Weather and a UNSW Canberra expert.
- Adelaide: Science of snot, exploding elephant toothpaste, wildlife, and Nitro Nat at Science Alive!
- Hobart: Science of better sex, death over drinks, and anything glows – Beaker Street is back.
- Brisbane: Planetarium ‘pop-rock-funk’ concert helps audiences second guess pseudoscience and conspiracy theories.
- Multistate (Melbourne talent): Legally blind artist leads multisensory exhibition to celebrate Quantum Year, featuring image and data sonification, electronic music, interactive displays and tactile artworks and graphics.
- Yalgoo, Cue and Mount Magnet, WA: When will our home galaxy crash into Andromeda? Ask an astrophysicist.
- Sydney: VR portal to Torres Strait Islander culture, Aboriginal astronomy, cultural use of seaweeds, science of sound and more at Indigenous Science Experience in Redfern.
- Darwin: Territorians’ ticket to the International Space Station
- National: Quantum poetry: enter the ‘ITTYVERSE’ competition.
More on these below and visit ScienceWeek.net.au/events to find more stories in your area. Or check out our highlights by state/territory: ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC and WA.
Media centre here. Images for media here.
General media enquiries: Tanya Ha – tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au / 0404 083 863 or Shelley Thomas – shelley@scienceinpublic.com.au / 0416 377 444.
Individual event details and media contacts
Can AI cultivate sustainable farming? – Acton, ACT
How will farmers use AI to boost sustainability and profit?
AI agronomists, seed-planting farmbots, pest-detecting drones, and robotic noses geared for evaluating wine and beer could be part of the answer.
Researchers are busy cultivating its use to selectively control weeds (saving on herbicide); figure out the perfect time to water crops; and identify grapes damaged by bushfire smoke.
Meet the experts when the Australian Academy of Science hosts ‘AI in Food’ at Canberra’s Shine Dome (as part of its series of talks on ‘AI in Science: the promise, perils and path forward’), featuring:
- CSIRO’s Dr Sarah Hartman who is using deep learning to develop an AI agronomist that works for and with farmers.
- University of Melbourne’s Associate Professor Sigfredo Fuentes, who uses high-tech digital instruments for agriculture, food and wine, alongside his role as investigator at the Plants for Space ARC Centre of Excellence.
Tuesday 12 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/ai-in-science-the-promise-perils-and-path-forward-ai-and-our-food/acton/
Media enquiries: Dan Wheelahan, media@science.org.au or (02) 6201 9444.
Dr Sarah Hartman and Associate Professor Sigfredo Fuentes are available for media interviews.
Quantum Year goes off-road – touring Australia’s cities and regions
Meet dark matter hunters and quantum experts at events across Australia.
To celebrate Quantum Year, the National Quantum & Dark Matter Road Trip will tour pubs and schools in regional and remote communities in Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales – and run events in capital cities between 4 August and 17 August.
Communities will also get the chance to trial the Dark Matter Hunter computer game, play with 3D quark puzzles, a muon detector, gravity well, diamond earring-based magnetic field sensor, and quantum computing chips.
Dark matter accounts for 84 per cent of all the matter in the Universe, but we don’t yet know what it is. Australia is a key player in the quest to find out. Quantum technologies are crucial in the hunt for dark matter and they’re already used in smart phones and cars, medical imaging, manufacturing, and navigation. But today’s technologies capture only a small fraction of the potential of quantum physics.
Media enquiries: Fleur Morrison, fleur.morrison@unimelb.edu.au or 0421 118 233.
Multiple experts involved with different legs of the tour are available for media interviews, including dark matter enlightener Jackie Bondell and particle physicist Ben McAllister.
Antarctica is melting. Why should we care? – Sandy Bay, TAS, and online
Ask scientists who spent three months aboard Australia’s RSV Nuyina icebreaker investigating the rapidly melting Denman Glacier and knock-ons to sea level rise and biodiversity.
‘Voyage to Antarctica’s Floodgates’ brings together leading experts investigating impacts of climate change on the icy continent:
- Chemical oceanographer Professor Delphine Lannuzel (University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies), who studies the chemistry of sea ice and how it affects the surrounding ocean environment.
