Retro aviation, future climate, beer goggles, and Indigenous astronomy

Media bulletins, Media releases, National Science Week

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.

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

NT’s National Science Week launch at Shifting Realities – 4pm, Saturday 10 August, Festival Park

Shifting Realities brings art and science together in virtual reality works that show the world from a First Nations perspective or explore the devastating effects of climate and environmental change.

The work ‘Storm Dog’, by Darwin-based artist Caro Macdonald, takes audiences to 2050 Darwin under climate change. A storm’s coming and a dog’s missing.

Where: Corner of Smith Street & Harry Chan Avenue, Darwin. Event details

National Science Week in Northern Territory: event highlights

Green science and the War on Waste in the Red Centre at AridLands EcoFair — Alice Springs

Gardening Australia’s Costa Georgiadis and the War on Waste’s Craig Reucassel will descend on Alice Springs for the desertSMART EcoFair, Central Australia’s premiere science and sustainability event.

In 2019 the fair will feature keynote science communicators, desert scientists, Indigenous educators, renewable energy professionals and health experts in a series of community events encouraging discussions about science and sustainability.

The program also includes an ABC Radio outside broadcast featuring the Great Science Quiz, documentary screenings from the Transitions Film Festival, and the Eco-Science Schools Day for local students.

Thursday 8 to Sunday 11 August Event details

HealthLAB: Science on Wheels – Darwin & North East Arnhem Land

A health education clinic on wheels will travel to locations around Darwin and to the remote Milingimbi community in North East Arnhem Land to work with trainee Aboriginal health practitioners on country.

What does the world look like through ‘beer goggles’ when you’re stone cold sober? How good is your health? And how do your lifestyle choices affect the health of your body?

HealthLAB is a health education clinic on wheels where visitors can see ultrasounds of their heart and kidneys, hear their heart beating, see how the heart changes after exercise, and try on ‘alcohol goggles’ that mimic raised blood alcohol levels.

Interactive displays and demonstrations will cover topics of preconception health, nutrition, the amount of sugar in soft drinks, poisons in cigarettes and other health topics.

Participants assess their own health in a pop-up laboratory, learn about healthy lifestyle choices, and find out about careers in health science-related fields.

Milingimbi: Tuesday 13 August Event details

Parliament House (Darwin): Thursday 15 August Event details

Charles Darwin University (Casuarina): Sunday 18 August Event details

The Territory’s road to 50% renewable energy by 2030 — Connellan

The Northern Territory has a target of 50% renewable energy by 2030. Technical, regulatory and economic barriers in the Alice Springs power system need to be overcome. Join Minister for Renewables, Energy and Essential Services, Dale Wakefield, alongside industry leaders and the Intyalheme Centre for Future Energy, for a robust panel discussion with audience participation. Hear about the solutions that can ensure a bright solar future for the Territory.

Saturday 10 August Event details

Air Race: aviation history brought to life on stage

Inspired by the amazing true story of the 1919 air race from London to Darwin, this old-world adventure from Arena Theatre Company captures an extraordinary moment in history, when flight was inspiring a whole new way of looking at the world.

Seven teams take to the skies in a thrilling race to victory, chasing an adventure that will take them half-way across the planet. Maintaining their flying machines with found objects, random spare parts and the occasional wad of chewing gum, the aviators undertake their extraordinary journey in a world where ‘risk management’ just isn’t a thing.

Will they survive? Will they make it to Darwin? And whose stories matter when you’re making history?

Friday 16 to Sunday 17 August Event details

It’s in the Stars: stories from Indigenous and Western astronomy — Hermannsburg

Indigenous Australians are our first astronomers. Their culture includes many practical ways of using the moon, sun, stars and planets to navigate, determine the time of year and predict weather.

This is a community event in Ntaria (Hermannsburg), featuring demonstrations to illustrate Indigenous and Western astronomy, including talks, group activities and direct access to telescopes. The event has been timed to coincide with the full moon phase on 15 August.

It will be run by Ntaria Community School, in partnership with CSIRO scientists from Sydney and Melbourne.

Thursday 15 August Event details

Between the Moon and Stars with MAGNT — Darwin

Embark on a 3D outer space experience in Starlab’s Cosmodome Science Theatre & Planetarium at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT).

Brilliant 3D depictions of our solar system, moon phases, eclipses and tidal rhythms combined with surround-sound effects will captivate audiences. They can discover obscure and interesting constellations inside the immersive Cosmodome Theatre and learn how to use the Southern Cross as a compass.

These events are part of MAGNT’s Between the Moon and the Stars exhibition – where art meets science.

Tuesday 13 to Sunday 18 August Event details

Pop-up Science Centre — Alice Springs, Palmerston and Darwin

Spin until you’re dizzy, compare your reflexes to those of a Formula 1 driver, and see your fingertips under a microscope with the Shell Questacon Science Circus. 

Visitors of all ages will enjoy more than 40 interactive exhibits and watch spectacular shows in which Science Circus presenters hold fire in their hands, lie on a bed of nails, levitate beach balls and perform other dazzling scientific feats.

Alice Springs: Sunday 18 August Event details

Palmerston: Saturday 24 August Event details

Darwin: Saturday 31 August Event details

The Aha! Challenge: Test your creative brain for science—online

You know that feeling of ‘aha’? It’s that flash of insight you get when pieces of information fall into place, revealing a deeper meaning or understanding.

It’s a critical contributor to scientific, mathematics and creative discovery, and researchers are really keen to know how it changes over our lifespan. Does that feeling of excited discovery change over our life?

Contribute to real scientific research from the comfort of your own home by participating in the ABC’s National Science Week project ‘The Aha! Challenge’. Participants will do a series of online tests designed to elicit insight and draw out creativity, helping scientists understand how the human brain works.

Visit AhaChallenge.net.au until Saturday 31 August.

About National Science Week

National Science Week has become one of Australia’s largest festivals. Last year saw 1.2 million people participate in more than 2100 events and activities.

In 2019, National Science Week events will be held right throughout Australia—from world’s first global Indigenous hackathon ‘INDIGI HACK’ to ‘Dr Dolphin’ and his bottlenose friends in Adelaide, and from marking the Moon landing in Sydney to the science queens of Kings Park in Perth—with science festivals, music and comedy shows, expert panel discussions, interactive hands-on displays, open days and online activities.

National Science Week 2019 will run from 10 to 18 August. Media kit at www.scienceinpublic.com.au, public event listings at www.scienceweek.net.au.