Giant Poo Palace. Milking snakes. Devil cancer. And the surprising beauty of slime moulds.

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Sunday 23 August

Highlights from the final day of National Science Week

Researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country.

TAS: Nature’s jewels: The tiny, enchanting world of slime moulds.

QLD: Racing a contagious cancer to save the Tasmanian devil.

NSW: Follow food from lips to lavatory in the giant inflatable Poo Palace, in Newcastle.

ACT: Iranian refugee and Trekkie founds space film festival exploring a ‘better future’.

NSW: Milking venomous snakes to save lives, near Gosford.

NSW: Meet a dinosaur (and others) at Lizard Log.

ACT: Snakes, space, rockets, rocks and scientists take over Canberra’s shopping centres.

TAS: Science through the lens, from microbes to Antarctic ice.

Read on for more on these, including direct event contact details.

Also today:

More about the event highlights

Nature’s jewels: The tiny, enchanting world of slime moulds – Rosny Park, TAS

It isn’t an animal, a plant, or a fungus. It has no brain but can learn and teach what it’s learnt to its fellows.

It’s a strange, creeping, feeding giant blob-like cell that produces miniscule fruiting bodies that release spores.

Slime moulds… What are they? What ecological roles do they play? Why do they look so beautiful?

Find out from Sarah Lloyd OAM, who started photographing and collecting slime moulds (myxomycetes) in the tall wet eucalypt forest that surround her home in Northern Tasmania in 2010.

From this site, she discovered an undocumented genus, Tasmaniomyxa umbilicata, and 4 new species.

Sarah shares photographs, micrographs, and numerous specimens she has accumulated over the past 16 years in this exhibition.

Find out more about the different species including Fuligo septica, which is also known as dog’s vomit slime, demon droppings, and caca de luna (moon shit)!

Friday 16 August to Sunday 23 August. www.scienceweek.net.au/event/enchanted-slime-mould-forest/rosny-park/

Media enquiries: Matt Fraser, matt@moxee.au or 0401 326 007.

Racing a contagious cancer to save the Tasmanian devil – Enoggera Reservoir, QLD

Tasmanian devils are threatened by devil facial tumour disease – a rare transmissible cancer that spreads when the animals bite one another. This event reveals how scientists and conservation teams are racing to protect them.

From special breeding programs to tracking devils in the wild and returning them to their homes, visitors will learn how understanding the animals’ health, genes and habitats could keep this iconic species around for future generations.

Sunday 23 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/saving-the-tasmanian-devil-2/enoggera-reservoir

Media enquiries: Dr Junming He, ARC Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science, comms@cipps.org.au or 0426 283 303.

Ambassadors available for interview: Director Professor David Craik, COO Dr Richard Kim and Dr Junming He.

Robots, stunt clown, garbology, and the giant inflatable Poo Palace – Newcastle, NSW

  • Follow food from lips to lavatory in a giant inflatable Poo Palace
  • Meet stunt clown The Pretty Amazing Jono
  • Climb inside a City of Newcastle Garbage truck and talk to the driver 
  • Build and race your own mini solar car
  • See humanoid, dog and combat robots
  • Plus, shark eggs, video games, explosive stage shows, science-themed baked goods, and more…

The Hunter Science Festival is a free public event held annually at Newcastle Museum. It’s full day of hands-on science, live shows and interactive displays, presented with help from local researchers, councils, universities, community groups, small businesses and charities. The event celebrates science in the community, promotes science as a career choice, and showcases local science achievements and personalities. Highlights include science demonstrations, Indigenous science, The Bubble Laboratory, roving entertainment, and popular attractions such as Hunter Medical Research Institute’s Poo Palace.

Sunday 23 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/hunter-science-festival-4/newcastle

Media enquiries: Michelle Meehan, mmeehan@ncc.nsw.gov.au or 0438 325 303.

Iranian refugee and Trekkie founds space film festival exploring a ‘better future’ – Canberra, ACT

Former IT professional-turned-filmmaker Masoud Varjavandi found strength watching Star Trek while growing up in a Baha’i family persecuted in Iran during the 1980s.

