Psychedelics; future pharma; frog saunas; snakes in shops; parasites; hungry astronauts – Science Week is days away
The national festival that reaches more than 3 million people through over 2,000 events is back from 9 to 17 August.
There will be stories for every round including food, arts and books, future of farming, disabilities, education, environment and wildlife, Indigenous, family-friendly, lifestyle and more.
More than 2,000 events and activities have registered already at ScienceWeek.net.au/events. Look for public and private events in your area or your round. Or check out some of our highlights below, and we have more top picks by state/territory and specialist rounds here.
Media highlights
National: CSIRO scientists enlist public help to find and photograph Australia’s unique wild things; and ABC Science launches nation-wide voting for Australia’s most underrated animal.
Multistate (Adelaide talent): Space farmers wanted! Sow astro seeds and test complex off-planet crop growing conditions to nourish astronauts on Mars and beyond.
Hobart: Is laughter the best medicine? Ask neuroscientists and the ‘grandfather of Tasmanian comedy’.
Canberra: DIY frog saunas and spa treatments combat deadly fungus; parasite zoo; and snakes, rockets and robots while you shop. More ACT highlights
Beechworth: Are you at risk of thunderstorm asthma? Meet an asthma sufferer-turned-aerobiologist who knows the risks in regional Victoria. More VIC highlights
Brisbane: Future pharma: 3D printed pills, skin patches and nanomedicine. Meet researchers making future medicines and create your own juice-flavoured ‘medicine bubbles’. More QLD highlights
Adelaide: Who wants to live forever – and would it really be worth it? More SA highlights
Latrobe: What do reflection, light and physics have to do with chocolate? Find out at Chocolate Winterfest. More TAS highlights
Sydney: Psychedelics, flicker light therapy, hypnosis, meditation: experience mind-altering tools with a scientist working at the edge of consciousness. More NSW highlights
Ramingining, north-east Arnhem Land: Classrooms in croc-filled billabongs with baited underwater cameras. More NT highlights
Kalgoorlie, with Perth talent: Blast bacteria with beanbags at the Kids STEM Festival Kalgoorlie. More WA highlights
Melbourne: Can nature help with concentration, ADHD and autism?
More on these below and visit ScienceWeek.net.au/events to find more stories in your area. Or check out highlights about Arts, Children & Family, Disability, Education, Entertainment, Environment, Farming & Rural, Food & Drink, Health, Indigenous, Seniors and Wildlife.
Media centre here. Images for media here.
General media enquiries: Tanya Ha – tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au / 0404 083 863 or Shelley Thomas – shelley@scienceinpublic.com.au / 0416 377 444.
Individual event details and media contacts
What is Australia’s most underrated animal? – online
Do weird and wonderful Aussie creatures get the attention they deserve? For Science Week 2025, ABC Science wants Australians to cast their vote for Australia’s most underrated animal.
Not the usual cuddly crowd-pleasers, but the ugly, the annoying and the lesser-known critters that are often over-looked, under-conserved and underrated.
“We are trying to do the impossible here and rate what may be unrateable, vote on what may be un-findable, but most of all, find out as much as we can about animals which live their entire lives outside the spotlight of popular consciousness,” says Dr Ann Jones from ABC Radio National podcast What the Duck?!
The search for Australia’s most underrated animal will be decided on Friday 15 August. Images here.
Friday 1 August – Friday 15 August: To find out more and vote, go towww.abc.net.au/underrated.
Help wanted to find where our wild things are – national
Australia’s science agency is recruiting a citizen science army to help find and photograph species found nowhere else on Earth.
There are 15 million species in CSIRO’s collections. But with such a vast country, scientists need help finding where and how widely these species are spread.
‘CSIRO Wild Watch’ marks the first national science experiment aimed at supersizing research data in the Atlas of Living Australia.
The agency wants schools, families and community groups to sign-up, head outdoors and snap photos of flora and fauna. They’re particularly looking for sightings of shark and ray eggs, yellow/orange lichen, snails, wattle, and Australian flowering heaths (Epacris).
Australia is home to more than half a million species, with the majority (70%) found nowhere else in the world.
Saturday 9 August – Sunday 17 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/csiro-wild-watch/
Available for interviews:
- Kate Maiden, CSIRO National Science Experiment lead
- Ruth Carr, CSIRO Director of Education and Outreach
- Other scientists
Interview footage of Kate Maiden, and video footage and photographs of young people completing the experiment are available for media use.
