From Rob Robinson, President of the Australian Institute  Physics

It is a great pleasure and honour to be the incoming president of the Australian Institute of Physics, and to be joined by Warrick Couch, of Swinburne University, the incoming Vice-President.

For me, one of the highlights of 2012 was to help organise the recent Congress in Sydney:  one of my main roles was as overall Scientific Program Chair, and I got to know more about the wide range of physics activities, beyond my own interests in condensed-matter physics.  I like the idea of a “big physics” that asserts inclusion of all the overlap with chemistry, astronomy, biology and indeed engineering and medicine.  The alternative of a small “ivory-tower” of pure research will lead, I fear, to marginalisation of our subject.  So I think that we need to be relentless in promoting ourselves to physicists (and others who are really doing physics) as broadly in society as possible. [continue reading…]

Hopeful evidence and hard challenges

Introducing the 5^th Graeme Clark Orator, speaking Monday 29 April at The Plenary, Melbourne Convention Centre. [continue reading…]

A psychology researcher from Canberra has collected some of the first scientific evidence that video gaming can be addictive in a way similar to gambling and alcohol.

“People who spend an excessive amount of time playing video games are powerless to stop themselves from thinking about gaming,” says Olivia Metcalf, who did the research for her PhD at the Australian National University. “This is a pattern typical of addiction,” she says.

“Many people have claimed that video games can be addictive. But this is some of the first hard evidence.” [continue reading…]

Ngan’gi speakers know it’s time to look for freshwater crocodile eggs when the red kapok trees near the Northern Territory’s Daly River burst into flower.

A Darwin-based scientist has converted this link and other intimate Aboriginal knowledge of Australia’s landscape into an environmental management tool.

CSIRO’s Emma Woodward says that Aboriginal observations have revealed relationships and links between plants, animals, water and climate that we weren’t aware of before. It’s critical information for water management for example. Emma Woodward is our latest Fresh Scientist.

Also in this media bulletin:

• More people could benefit from liver transplants – including those on methadone programs or with certain forms of heart disease. Centenary researchers are presenting their findings at the world’s largest annual conference of liver specialists in Boston.
• Links for this week’s total solar eclipse.
• Young medical researchers compete for the Centenary Institute’s Lawrence Creative Prize – winner announced at a lunch at UBS in Sydney on Thursday.

And coming up:

• How farmers are adapting to a changing climate – the latest from winemakers, orchardists and others. Which crops will become marginal? Do we need to all go vegetarian to reduce livestock emissions? These and many other issues will be explored at a climate change in agriculture conference in Melbourne from 27 November.
• Homeopathy, psychics and crazy Stonehenge theories will all cop a beating at this year’s national Skeptics Convention in Melbourne from 30 November.
• Quantum science; the glass backbone of NBN; tracking space debris; pink diamonds. The national physics congress will be discussing these and many other topics in Sydney from 9-13 December 2012.

[continue reading…]

A Sydney astronomer Amanda Bauer has discovered and studied a distant cluster of galaxies to find out how galaxies evolve and interact with their neighbours. Her work will help explain the fate of our own Milky Way.

This intergalactic yarn is our latest Fresh Science story. More next week.

Australia and India will work together to study the impact on cerebral malaria of the major ingredient of turmeric, curcumin.

Dr Saparna Pai from the Centenary Institute in Sydney is off to New Delhi for the study.

Centenary is also celebrating over $5 million in grants for research into cardiology, TB, aging and immunology.

And the Prime Minister’s Prizes are approaching – 31 October with a 5 pm embargo. Details if you need them will be available on embargo from tomorrow.

• Galaxies in the thick of it grow up fast: Fresh Science
• Turmeric could spice up malaria therapy
• Cardiology, TB, aging and immunology – Centenary wins support for research thrust
• Who’s going to win this year’s Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science [continue reading…]

From Marc Duldig, President of the Australian Institute of Physics Welcome to my bulletin  with physics news and events for October 2012 and beyond. This month we have mastering the quantum world in Tasmania, supermassive black holes in Melbourne, the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor in Canberra, and open days at Siding Springs Observatory in […]

Today Australian engineers reveal in Nature how they have written information to a single electron opening the way to a quantum computer based on silicon.

Quantum computers promise to solve complex problems that are currently impossible on even the world’s largest supercomputers if only we could make one. Many esoteric approaches have been tried.

Researchers at UNSW said, “We can do this using silicon – and computer makers already know how to use that.

See below for more details. [continue reading…]

It’s science prize season: we’ve just celebrated three outstanding young women at the 6th L’Oréal Australia and New Zealand For Women in Science awards, and the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes will be awarded next month.
[continue reading…]