Kieren Topp

Great National Science Week ENVIRONMENT stories up for grabs now around Australia

• Do environmental policies add up? Ask Hugh Possingham, a professor of both maths and zoology.
• Bandicoots, platypuses, and more: can we save our endangered species through rewilding?
• Leafy green cities, coastal wetlands, microalgae: the climate solutions you wish you knew about.
• Citizen scientists wanted to investigate microplastics.
• Meet the super microbes who could save us from plastic.
• Archaeology in space and on Earth in a changing climate.
• How the Southern Ocean is keeping the planet from overheating.
• Tree scientist encourages gardeners to grow the urban forest.

More on these highlights below.

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

Read on for direct contact details for each event, or contact Tanya Ha – tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0404 083 863.

Visit ScienceWeek.net.au/events to find more stories in your area.

Media centre here. Images for media here.

[Read more…] about Modifying microbes to eat plastic; climate solutions; rewilding to save species; and what policies add up?

Tuesday 15 August: highlights from day four of National Science Week

Researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country.

NSW: Meganne Christian: meet the Aussie engineer set to become an astronaut.

National: Which artist-researcher duo will win the battle to design the top Shirty Science t-shirt?

ACT: Do environmental policies add up? Ask Hugh Possingham, a professor of both maths and zoology.

NSW: Leafy green cities, coastal wetlands, microalgae: the climate solutions you wish you knew about.

TAS: Cats, chemicals, brains, stress, and space junk: young scientists tour Tasmanian schools.

WA: A band of physicists go on a road trip to explain quantum and dark matter.

WA: Noongar knowledge and elemental energies from earth, air, water and fire.

NT: Paint with a UV torch at ‘Sea of Light’, a light installation at MAGNT.

NT: A health lab on wheels and AI ‘time machine’ shows impact of disease.

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

Also today:

• SA: Boomerang engineering with the First Scientists.
• VIC: Extraterrestrial processing: how will we make materials with resources found on the moon?

[Read more…] about An Aussie astronaut, Noongar knowledge, and do environmental policies add up?

Sunday 13 August: highlights from day two of National Science Week

Researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country.

VIC: Is AI the next Shakespeare? See a play written by ChatGPT.

VIC: Solving great spider crab mysteries, without getting wet, sandy or bitten.

NSW: Meet the chemist-turned-artist behind Atmospheric Memory.

NSW: Meet a life-sized dinosaur at Science in the Swamp.

ACT: Keeping brains young with creative computing for seniors.

SA: Using data to map dolphin migration.

QLD: Street Science on the farm at the Ekka.

ACT: Space, robotics, and engineering with LEGO: science while you shop in Canberra’s malls.

National: Kooo-koo-kaa-kaa, croak, screeee… What is Australia’s favourite animal sound?

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

Also today:

• SA: Fun for fur and feathers: how zoos enrich the lives of resident animals.
• QLD: Help scientists and conservationists find shy platypuses.
• TAS: Help create music inspired by science with an electric violin and loop pedal.

[Read more…] about Spider crabs, data for dolphins, science while you shop, and a play by ChatGPT

Dozens of Science Week stories around Queensland

• Street Science on the farm at the Ekka.
• TV presenter Dr Rob Bell shares bloody science with Aussie kids in 200 schools nationwide.
• A science fair for sick kids in The Children’s Hospital.
• Satirical science music ‘Road to Reason’: album launch at Planetarium.
• Meet human and marine stars of National Geographic’s SHARKFEST and Bull Shark Bandits – Currumbin.
• How butterflies inspire technology – Kuranda.
• A band of physicists go on a road trip to explain quantum and dark matter – touring Queensland.
• Kooo-koo-kaa-kaa, croak, screeee… What is Australia’s favourite animal sound?

More on these highlights below.

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

Read on for direct contact details for each event, or contact Tanya Ha – tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0404 083 863.

Visit ScienceWeek.net.au/events to find more stories in your area.

Media centre here. Images for media here.