Frog saunas and spa treatments fight deadly fungus – Turner, ACT
Canberra scientists are employing surprising tactics to help frog populations fight the deadly chytrid fungus.
Join a DIY frog sauna workshop and twilight wetlands walk with ACT FrogWatch program’s Anke Maria Hoefer and meet University of Canberra amphibian researchers using frog saunas, spa treatments and trace metals such as copper and zinc.
Thursday 14 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/science-in-and-out-of-the-pub-frogs-fungus-and-funky-metals/turner/
Media enquiries: Anke Maria Hoefer, frogwatch@ginninderralandcare.org.au or 0429 066 046.
University of Canberra researchers involved in the project:
- Jarrod Sopniewski – postdoctoral research fellow, Centre for Conservation Ecology and Genomics, is installing frog saunas and spas around suburban wetlands in preparation for reintroduction of the locally extinct Green and Golden Bell Frog species.
- Milad Esmaeilbeigi – PhD researcher, Centre for Applied Water Science, who is investigating the interactions of metals in water and chytrid fungus.
Is laughter the best medicine? – Sandy Bay, TAS
In times of growing social isolation and health challenges, could laughter offer unexpected health benefits? Ask neuroscientists, industry experts, researchers and a Tassie comedy legend how humour might support well-being and strengthen connections.
The experts:
- Associate Professor Alison Canty, neuroscientist, Wicking Dementia Research Education Centre, University of Tasmania
- Dr Daryl Peebles, writer, performer and ‘grandfather of Tasmanian comedy’
- Dr David Bakker, Clinical Psychologist, Archer Street Health and Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, University of Tasmania
- Dannielle Jackson, project manager, drama therapist, counsellor, and performance artist, Terrapin Puppet Theatre
Wednesday 20 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/is-laughter-the-best-medicine/sandy-bay/
Chocolate’s sweet science – Latrobe, TAS
What do reflection, light and physics have to do with chocolate? Why do some chocolate bars develop white spots? Is chocolate actually bad for dogs?
Chocolate lover and food scientist Chloë Nelson answers these questions and more in a series of talks at Tasmania’s Chocolate Winterfest. Chloë started her professional career working as a research scientist and did further studies in engineering. She also trained as a chocolatier at the world-renowned Savour Chocolate & Patisserie School.
Sunday 10 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/the-science-of-sweet-creations-4/latrobe/
Can you save the world from a parasite pandemic? – Canberra
Step inside ‘A Race for the Antidote’ escape room; visit a parasite zoo packed with live and preserved specimens; identify and avoid parasitic infections through virtual reality; meet real-world parasitologists; and explore the fictional world of Manga characters with parasitic mutations.
‘Parasite Pandemic: Unlocking Science Through Immersive Experience’ starts in Canberra before moving to NSW South Coast.
The program combines interactive science games and activities aimed at sparking interest in the study of parasites. It also aims to provide participants with insights into how scientists tackle global health challenges more broadly.
Saturday 9 August – Sunday 10 August / Canberra
ANU scientists available for interview. Photo opportunities with the escape room (laboratory), parasite images and “live leeches” in the parasite zoo. Video footage of leeches available.
Deadly pollen: are you at risk of thunderstorm asthma? – Beechworth, VIC
Thunderstorm asthma, a condition triggered by high levels of pollen during a storm, can cause severe asthma attacks, even in people who have never had asthma. People who get hay fever might be at risk.
Allergy sufferer, scientist and Superstar of STEM Dr Kira Hughes is bringing asthma education to regional Victoria – a place where high grass pollen levels make it vitally important.
While thunderstorm asthma events are rare, around 40 per cent of all worldwide events happened in Australia and have resulted in hospitalisations and even deaths. Kira will share why Australia is a hotspot, and the innovative solutions in development.
Saturday 9 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/thunderstorm-asthma/beechworth/
Kira Hughes is available for media interviews.
Pharmacies of the future – Woolloongabba, Brisbane, QLD
3D-printed pills. Nanomedicine. Personalised skin patches. Step inside The University of Queensland’s pharmacy lab and meet the experts making future medicines:
- Dr Taskeen Janjua Khan, specialist in brain drug delivery.
- Dr Anjana Jayasree, specialist in local drug delivery (targeted administration of medication to a specific site in the body).
