TAS: Aussie astronaut, wildlife caught on camera, slime moulds, Young Tassie Scientists
National Science Week in TAS
Our early picks of highlights
- An Aussie astronaut, adult ADHD, de-GOOPing wellness, and 150 roving scientists – Hobart
- Tasmanian wildlife caught on camera – Launceston & Hobart
- Nature’s jewels: The tiny, enchanting world of slime moulds – Westbury
- Creating galaxies, collapsing ice shelves, and catching cats: young scientists tour Tasmania – multiple locations
More on each of the highlights below.
National Science Week in Tasmania is coordinated by Inspiring Tasmania. Visit their website: inspiringtas.org.au.
An Aussie astronaut, adult ADHD, de-GOOPing wellness, and 150 roving scientists – Hobart
- In space with Australia’s first astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg and astrophysicist Alan Duffy
- ‘Science Vs’ podcaster Wendy Zukerman myth-busts wellness GOOP from Gwyneth Paltrow and other influencers
- The Year I Met My Brain author, journalist, and ADHDer Matilda Boseley
- The Dr Karl vs Everyone Game Show! with MC Adam Spencer.
These are some of the highlights of this year’s Beaker Street Festival, lutruwita/Tasmania’s annual celebration of science and art.
Centred around the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and nearby venues, the week-long Festival features talks and workshops presented by top local and visiting scientists, interactive science/art installations, photography exhibitions, live music and performance, Tassie food and drink, and 150+ Roving Scientists to chat with.
This year, attendees will dive into Antarctic science (literally!), help bring stars back to the city skyline, and taste the future of food.
Tuesday 6 – Tuesday 13 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/beaker-street-festival-4/hobart
Tasmanian wildlife caught on camera – Launceston & Hobart
Ever wondered what Tasmanian devils, quolls, wedgies, and barred bandicoots get up to when no one’s watching? Explore the hidden lives of Tasmania’s wildlife at the Tasmanian Land Conservancy’s camera trap photo exhibition.
Researchers work in partnership with citizen scientists and local landholders to set up motion sensor camera traps to monitor animals. See the images they captured that show the unseen dramas, quirks, and delights of Tasmanian wildlife. Each photo is accompanied by personal stories from the photographers and scientific insights into the species’ behaviours.
Launceston: Friday 16 August – Saturday 17 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/camera-trap-chronicles-a-photo-exhibition-of-tassies-wildlife/invermay
Hobart: Friday 23 August – Saturday 24 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/camera-trap-chronicles-a-photo-exhibition-of-tassies-wildlife/hobart
Media enquiries: Daniel McMahon, events@tasland.org.au or 03 6225 1399.
Scientists available for media interviews. Images available.
Nature’s jewels: The tiny, enchanting world of slime moulds – Westbury
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 14 years in a week-long 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)!
Saturday 10 August – Friday 16 August, with talks on Saturday 10 August and Wednesday 14 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/cryptic-wonders-enchanting-slime-moulds-and-other-hidden-gems/westbury
Media enquiries: Sarah Lloyd, blacksugarloaf@gmail.com or 0474 175 162.
Sarah Lloyd is available for media interviews. Stunning photographs of slime moulds are available for use with this story.
Creating galaxies, collapsing ice shelves, and catching cats: young scientists tour Tasmania – multiple locations
More than 40 Young Tassie Scientists will talk at schools and public events across the island, to regional, rural, and island communities; as well as in Hobart at the Festival of Bright Ideas.
Meet:
- Sophie the astrophysicist creating black holes and virtual galaxies,
- Alex the ecologist turned tabby cat tracker,
- Yuhang the oceanographer exploring how ice shelves collapse, and
- Pantalius the microbiologist hunting the bad bugs that weaken kids’ bones.
And at Festival of Bright Ideas: Friday 16 – Saturday 17 August.
Media enquiries: Rhiannon Terry, science.outreach@utas.edu.au or 03 6226 2951.
The Young Tassie Scientists are available for media interviews.