Launch Friday at the Science Excellence Awards with Minister. Plus 230 Science Week events around SA:
▪ Who will win this year’s South Australia’s Science Excellence Awards?
▪ The science of wine, the language of plants, and the neuroscience of sex, drugs and salsa dancing at Big Science Adelaide.
▪ Gravitational waves explained by scientists, sounds, video art and poetry.
▪ Why does food taste different when you have a cold? And how do your neurons communicate? Meet your brain and find out.
▪ Food and wine in a changing climate: can we save Maggie Beer ice cream and Barossa shiraz?
▪ Shift worker? Hear from experts about how it affects your health and what you can do about it.
▪ Meet Adelaide’s Dr Dolphin and his bottlenose friends.
▪ Zoos as research institutes, studying rhinos, African wild dogs, palm cockatoos, reptiles and more.
▪ Science Alive! comes to the Clare Valley Science Spectacular.
▪ A mobile observatory tours regional SA.
▪ Take the Aha! Challenge and test your brain’s creative insight.
More on these highlights below, and others at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/science-week, and on Twitter at @SciWKMedia.
Scientists, artists, performers and event organisers are available for interview throughout Science Week.
SA’s National Science Week launch with Dr Karl at the Science Excellence Awards – 6pm, Friday 9 August, Adelaide Convention Centre
Twenty-eight finalists are in the running for nine awards, recognising the state’s top scientists, PhD students, educators, collaborations, industry professionals, and unsung science communication heroes.
With Minister for Innovation and Skills, the Hon. David Pisoni and keynote speaker Dr Karl Kruszelnicki.
Where: Adelaide Convention Centre, North Terrace, Adelaide. Event details
See the full SA National Science Week program brochure.
National Science Week: South Australia event highlights
The language of plants, cats of all sizes, the ethics of AI, spot the bull science, and the neuroscience of sex, drugs and salsa dancing — Big Science Adelaide
Big Science Adelaide returns with a host of events showcasing big issues, brilliant minds, great sights and top science, right in the heart of Adelaide.
Events include:
▪ Keeping cats healthy and happy, from tigers to house cats
▪ Learn about botany over beer at the pub
▪ Ask Dr Karl your curious questions and hear about great moments in science
▪ Neuroscience at night: how does the brain perceive the flavour of wine, and can you salsa dance your way to a healthier brain? Ask the experts from Adelaide Medical School and The Australian Wine Research Institute (yes, this place is real!)
▪ The ethics of artificial intelligence: hear from the experts
▪ The science of wine, from production to tasting
▪ What big changes are needed to save biodiversity?
▪ What makes plants adapt and survive? Learn the language of plants at the Botanic Garden
▪ Sort fact from fiction with top Adelaide researchers as they play ‘Spot the Bull S…cience’
▪ Behind the scenes at the South Australian Museum’s Science Centre Open Day, and more.
Saturday 10 – Sunday 18 August
Particle/Wave – Adelaide Planetarium, Mawson Lakes
The late cosmologist Stephen Hawking once said “gravitational waves provide a completely new way of looking at the universe.” What stories do gravitational waves tell? Led by theatre-maker Alicia Sometimes, writers, musicians, sound and video artists, as well as internationally renowned scientists collaborate to present a unique answer.
Particle/Wave is an immersive multimedia exploration of gravitational waves at the point where poetry, video art, music and science intersect. These events include live music and speakers, as well as the show.
Saturday 10 & Sunday 11 August Event details
Kids Navigate Neuroscience — Adelaide
Why doesn’t food taste as good when we have a cold? How do neurons communicate? What does the brain look like up close?
In this fun and interactive children’s event, kids aged six to 11 will explore how the brain and nervous system work by participating in a series of neuroscience exhibits, created by faculty and students at the Adelaide Medical School at the University of Adelaide.
Examine how information moves between neurons by playing a game of Synaptic Ping Pong, build layers around an egg to see what types of protection are best for the brain, explore how optical illusions work, look at human brains up close, and more. At each station, children can collect a stamp in their ‘Passport to the Brain’, and work towards earning an official ‘Brain in Training’ certificate. At the end of the event, all children will come together to compete in a quiz for prizes.
Sunday 11 August Event details
Shift work: how to work towards a more efficient, healthier you when working around the clock — Magill
In 2007 the World Health Organization classified night shift work as a probable carcinogen due to circadian disruption.
Shift workers are likely to have difficulty sleeping during the day and difficulty staying awake at work.
This gives them an increased risk for a variety of chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart and gastrointestinal diseases. This is likely related to their altered sleeping and eating habits.