- Professor Amirali Popat, specialist in nano-formulation of drugs.
Visitors can tour the tableting room, create and taste juice-flavoured ‘medicine bubbles’ (to better understand microencapsulation techniques), and join panel discussions.
Wednesday 13 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/science-in-your-hands/woolloongabba/
Do you want to live forever? – Adelaide, SA
But what will it take to keep your body going forever and would you really want to? Hear what neuroscience and health experts have to say during the FOREVER exhibition at University of South Australia’s Museum of Discovery (MOD). Panellists include:
- University of South Australia’s Professor Grant Tomkinson, who focuses on the link between physical fitness and health.
- The University of Adelaide’s Associate Professor Lyndsey Collins-Praino, who leads the Cognition, Ageing and Neurodegenerative Disease Laboratory.
Thursday 14 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/q-do-you-want-to-live-forever/adelaide/
Tour the exhibition and join a weaving workshop with First Nations artist Sonya Rankin, a Ngarringdjeri, Ngadjuri, Narungga & Wirangu woman and founder of Lakun Mara on Wednesday 13 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/weaving-connections-forever-exhibition-tour-and-weaving-workshop/adelaide/
Alter your consciousness – Marrickville, NSW
Can psychedelics, flicker light therapy, hypnosis, meditation and other ancient and modern mind-altering tools improve mental health and cognition?
Find out when researchers from Macquarie University’s Altered States Lab present ‘Science at the Edge of Consciousness’, inviting the public to experience and compare some consciousness altering technologies.
Thursday 14 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/science-at-the-edge-of-consciousness/marrickville/
Dr Vince Polito, who leads the Altered States Lab, is available for media interviews.
Schoolchildren explore croc-filled billabongs with baited underwater cameras – Ramingining, NT
For the first time, school children from the Northern Territory’s remote Ramingining community will observe interactions between aquatic life in freshwater billabongs.
The ‘Fin-tastic’ initiative, led by the Arafura Swamp Rangers Aboriginal Corporation, turns the tide on lesser-known ecosystems within Indigenous communities due to presence of Baru (crocodiles), making them off-limits for swimming. Students will use baited remote underwater cameras to identify Guya (fish) and learn about species traits, movement and cultural significance.
Multiple sessions from Saturday 9 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/fin-tastic-science-solving-the-mysteries-of-the-underwater-world/winnellie/
Darcy Roeger, from Arafura Swamp Rangers Aboriginal Corporation, and Justin Gaykamangu, from Ramingining School, are available for media interviews.
Blast bacteria with beanbags at Kids STEM Festival Kalgoorlie – Kalgoorlie, WA
Kids can ‘kill’ bacteria with white blood cell beanbags, explore how sunscreen blocks UV rays and more at Kids STEM Festival Kalgoorlie.
This free, two-day event brings together local scientists and fun activities from Kids Research Institute Australia. It showcases accessible pathways to science and technology careers in the region and invites local schools to join a curriculum-based experiment and showcase results to the community.
Wednesday 13 August. Event details: https://www.scienceweek.net.au/event/festival-of-stem-kalgoorlie/kalgoorlie/
Thursday 14 August. Event details: https://www.scienceweek.net.au/event/the-kids-stem-festival-kalgoorlie-workshops/kalgoorlie/
Touring medical research scientists available for media interviews. Images and video from last year’s event in Broome also available.
Can nature help us concentrate? – North Fitzroy, VIC
Melbourne researchers say looking to nature can improve your attention span.
University of Melbourne Psychology Professor Katherine Johnson discusses related findings about staying focussed.
Her research in the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience involves children and adults with developmental disorders including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Thursday 14 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/the-science-of-attention-how-nature-can-help/north-fitzroy
Professor Katherine Johnson is available for media interviews.
About National Science Week
National Science Week is Australia’s annual opportunity to meet scientists, discuss hot topics, do science and celebrate its cultural and economic impact on society – from art to astrophysics, chemistry to climate change, and forensics to future food.
First held in 1997, National Science Week has become one of Australia’s largest festivals. Last year about 3 million people participated in more than 2,000 events and activities.
The festival is proudly supported by the Australian Government, CSIRO, the Australian Science Teachers Association, and the ABC.
In 2025 it runs from Saturday 9 to Sunday 17 August. Event details can be found at www.scienceweek.net.au.
