Wednesday 8 December 2010

Today’s stories from the physics conference in Melbourne include:

Tomorrow’s technology pioneers recognised today

• From the laser to quantum optics
  Prof Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov (Kostya.Ostrikov@csiro.au), a CSIRO scientist who set the ground rules for constructing new materials atom by atom using collections of charged particles known as plasmas;
• Teleportation
  Prof Hans-Albert Bachor (hans.bachor@anu.edu.au) from the Australian National University (ANU) whose work on the graininess or particle nature of light is leading to new technologies such as quantum encryption and teleportation;
• Laser controllers
  A/Prof Robert Scholten (scholten@unimelb.edu.au), a University of Melbourne physicist who has established a thriving and profitable business which makes and exports laser controllers; and
• Acoustics of music
  Prof Joe Wolfe (j.wolfe@unsw.edu.au) of the University of New South Wales, an expert on the acoustics of music whose multimedia learning resources are accessed about 60,000 times a day.

Also:
Diamond dust adds sparkle to medical imaging
Electronic paper makes itself
Bionic valves without the batteries
Invisible fibres disappearing soon
Acquiring a better feel for disease
Healthy and unhealthy brain states – what role does electrical conductivity play?
Is that a diamond in your eye? [continue reading…]

Nominations for Fresh Science 2010 are now closed. Thank you and best of luck to everyone who nominated in 2010! Winners will be notified on Tuesday 27 April 2010.

The Fresh Science winner’s boot camp and all public events will run from Monday 7 to Thursday 10 June 2010.

The 2009 L’Oréal Australia For Women in Science fellowships are now open for nomination. Nominations close 1 May 2009.

The three $20,000 Fellowships are intended to help early-career women scientists to consolidate their careers and rise to leadership positions in science.

The Fellowships are awarded to women who have shown scientific excellence in their career to date and who have an [continue reading…]

98 Nominations were received for Fresh Science 2009. Nominees will be notified shortly. Fresh Science will be held in Melbourne from 1-4 June 2009. Their stories will be relased to the media during the event and in the weeks after.

Marking International Women’s Day, five of the world’s women leaders in science each received the $US100,000 L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Awards For Women in Science at a ceremony in Paris. [continue reading…]

Here’s some more science stories for this week and next.

For a short time only, you can see Darwin’s flea at the Macleay Museum in Sydney. And you can meet the supercrocodilians in Darwin.  [continue reading…]

Written and issued by Film Victoria, Monday 16 February 2009

Industry leaders to descend on Melbourne from 1-4 December 2009

Minister for Innovation, Industry and Regional Development, Gavin Jennings, is pleased to announce that the 17th annual World Congress of Science and Factual Producers (WCSFP) will take place in Melbourne from 1 -4 December 2009. [continue reading…]

Photos from the Evolution conference. If you would like a higher resolution version of any of these, please contact me. [continue reading…]

• Tasmania remarkable but I do not like Sydney
• Eat your way through 4 billion years of evolution
• Darwin parties across Australia
• Evolution speakers

Charles Darwin’s 200^th birthday is tomorrow, Thursday 12 February.  We’ve issued a release on his views of Australia.

Darwin didn’t like Sydney – more on that below – but his great great grandson Chris Darwin lives in Sydney and will be in Melbourne eating his way through the evolutionary tree – from the primordial ocean soup to dinosaur drumettes at the birthday party on Thursday evening. Chris is happy to talk about his ancestor.

Also for his birthday: [continue reading…]