- Evolutionary molecular biologist Professor Jan Strugnell (James Cook University), who investigates how Antarctic and deep-sea creatures have adapted and evolved over time, especially in response to changes in Earth’s climate and geography.
- Geneticist and environment DNA analyst Dr Leonie Suter (Australian Antarctic Division), who uses DNA found in water samples, from the ocean surface to the seafloor, to identify and monitor the biodiversity of marine life in Antarctica.
- Physical oceanographer Dr Laura Herraiz-Borreguero (CSIRO Environment), who studies the interaction of the warming ocean with Antarctic ice shelves.
Wednesday 23 July. Event details (in-person and livestreamed): www.scienceweek.net.au/event/voyage-to-antarcticas-floodgates/sandy-bay/
Media enquiries: Sera Golden, sera.golden@utas.edu.au or (03) 6226 6201 and Mark Horstman, mark.horstman@utas.edu.au or 0407 701 530.
Artists find meaning in digital distraction – Melbourne, VIC
See how Japanese cats respond to videos of their own image on ‘Cat Island’.
Outsmart AI in ‘Deviation Game’, drawing things that only humans understand.
Join a comedic televised set, ‘Pledge Drive for Attention’.
University of Melbourne’s Science Gallery explores how we can ‘harness the cacophony of digital content and find meaning within it’ through interactive games, play and technology in its free ‘DISTRACTION’ exhibition.
Highlights include:
- Deviation Game, by UK-based Studio Playfool, invites you to draw things that humans can understand but an image-recognition AI can’t.
- Cat Island, by Jen Valender, merges animal colour perception research from University of Melbourne’s Stuart-Fox Lab with technology that explores how cats on Japan’s Ainoshima Island (aka ‘Cat Heaven Island’) respond to digital stimuli, such as screen videos of their own image.
- Melbourne artist Xanthe Dobbie’s Unoriginal Sin focuses on the concept of ‘mean images’ (coined by artist Hito Steyerl) in an immersive video installation.
- US artist and Institute for Comedic Inquiry founder Laura Allcorn’s Pledge Drive for Attention opens the door to a comedic set based on a televised pledge drive, exploring how our attention spans are zapped by digital distractions.
From Saturday 26 July. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/distraction/parkville/
Media enquiries: Katrina Hall, kathall@ozemail.com.au or 0421 153 046.
Fire weather, a year-round reality – Kensington, NSW
‘Bushfire season’ is now a year-round reality – and not just in Australia.
In the aftermath of the hottest decade on record, Australia’s extreme bushfire behaviour expert and mathematical scientist Professor Jason Sharples (UNSW Canberra) unpacks the future in conversation with John Vaillant, award-winning Canadian author of Fire Weather.
Tuesday 12 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/john-vaillant-fire-weather/kensington
Media enquiries: Alison Sobel, allison.sobel@unsw.edu.au or 0404 902 729 and Ione Davis, ione.davis@unsw.edu.au
Prof Jason Sharples is an internationally recognised authority in dynamic bushfire behaviour and extreme bushfire development. He was an expert advisor and witness to the NSW Independent Bushfire Inquiry following the 2019-20 Black Summer fires, with the resulting recommendations framed by his research.
John Vaillant is a bestselling author and freelance writer. In Fire Weather he recounts the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire in Alberta. The book won Britain’s Baillie Gifford Prize, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the US National Book Award and was named one of the ten best books of 2023 by The New York Times.
Exploding elephant toothpaste, Aussie wildlife, and Nitro Nat at Science Alive! – Wayville, SA
- Nitro Nat’s Crazy Colourful Chemistry Show
- Animals Anonymous Wildlife Show
- Dr Quark’s Scientific Circus Show
- The Science of Snot
- Plus robot wars, flying drone displays, scientific bubble show, and VR experiences.
These are just some of the Science Alive! activities and attractions at the Adelaide Showground.
Saturday 2 August – Sunday 3 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/science-alive-8/wayville/
Media enquiries: Sarah Lang, sarahl@eventcrowd.com.au or 0400 081 865.
Planetarium ‘pop-rock-funk’ concert helps audiences second guess pseudoscience and conspiracy theories – Brisbane, QLD
Award-winning songwriter and science communicator Nate Eggins (aka Conspiracy of One) brings his quirky, cosmic grooves back to Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium.
