Today: it’s not just fish, plastic pollution harms the bacteria that help us breathe—scientist available for interview
Ten per cent of the oxygen we breathe comes from just one kind of bacteria in the ocean. Macquarie University scientists have shown that these bacteria are susceptible to plastic pollution.
Study published in Communications Biology overnight; scientist available for interview and images available. Details below.
Today: Australia’s silicon quantum computer will add up accurately!
Yesterday Nature published the latest paper from this UNSW team. It’s their third in three months and reinforces that Australia is leading the race to invent a silicon-based quantum computer. This paper demonstrates that if we invent a silicon computer it will be able to do its sums accurately, which apparently wasn’t a foregone conclusion. UNSW media have all the details. More below.
Mars, wildlife, curious climate and trash talk: a first taste of National Science Week—coming up in August
Mimicking Mars missions on Earth, plastic-eating bacteria, Star Wars science, and hunting wildlife with an app (in a non-lethal way)—just some of the activities planned for National Science Week. Now’s the time to start planning your coverage of Australia’s biggest festival with an anticipated 2000+ events and activities. More below.
Announcement from the National Science Week office at Questacon
Congratulations to all of the successful recipients in the 2019 National Science Week grant round. A total of $723 000 has been awarded to 53 projects.
QuestaGame players using the app
Can you get a decent cup of coffee in space? What makes a cell turn into cancer? Why are Port Adelaide’s dolphins special?
National Science Week grant projects will explore the far reaches of the universe through a travelling observatory, an art exhibition, virtual reality and a multimedia experience of gravitational waves. Sustainability will be a focus for Perth’s suburbs, the Indigenous knowledge of Tasmania’s midlands will be shared and celebrated, and Rob and Dean from The Curiosity Show will team up with the Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra.
The projects are listed below in the state or territory where the lead applicant is located.
Citizen scientists from around Australia are helping scientists and reef managers get a much better picture of the health of the Great Barrier Reef.
So far, they have looked at over 2.7 million points on more than 170,000 underwater images of the Reef and told us whether they can see coral, algae or sand.
They’re all taking part in Virtual Reef Diver—the ABC’s online citizen science project for National Science Week.
Highlights from the final day of National Science Week
110 events and exhibitions, 13 online activities, and dozens of great stories and talent.
National and international talent, researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country. Plenty of photo opportunities.
Adelaide
Why does food taste different when you have a cold? And how do your neurons communicate? Meet your brain and find out
Revisit Coober Pedy when it was under sea: paeleontology meets musical theatre
Sydney
Art explores what makes us human, now and in the future
What can Western science learn from 60,000+ years of Indigenous knowledge and culture?
Perth
The science of living more sustainably: expo on the Canning
Counting minibeasts: it’s census time for Perth’s bugs and slugs
Science and recipes for feeding yourself and your microbiome
Highlights from day eight of National Science Week’s nine-day ‘week’
166 events and exhibitions, 13 online activities, and dozens of great stories and talent.
National and international talent, researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country. Plenty of photo opportunities.
Adelaide
The lifecycle of a parasitic wasp as performance art—scientists perform their science
New South Wales
Kick the physics out of a footy, science and extreme sport at Sydney Olympic Park
Drones, 3D printing, and robots on the catwalk, in Wagga Wagga
Tasmania
Tasty science, snotty science, Antarctic secrets and the man headed to Mars, in Hobart
Sarah Lloyd says slime moulds are nature’s miniature jewels—ask and see why, in Westbury
Highlights from day seven of National Science Week
344 events and exhibitions, 21 online activities, and dozens of great stories.
National and international talent, researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country. Plenty of photo opportunities.
Hobart
A prospective Martian, the science of snot and other gross stuff, insect vision, cats, and more at Princes Wharf 1
Sydney
A glass of Dr Penfold: ask the ‘Wine Doctor’ about Australia’s history of wine as medicine
Getting into women’s heads: how the brain
affects women’s health and wellbeing
How virtual reality helps biomedical researchers ‘walk’ through the human body
Melbourne
Comedy meets the brainstem (the ‘arse end of the brain’)
Meet the UK plasma physicist firing the world’s most powerful laser and making it useful
382 events and exhibitions, 22 online activities, and dozens of great stories.
