The 22nd Australian Institute of Physics Congress was held as a joint conference with the 13th Asia Pacific Physics Conference in December 2016.
Below are the media releases, media alerts and other news items released during the Congress. The proceeding were also tweeted from @AsiaAusPhysics and @ausphysics on #BrisPhys16. The conference website is appc-aip2016.org.au.
UK researcher Anthony Brown reported on the IceCube neutrino telescope under construction at the South Pole. The first stages are up and running, looking for high energy neutrinos from a variety of astrophysical sources, including dark matter.
David Karoly will rebut the common arguments and misinformation that question the role of human activity, particularly increasing concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases, as the main cause of recently observed global warming. He says, “Recent increases in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are due to human activity. The pattern and magnitude of observed global-scale…
By Vivien Lee Anyone can discover a neutron star in their own home, says the director of the Einstein@Home Project, Prof Bruce Allen. You don’t even have to be awake—your computer screensaver does it for you. In fact, it’s already been done. In August, a couple in Iowa, USA and a man in Mainz, Germany…
CERN director general preview a new centre and reports on the LHC’s first year A $25-million Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre to explore the origins of the universe immediately after the Big Bang was previewed by the Director General of CERN in Switzerland, Prof Rolf-Dieter Heuer at the Australian Institute of Physics Congress in Melbourne…
Melbourne physicists are trying to detect the undetectable – by searching for signs of its demise. Nicole Bell and her colleagues at the University of Melbourne are analysing data on neutrinos, gamma and cosmic rays for evidence of the decay or annihilation of dark matter. This mysterious material is suspected to exist because of the…
By James Mitchell Crow US researchers are beginning to understand how copper oxides can transmit electricity with no power loss at temperatures not far below -100˚C. Research which gives clues as to just how these superconductors work was presented at the Australian Institute of Physics Congress in Melbourne by Michael Norman from Argonne National Laboratory…
Discoveries in diagnosing diseases, finding new clues to detect climate change and the structural soundness of materials have all emerged from Australia’s nuclear research reactor. Adi Paterson, the director of ANSTO (the body that manages the reactor) spoke about the role that nuclear science will play in Australia’s future.
Solar flares could have temporarily worsened the hole in the ozone layer, particularly in the southern hemisphere, says Marc Duldig of the Australian Antarctic Division. Bursts of energetic particles erupting from the sun during some solar flares can boost levels of ozone-destroying chemicals in our atmosphere. Researchers from the Division are using ground-based sensors to…
In March 1989, six million people in the Canadian province of Quebec suffered a nine-hour blackout due to currents induced in their electricity grid by a geomagnetic storm. The currents themselves were caused by charged particles from a solar coronal mass ejection which struck Earth. There are reports of a storm 150 years ago with…
By James Mitchell Crow Australian-based researchers have recreated inside their laboratory the atmospheric conditions that cause auroras. One day the results of their experiments could power a mission to Venus or Mars. Christine Charles from the Australian National University told delegates at the Australian Institute of Physics conference in Melbourne that their work will help…