Sleep and chronobiology experts from University of SA’s Behaviour-Brain-Body research centre will provide tips for shift workers to improve their daytime sleep and information to help them be their most productive during the night shift.
Tuesday 13 August Event details
Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary Public Lecture — Port Adelaide
Meet Port Adelaide’s local dolphins and a man who knows all about them, who is on a mission to save them. Chair of the Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary, Dr Mike Bossley will deliver a special presentation about dolphins and the history and purpose of the sanctuary. He will draw on his 25 years’ experience studying the wild dolphin population in the area. In 2005, his ongoing study of dolphins in Adelaide’s Port River estuary was the basis for the SA Government declaring the area protected.
The presentation is free. In addition, the South Australian Maritime Museum will offer special dolphin search cruises.
Wednesday 14 August Event details
Wild research: Zoos SA’s critical animal research and how you can get involved — Adelaide
Find out about the research undertaken at both Adelaide and Monarto Zoos.
Research at the zoos can mean different things, from keeping comprehensive records of animals to enable evidence-based decisions regarding health and management, to larger pure research projects that occur on an opportunistic and sometimes collaborative basis. Hear about recent work involving rhinos, African wild dogs, palm cockatoos, reptiles and more.
Researchers will explain how they partner with Zoos SA across a number of specialised areas, ranging from citizen science to university research—and how everyone can get involved.
Thursday 15 August Event details
Clare Valley Science Spectacular – Clare Valley
The Clare Valley Science Spectacular is a week-long festival of science featuring science shows, exhibits from local industry, demonstrations and competitions, culminating in a two-day science fair. Environmental activities will help visitors understand the world around them, including building and designing with the principles of reuse, remake and recycle.
This initiative brings a regional version of Adelaide’s Science Alive! Festival to the Clare and Gilbert Valleys community and extends Clare Library’s significant STEM program.
Tuesday 13 to Friday 16 August Event details
An observatory on wheels — Whyalla, Loxton & Jamestown
An observatory on wheels will head to regional South Australia in August, with stops including Whyalla, Loxton and Jamestown. The Southern Cross Outreach Observatory Project is designed to travel far and wide and is equipped with computerised telescopes for solar viewing and night-time astronomy.
Multiple dates and locations Event details
The Alphabet of Awesome Science: Water! – Hilton
Join professors Lexi Con and Noel Edge for a thrilling voyage through the alphabet, where big words inspire big science. This alphabetical, scientifical duo are teaming up with SA Water for a sleek and slippery water-infused iteration of their award-winning, critically acclaimed show. It’s a race from A to Z (that’s algid to zoetic) in a show that’s overflowing with sesquipedalian words and spectacular science.
Saturday 10 to Sunday 11 August Event details
Food and wine in a changing climate — Urrbrae
Climate change will impact the food we eat and the wine we drink. Research is helping to ensure these industries can adapt. Hear from scientists from the University of Adelaide’s Waite Campus in a panel discussion about the science of food and wine in a changing climate.
The food and wine sectors are vital to the South Australian economy and the challenges posed by a changing climate mean science in support of agricultural productivity has never been more necessary.
The Waite Research Precinct has world-renowned capability in the science of agriculture, wine, grains, soil and plant breeding. Waite research covers the whole paddock-to-plate value chain – from the soil our crops grow into the plant varieties that can tolerate heat and drought, from better farming and management systems and new production technologies to consumer behaviour and preferences.
Tuesday 20 August Event details
The Aha! Challenge: Test your creative brain for science—online
You know that feeling of ‘aha’? It’s that flash of insight you get when pieces of information fall into place, revealing a deeper meaning or understanding.
It’s a critical contributor to scientific, mathematics and creative discovery, and researchers are really keen to know how it changes over our lifespan. Does that feeling of excited discovery change over our life?
Contribute to real scientific research from the comfort of your own home by participating in the ABC’s National Science Week project ‘The Aha! Challenge’. Participants will do a series of online tests designed to elicit insight and draw out creativity, helping scientists understand how the human brain works.
Visit AhaChallenge.net.au until Saturday 31 August.
About National Science Week
National Science Week has become one of Australia’s largest festivals. Last year saw 1.2 million people participate in more than 2100 events and activities.
In 2019, National Science Week events will be held right throughout Australia—from world’s first global Indigenous hackathon ‘INDIGI HACK’ to ‘Dr Dolphin’ and his bottlenose friends in Adelaide, and from marking the Moon landing in Sydney to the science queens of Kings Park in Perth—with everything including science festivals, music and comedy shows, expert panel discussions, interactive hands-on displays, open days and online activities.
National Science Week 2019 will run from 10 to 18 August. Media kit at www.scienceinpublic.com.au, public event listings at www.scienceweek.net.au.