Nate explores scientific and psychological concepts through pop-rock-funk songs like ‘We’re All Aliens, Baby’ and ‘The Sound a Duck Makes’.
Concert goers will enjoy a free ‘homeopathic cocktail’ against the starry backdrop of the Skydome.
And they will hear from special guest scientists:
- University Queensland Palaeontology PhD candidate Amber-Rose Faith talks about dinosaurs;
- Jesse Richardson (award-winning advertising creative director and founder of The School of Thought International) focuses on critical thinking.
Saturday 16 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/planetarium-concert-live-music-in-the-skydome-2/toowong/
Media enquiries: Nate Eggins, nathan@sentientproductions.com.au or 0402 593 431.
Nate Eggins is available for media interviews.
Science of better sex, death over drinks, and anything glows – Hobart, TAS
Beaker Street Festival is back. Pull up a seat where microscopes sit on bar tables, scientists take centre stage and boundary-pushing conversations – from death to pleasure – could change the world.
Centred around Hobart’s Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) and nearby venues, the week-long festival features talks and workshops; interactive science/art installations; photography exhibitions; live music and performance; and Tassie food and drink.
Festival Founder/Creative Director Dr Margo Adler says: “This year, we’re reclaiming the parts of ourselves that feel most at risk of being lost in this age of distraction — our wonder, our pleasure, our attention spans, our connection to nature and to each other.”
Highlights include:
- Come Again? An Evening of Sex and Science: sultry scientists and pleasure experts provide insights into the science of better sex, complete with ‘a giant clitoris puppet and peer-reviewed innuendo’.
- No One’s Getting Out of Here Alive: a surprisingly uplifting evening with some of Australia’s most buoyant death and dying experts, Tasmanian Aboriginal knowledge holders, and a few special guests.
- Human Love Quest: Your chemical romance! Live onstage dating show, straight outta Melbourne (and the ‘70s), makes its Hobart debut.
- Beyond the Stars: Seeing the Sky Through Aboriginal Eyes: astrophysicist and Wiradjuri woman Dr Kirsten Banks unpacks Western and Aboriginal constellations to reveal the profound knowledge embedded in the night sky.
- What’s Your P(DOOM): Comedian/actor/broadcaster Michael Hing investigates the probability of AI Doom.
- Slime Mould Forest Walk with slime mould expert Sarah Lloyd.
- Taste of Country – ningina palawa kipli piyura kitina-ta: an immersive bush tucker experience led by Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) guide Kitana Mansell.
- Anything Glows: nocturnal walk through Hobart’s glowing wildlife using UV torches.
- Seismic Dance Party: real glacial data is converted into a full-body audio visual rave, complete with haptic suits that let both deaf and hearing audiences feel Antarctica’s tectonic pulse.
Media enquiries: Matt Fraser, matt@originalspin.com.au or 0401 326 007.
When will the Milky Way crash into Andromeda? – Yalgoo, Cue and Mount Magnet, WA
Astrophysicist Dr Ruby Wright will reveal the fate of our galaxy over dinner party conversation under the stars in Western Australia’s outback gold rush towns.
Guests can also join a guided tour of the Milky Way, the Moon, Mars, and deep space objects like the Jewel Box Cluster – all magnified with the help of International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) telescopes.
Media enquiries: Charlene D’Monte, charlene.dmonte@uwa.edu.au or 0468 579 311.
Legally blind artist and musician collaborate in multisensory science exhibition to celebrate Quantum Year – Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane
‘A Different Light: Multisensory Science Books of X-Ray Crystallography’ touring exhibition builds on the work of the Monash Sensory Science initiative and will be delivered through partnerships with Vision Australia (VIC), Next Sense (NSW), Braille House (QLD) and other key educational organisations.
Designed by legally blind artist Dr Erica Tandori, from Monash University’s Rossjohn Laboratory, and designer/musician Dr Stu Favilla, from Swinburne University of Technology, it explores hidden atomic structures and protein formations revealed through X-ray crystallography in a series of 10 multisensory science books.