Today, he shares stories for a better future through Canberra’s Space Faring Civilisation Film Festival, featuring award-winning sci-fi and documentary shorts.

Masoud says: “This isn’t about escapism. It’s about reminding people that progress, peace and a better future are still within reach.”

Free stop-motion animation workshops will be held in Canberra’s shopping centres in the lead-up to the Space Faring Civilisation (SFC) Film Festival on Sunday 23 August.

The SFC Film Festival’s mission to bring together the next generation of filmmakers and science storytellers, culminating in a full-day event that includes creative workshops, Q&A panel, and screenings of award-winning sci-fi and documentary shorts with a positive perspective on science and space exploration.

Sunday 23 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/2026-space-faring-civilisation-sfc-film-festival/canberra

Media enquiries: Masoud Varjavandi, masoud@sfcfilms.com, 0432 902 619.

SFC Film Festival director Masoud Varjavandi is available for media interviews. View the 2025 Highlight Reel.

Milking venomous snakes to save lives – Somersby (near Gosford), NSW


Meet the Venom Keepers at the Australian Reptile Park. The wrangle and milk some of our most venomous snakes to help create life-saving anti-venom.

See Billy Collett (Park Manager), Brandon Gifford (Operations Manager), Annika Barker (2IC Reptiles) and zookeeper Logan Graff in action during live snake milking demonstrations at the Australian Reptile Park’s Weigel Venom Centre.

Ask them what venom does, why different snakes have different types of venom, and how keepers work safely with these animals every day.

Saturday 15 August to Sunday 23 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/daily-antivenom-talk/somersby/

Media enquiries: Chloe Burgess-Jones, chloe@reptilepark.com.au or 0455 066 607.

Venom Keepers/reptile experts are available for media interviews. Photos and footage available here. Watch one of their Venom Diaries videos.

Meet a dinosaur (and others) at Lizard Log – Abbotsbury, NSW

Say hello to Ginger the life-sized Australovenator dinosaur, catch bugs, discover Indigenous seaweed harvesting and taste bush cordial.

‘Science in the Scrub’ returns to Lizard Log in Western Sydney Parklands. This year it features a First Nations Science Village, the pop-up Ocean Lab, robotics and engineering challenges, native animals, frogs and insects up close, and other activities.

Sunday 23 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/science-in-the-scrub-2025-2/abbotsbury

Media enquiries: Jemma Pepper jemma.pepper@gsp.nsw.gov.au or 0417 740 789.

Snakes, space, rockets, rocks and more while you shop – multiple locations, ACT

Pop-up activity centres will give shoppers the chance to discover the science behind native plants, reptiles, engineering, space (and sci fi!), pollen mapping and the environment.

Canberra Centre, Westfield Belconnen, Westfield Woden, South.Point Tuggeranong, Majura Park Shopping Centre, Cooleman Court, and Marketplace Gungahlin will host a variety of displays and hands-on science activities during the weekends of National Science Week (15 – 16 and 22 – 23 August).

Multiple dates and locations.

Media enquiries: Brook Clinton, actscienceweek@gmail.com or 0406 356 207.

Science through the lens, from microbes to Antarctic ice – Hobart, TAS

See stunning images of science and choose a winner at the Beaker Street Science Photography Prize. It celebrates images that reveal how science shapes our understanding of the world, with a focus on Tasmania, the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.

This finalist exhibition features 12 images – from microscopic structures to vast Antarctic landscapes – chosen through judging and public voting. This year’s judges are Wiradjuri astrophysicist and science communicator Dr Kirsten Banks and Australian Geographic 2025 Nature Photographer of the Year Marley Butler. Visitors can vote for the People’s Choice Award.

Part of the Beaker Street Festival, on show at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

Runs 5 August – 6 September, during TMAG opening hours and TMAG After Dark: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/beaker-street-science-photography-prize-finalist-exhibition-3/hobart

Media enquiries: Matt Fraser, matt@moxee.au or 0401 326 007.

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