Category: Australian Institute of Physics

• Picking endangered parrots out from the dawn chorus
• Could maths and science have shortened WW1?
• Lawrence Krauss
• Nobel-winning photon-juggler replaces Schrödinger’s cat

These topics and more on the final day of the national physics conference, Thursday 11 December Read More about Quantum cats, could science have shortened WW1, and Lawrence Krauss

Good science happens when clever people ask insightful questions. Some papers at the national physics congress in Canberra last week took on their colleagues—asking penetrating questions of mainstream science. Read More about Challenging the orthodoxy in dark matter, dark energy, fusion and more

Physicists recognised this week at the national physics congress in Canberra have won recognition for:

• Using lasers to safeguard future communications
• Replacing Schrödinger’s famous ‘cat in a box’ with photons and mirrors
• Engaging students by changing the way we usually teach science
• Bending light for nanoscale photonics and light-driven computing

Read More about Quantum lasers and better ways to engage students win gold medals for physicists

• Football physics tackles hamstring injuries
• Finding airports 50 light years away
• A sun on earth- fact or fiction
• Laser tracking of carbon-coughing cattle
• A Victorian goldfields search for galactic dark matter

These topics and more on day three of the national physics conference, Wednesday 10 December Read More about Football physics and hammies; dark matter in a gold mine and more

• The catastrophe of 4 degree rise – warning for Lima talks
• Lab junk into LabPunk
• Strobe light flashes to capture a speeding electron
• Using spider-web fibre optics for the world wide web
• Shrinking X-ray microscopes for a closer look at the cellular world

These topics and more on day two of the national physics conference – Tuesday 9 December

Read More about Four degree rise, shrinking X-ray microscopes and spider web fibre optics

• laser rod to lapel pin
• space–time silver cuff
• complex art from simple rules
• geometry, videos and lace on exhibition

Artworks inspired by science are on display and under discussion at the national physics and optics congress at the Australian National University in Canberra from 7 to 11 December. The congress theme is ‘The Art of Physics’.

Read More about The art of science in jewellery, metal, tape and music

• Letting first-year students loose in the lab

• Girls in physics—what’s keeping the door closed?

• MOOCs—better than uni?

• Special effects improve understanding of complex science

Speakers available for interview in Canberra. Photos available. Stories embargoed until conference presentation.

Read More about Education stories at the national physics congress