Launch Friday at the Science Excellence Awards with Minister. Plus 230 Science Week events around SA:

▪ Who will win this year’s South Australia’s Science Excellence Awards?

▪ The science of wine, the language of plants, and the neuroscience of sex, drugs and salsa dancing at Big Science Adelaide.

▪ Gravitational waves explained by scientists, sounds, video art and poetry.

▪ Why does food taste different when you have a cold? And how do your neurons communicate? Meet your brain and find out.   

▪ Food and wine in a changing climate: can we save Maggie Beer ice cream and Barossa shiraz?

▪ Shift worker? Hear from experts about how it affects your health and what you can do about it.

▪ Meet Adelaide’s Dr Dolphin and his bottlenose friends.

▪ Zoos as research institutes, studying rhinos, African wild dogs, palm cockatoos, reptiles and more.

▪ Science Alive! comes to the Clare Valley Science Spectacular.

▪ A mobile observatory tours regional SA.

▪ 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.

Media release from National Science Week Tasmania

VISION OPPORTUNITY: 10:00am Friday 9 August at the Festival of Bright Ideas, Princes Wharf No.1, with Minister for Science and Technology, Hon. Michael Ferguson MP

Thousands of Tasmanians will stream into venues across Tasmania to experience science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) events this August. There are more than 60 events to choose from, including custom dance performances based on local research, pop-up science bars, intimate talks with world leading scientists, quiz nights, nature tours, community STEM festivals and more.

Launch Sunday at Springwood, with Chief Scientist & Engineer and a robot farmhand. Plus 500 Science Week events around NSW:

▪ Maths with Mr WooTube, deep dives, the new climate change activists, and more at the Sydney Science Festival

▪ An Indigenous hackathon to help save languages

▪ Gravitational waves explained by scientists, sounds, video art and poetry

▪ What will the farms of the future look like?

▪ Hear the untold story of the women who made the Internet

▪ Science goes local: 120 scientists visit 70 libraries

▪ Super sight, super hearing, super strength and camouflage: hear about nature’s superpowers

▪ Arctic art and photography inspiring action on climate change

▪ You’re never alone when you’ve got a parasite: public health meets comedy

▪ 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.

Media release from the National Science Week WA Co-ordinating Committee

National Science Week returns from 10 – 18 August, to reveal spectacular and breathtaking discoveries of science and technology through more than 1,000 events across Australia, 240 of which will be in Western Australia.

For Western Australians, the week will launch with the spectacular Moonboorli (Beyond), a free youth-focused event and gathering place for culture, ideas, knowledge and storytelling, presented by Propel Youth Arts WA at the State Library of Western Australia on Saturday 10 August.

Media release from the National Science Week WA Co-ordinating Committee

Celebrating the launch of National Science Week in 2019, Moonboorli (Beyond) is a special free event and gathering place for culture, ideas, knowledge and storytelling, presented by Propel Youth Arts WA at the State Library of Western Australia on Saturday 10 August.

Special guest Andrea Boyd will be sharing her experience as the only Australian International Space Station Flight Controller at the European Space Centre in Cologne, and her recent involvement in helping to create the new Australian Space Agency. Speaking at the Opening Ceremony and later in the day at a key-note presentation, this is her only appearance for National Science Week in WA.

From pee power to plastic-eating mealworms, in Melbourne the arts enter the war on waste.

In Sydney, Arctic art and photography combine to inspire action on climate change.

In Canberra, astrophysics and performance meld to present the universe in four dimensions.

And in Hobart, three chemicals are explored by three choreographers and a youth dance company.

Dozens of interesting arts stories, people and events are taking place around Australia for National Science Week this August, including:

·      gravitational waves explained by scientists, sounds, video art and poetry, Adelaide, Melbourne and Canberra

·      young artists, music with birdsong, Indigenous science, neuroscience and creativity workshops in Perth

·      rocks, minerals, crystals and fossils – artists respond to nature’s art, in Canberra

·      the shape of sound and the maths of music, Sydney.

More details …

Technology is vital for future agriculture, research reveals

Australia’s biggest science festival, National Science Week 2019, will run from 10 to 18 August, with events in major cities, regional centres and country towns. Here are a few of interest for country residents.

Agri-robots and future farming: how science is transforming NSW

From robots rounding up cattle to picking fruit at the right time, technology is helping New South Wales’ $13 billion agriculture sector adapt to the future. Science is not just for the city, says Chief Scientist & Engineer Professor Hugh Durrant-White.

August promises cool science, hot topics and sharp people.

With more than 2000 planned events around Australia, National Science Week, 10 to 18 August, offers multiple story opportunities – so the time to start scheduling is now.

Headline local and international science stars include:

• NASA exobiologist Darlene Lim —a scientist who prepares astronauts for missions by putting them in the toughest environments on Earth.
• Sylvia Earle – nicknamed “Her Deepness”, this veteran US oceanographer pioneered extreme diving, and lived in experimental underwater habitats.
• Veena Sahajwalla – based at UNSW, Veena is the inventor of green steel, a new building material made from old car tyres and recycled plastic.
• Eddie Wu – a Sydney maths teacher and YouTube star, Eddie was named Australia’s Local Hero for 2018, and fronted the ABC television series, Teenage Boss.

Other guests include US-based astrobiologist Paul Davies, Australian Nobel laureate Elizabeth Blackburn, and War on Waste star Craig Reucassel. 

Encourage your early-career researchers to talk about their results and discoveries by getting them to nominate for Fresh Science – a national competition that helps emerging scientists who have results that deserve attention.

Fresh Science, now in its 22nd year, provides a day of media training, followed by a traditional pub test. More below.

Westpac has endowed a new perpetual suite of fellowships and scholarships. Nominate your top early-career researchers, social innovators and students now. Read on for details.

Other prizes and opportunities:

• 2 x $50K Metcalf Prizes for Stem Cell Research. More below.
• 2 x $50K Victoria Prizes—entries close 17 July
• £3000 John Maddox Prize for standing up for science—entries close 19 July (international)
• 2020 Australian of the Year Awards—nominations for national, state and territory entries close 30 September