Showcasing accessible and inclusive science during Quantum Year, the exhibition enables blind, low vision and diverse needs (BLVDN) audiences to connect with cutting-edge Australian science and scientists (past and present) – including Nobel Prize winners Henry and Lawrence Bragg, the Australian father-and-son duo who pioneered X-ray crystallography.
It also features interactive mock-ups of the Braggs’ X-ray crystallography machines from the early 20th Century, image and data sonification, science inspired electronic music, and tactile artworks and graphics that represent atomic structures, diffraction patters and protein formations.
Media enquiries: Dr Erica Tandori, Erica.Tandori@monash.edu or 0407 806 733.
Dr Erica Tandori and Dr Stu Favilla are available for media interviews.
Sky Country, Indigenous Knowledge and VR – Redfern
How can virtual reality games open a portal to Torres Strait Islander culture? What does Aboriginal astronomy tell us about the night sky? And how do Indigenous knowledge systems help us understand physics, healthcare and environmental sustainability?
‘Indigenous Science Experience’ at Redfern Community Centre celebrates Indigenous knowledge systems and their impact on safeguarding natural resources, sustainable living and innovation. Activities also explore the science of sound, weaving, bush foods, cultural uses of seaweeds, and movement science incorporating Aboriginal dance.
Saturday 9 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/indigenous-science-experience-at-redfern-5/redfern/
Sunday 10 August at Science in the Scrub: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/science-in-the-scrub-2025/abbotsbury
Media enquiries: Joanne Jamie, joanne.jamie@mq.edu.au, 0439 170 683.
Indigenous student leaders, First Nations activity providers, and event organiser Joanne Jamie (non-Indigenous) are available for media interviews. View video from 2024 event.
Territorians’ ticket to the International Space Station – Darwin, NT
Young space enthusiasts can go on a spacewalk and witness how astronauts eat, sleep and work on the International Space Station thanks to a free VR experience at Charles Darwin University’s Radicle Centre.
Opened in March 2025, CDU Radicle Centre is the first and only science centre north of Brisbane. Its reach extends to mobile workshops and exhibits with a fully-equipped science vehicle to provide resources and activities to remote schools.
Sunday 17 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/vr-explorer-explore-the-space-with-mission-iss/darwin-city
Media enquiries: Carla Eisemberg, Carla.Eisemberg@cdu.edu.au or 0401 737 884.
CDU Radicle Centre for Science and Technology Engagement Director Dr Carla Eisemberg is available for media interviews.
To date, the centre’s team has visited over 20 schools across the NT, partnered with the Australian Space Agency and launched their after-school programs.
Quantum poetry: enter the ‘ITTYVERSE’ – Online
“We use the word QUANTUM when talking of atoms:
their tiniest particles, functions and actions.
Some quantum effects don’t appear to be logical.
Light can behave like a wave AND a particle!”
– from Quantum Foolery by Celia Berrell
Science Rhymes poet Celia Berrell is calling Aussie kids to submit poems about ‘small, tiny or nano things’ to celebrate the fusion of National Science Week and Quantum Year. Deadline to submit via feedback@sciencerhymes.com.au: Monday 28 July (in time for a big public reveal during Science Week).
For inspiration, consider a little critter, mini microbe, tiny item, or one or more little things that have significance – like an eye or pea, down to an atomic particle. A winning anthology will be published on Science Rhymes website (Ittyverse blog) to celebrate Science Week’s 2025 school theme, Decoding the Universe – Exploring the unknown with nature’s hidden language.
Thursday 1 May – Saturday 9 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/ittyverse/
Media enquiries: Celia Berrell, celia@sciencerhymes.com.au or 0408 069 192
Celia Berrell, the Science Rhymes poet, is available for interviews and can read some of her poems on the topic (good radio talent).
About National Science Week
National Science Week is Australia’s annual opportunity to meet scientists, discuss hot topics, do science and celebrate its cultural and economic impact on society – from art to astrophysics, chemistry to climate change, and forensics to future food.
First held in 1997, National Science Week has become one of Australia’s largest festivals. Last year about 3.2 million people participated in 2,078 registered events and activities.
The festival is proudly supported by the Australian Government, CSIRO, the Australian Science Teachers Association, and the ABC. In 2025 it runs from Saturday 9 to Sunday 17 August. Event details can be found at www.scienceweek.net.au.