National and international talent, researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country. Plenty of photo opportunities.
Melbourne
There’s money in waste – turning our rubbish into new products, Melbourne
A virtual reality tour of the invisible Universe, over a beer with astrophysicists
Adelaide
Can we edit away epilepsy? And is it as easy as it sounds?
The revolution in cancer treatments
Canberra
The Element in the Room: a radioactive musical comedy about the death and life of Marie Curie
Whisky business: what happens to whisky when combined with liquid nitrogen?
422 events and exhibitions, 22 online activities, and dozens of great stories.
National and international talent, researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country. Plenty of photo opportunities.
Sydney
Bob Brown’s battle for the planet, from the Franklin River to Federal Parliament
Will coral reefs survive climate change? Ask the scientists
Superbugs: what we need to do to become resistance fighters
Melbourne
Humans 2.0: what’s the future look like for humanity?
More than 2,000 events are registered for National Science Week 2018, which runs until Sunday 19 August. Media kit at www.scienceinpublic.com.au, public event listings at www.scienceweek.net.au.
347 events and exhibitions, 20 online activities, and dozens of great stories and talent.
National and international talent, researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country. Plenty of photo opportunities.
Adelaide
How do microbes turn grape juice into wine?
Why giant cuttlefish do so well in the water near Whyalla
Canberra
How are mobile devices and apps affecting our mental health and how can they be used as a force for good?
Highlights from day three of National Science Week
300 events and exhibitions, 19 online activities, and dozens of great stories and talent.
National and international talent, researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country. Plenty of photo opportunities.
Adelaide, Darwin & Melbourne
Are we alone in the Universe? Are there habitable planets outside our solar system? Ask the NASA scientists and planet hunters
Melbourne
What turns a normal bug into a ‘superbug’? Ask an antibiotic resistance fighter
Sydney
What makes cancer cells immortal and how will genetics and big data change cancer treatment in the future? Ask Prof Roger Reddel
How virtual reality helps biomedical researchers ‘walk’ through the human body
129 events and exhibitions, 12 online activities, and dozens of great stories and talent.
National and international talent, researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country. Plenty of photo opportunities.
Melbourne
A virtual reality tour of the invisible Universe with astrophysicists Alan Duffy and Rebecca Allen at the State Library
Meet your wild neighbours at Coolart Wetlands
Sydney
How will humanity live with intelligent machines? Good and bad robots at the Opera House
Bega
Virtual reality and robotics, Questacon activities, game development, music technology, 3D printing, citizen science, science films, and threatened species at Bega’s Science Festival
Adelaide
Meet NASA scientist Andrew Rushby, an astrobiologist and planet hunter
Perth
Can dance help disadvantaged girls to engage with science? Visiting US dancer says yes!
Scientists, artists, performers and event organisers are available for interview throughout Science Week. Read on for contact details for each event, or call:
162 events and exhibitions, 12 online activities, and dozens of great stories and talent.
National and international talent, researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country. Plenty of photo opportunities.
Hobart
100+ roving scientists, talks on eating insects or the dirty side of wellbeing, a forensic murder mystery and more at TMAG’s pop-up science bar and festival
Sydney
A night of illusions: why your senses play mind games
‘See like a bee’ with UV, dissect a flower, and ask experts about the secrets of seeds—inside the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney’s Living Laboratory
Brisbane
The Element in the Room: a radioactive musical comedy about the death and life of Marie Curie
Street Science with smoke cannons, liquid nitrogen, flame tests, explosions and cool chemistry
Melbourne
Sydney
National and international talent, researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country. Plenty of photo opportunities.
Dozens of interesting health stories, people and events around Australia for National Science Week this August, including:
300 events and exhibitions, 19 online activities, and dozens of great stories and talent. 
Hobart
Plus, dozens of MPs and senators will join CSIRO Scientists in Schools to launch Science Week locally in their electorates or regions.
Are there habitable planets outside our solar system? Meet NASA scientists and planet hunters
Who will win tonight’s South Australia’s Science Excellence Awards? 
Who will win the ACT Scientist of the Year?