[Read more…] about Bull shark bandits, butterfly-inspired tech, satirical science music, and bloody school science classes

Dozens of Science Week stories around ACT

• Space, robotics, and engineering with LEGO: science while you shop in Canberra’s malls.
• First Nations food and medicine in the National Museum’s garden.
• Pew-pew! Fact or fiction in Hollywood ballistics.
• Biodiversity offsets to funding threatened species: the maths of environmental policies.
• Blade Runner: what do neuroscientists and bioethics experts think?
• Keeping brains young with creative computing for seniors.
• Kooo-koo-kaa-kaa, croak, screeee… What is Australia’s favourite animal sound?

More on these highlights below.

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

Read on for direct contact details for each event, or contact Tanya Ha – tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0404 083 863.

Visit ScienceWeek.net.au/events to find more stories in your area. Media centre here. Images for media here.

[Read more…] about Blade Runner, ballistics, birdsongs, and a First Nations food garden

Saturday 12 August: highlights from day one of National Science Week

Researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country.

NSW: A writer, a broadcaster and an AI expert discuss science in the age of fake news.

NSW: Nicole Yamase: the first Pacific Islander to visit the deepest point of the Mariana Trench.

VIC: Can art shed light on invisible dark matter?

ACT: First Nations food and medicine with Wiradjuri man Adam Shipp.

SA: Tree scientist encourages gardeners to grow the urban forest.

TAS: Science, music, Indigenous astronomy at NOCTURNA Dark Sky Retreat.

WA: Finding aliens, love, energy, innovation, and the bottom of the ocean at The Anti-conference.

WA: Why it’s good to have a bird brain.

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

Also today:

• QLD: Music, philosophy, and astrophysics in a live performance of Endless Universe.
• ACT: Explore an ‘Unconformity’ – an ancient rock formation underneath Parliament House.

[Read more…] about Science vs fake news, dark matter art, planet-saving urban forests, and diving to the bottom of the Mariana Trench

Dozens of Science Week stories around New South Wales

• An Aussie astronaut, art therapy, deep sea science, space junk and Sky Country –all at the Sydney Science Festival.
• Newcastle’s giant inflatable Poo Palace recreates the journey of food, from lips to loo.
• What’s the role of plants, wetlands and phytoplankton in tackling climate change?
• What’s the secret to happiness? An 85-year-long scientific study has some ideas.
• Scientists by day; drag performers by night. Who will be crowned the ‘ultimate drag scientist’?
• Who makes the ‘laws’ in space? When do you need to call a space lawyer? Who can mine the moon? – Newcastle.
• Indigenous science, song-lines and stars – Wollongong.
• Meet the super microbes who could save us from plastic – Orange, Sydney & Newcastle.
• Marshmallow bazookas, leaf-blower levitation, and explosive liquid nitrogen with Dr Graham in Goulburn.
• Become a poo, race a solar car, explore the moon – Newcastle.
• Floods, storms and the Wyangala dam: a First Nation perspective – Wyangala.

More on these highlights below.

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

Read on for direct contact details for each event, or contact Tanya Ha – tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0404 083 863.

Visit ScienceWeek.net.au/events to find more stories in your area.

Media centre here. Images for media here.

[Read more…] about An Aussie astronaut, plants fighting climate change, scientists’ drag battle, and a giant Poo Palace

Dozens of Science Week stories around Tasmania

• Dr Karl: what’s the science in future careers?
• Science, music, Indigenous astronomy at NOCTURNA Dark Sky Retreat.
• Cats, chemicals, brains, stress, and space junk: young scientists tour Tasmania.
• Multi-chambered vaginas, elongated clitorises, pseudo-penises and more: improv and 3D-printed animal vaginas reveal the world of female reproduction.
• Experimental beers with three independent breweries and two thirsty scientists.
• Citizen scientists wanted to investigate microplastics.
• Racing robots, seed bombs, an augmented reality sandpit, and more at the Festival of Bright Ideas.
• How the Southern Ocean is keeping the planet from overheating.
• Kooo-koo-kaa-kaa, croak, screeee… What is Australia’s favourite animal sound?

More on these highlights below.

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

Read on for direct contact details for each event, or contact Tanya Ha – tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au, 0404 083 863.

Visit ScienceWeek.net.au/events to find stories in your area using the event listing.

Media centre here. Images for media here.

[Read more…] about Dr Karl, beer science, animal private parts, and Indigenous astronomy at a dark sky party