A West Australian invention that’s keeping atomic clocks accurate, searching for gravity waves, and improving radar systems has won its creators a national physics prize.
And, as mobile networks become increasingly congested, Sydney engineers have designed new technology that can be retrofitted into mobile communication systems to increase their capacity and reduce the cost of mobile calls.
Read on for more stories from the final day of the national physics congress in Sydney.
Posted on behalf of the University of New South Wales
It’s not every day that school students get to present their science project to a major scientific conference, and rarer still to receive a prize for it from a Nobel Laureate.
That’s the happy experience today for a team of four Year 11 students from Gosford High School, who have won a national competition conducted by UNSW and the Australian Institute of Physics.
Australian researchers are taking the twinkle out of stars for the world’s biggest light telescope, the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile.
And a new optical fibre – which can only be made in Australia – could detect corrosion in the metal of aircraft bodies, ships and bridges.
Hear about these stories and more at the national physics and optics congress in Sydney – AIP/ACOFT 2012, at the University of New South Wales, Kensington this week.
Quantum computers promise ultra-powerful, high speed number crunching. They’ll help us to search vast databases and model biological molecules at an atomic level. They will crack the encryptions we rely on for banking and online security but also help us make new, unbreakable codes.
How close are we to building a quantum computer? Australian scientists are working on it.
Also at the national physics congress today: meet the man in charge of planning and designing the NBN; designing a cheaper high-precision clock for GPS, astronomy and space tracking; and fighting greenhouse gases and arc-welding fumes with super-heated thermal plasma.
A new, cheaper way to deliver accurate time across Australia: instead of using hydrogen maser clocks costing hundreds of thousands of dollars we can bounce signals through the national’s optical fibre network according to physics leaders speaking today and tomorrow.
Also today at the national physics congress in Sydney, meet the man whose job it is to figure out how to build the NBN.
And hear about the magic of thermal plasmas, from safer arc welding to saving the ozone layer.
At the national physics congress this week:
And from Fresh Science
Unlimited clean power; high speed communications; sophisticated, targeted treatment for cancer; our understanding of the Universe. These and more at the national physics congress starting in Sydney on Monday.
We’ll also have a story on Monday about Australia’s smallest and worst-paid miners. [continue reading…]
Here are the stories that emerged from The 19th Australian Institute of Physics Congress incorporating the 35th Australian Conference on Optical Fibre Technology that took place from 5-9 December 2010 at the Melbourne Convention Centre.
Use the table of contents below to see a brief paragraph on each story and then click on the story headline to view the full story.
For more information contact Niall Byrne at niall@scienceinpublic.com.au [continue reading…]
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