Released on behalf of the Australian Academy of Science

Predicting where Australia’s next mineral boom will come from is serious business. Data collected using satellite sensing, airborne surveys, seismic crews and prospecting teams is immense and is piling up rapidly. But what use are all these data? [continue reading…]

Released on behalf of the Australian Academy of Science

Most of the easily-found, economically exploitable mineral deposits in Australia have already been discovered, and are steadily being mined out. We need new, large, rich ore bodies to replace them.

How we go about finding and developing them is at the core of an Australian Academy of Science Think Tank to be held in Canberra on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 August. The media are invited to the first day, and the speakers are available for interview. [continue reading…]

This week on radio, Tim Thwaites is talking about the decline of tiny seaweeds in the ocean; diet and disease; orang-utan couch-potatoes; high tech odour prevention; and more…

[continue reading…]

This week on radio, Tim Thwaites is talking about the decline of tiny seaweeds in the ocean; diet and disease; orang-utan couch-potatoes; high tech odour prevention; and more…

[continue reading…]

High tech cling wraps that ‘sieve out’ carbon dioxide from waste gases can help save the world, says Melbourne University chemical engineer, Colin Scholes who developed the technology.

The membranes can be fitted to existing chimneys where they capture CO2 for removal and storage. They are already being tested on brown coal power stations in Victoria’s La Trobe Valley, Colin says. His work is being presented for the first time in public through Fresh Science, a communication boot camp for early career scientists held at the Melbourne Museum. Colin was one of 16 winners from across Australia.

[continue reading…]

A young Tasmanian electrical engineer, Natalia Galin, has turned US technology into a robust helicopter-borne radar system that can accurately measure the thickness of snow on polar sea ice.

[continue reading…]

Could it really happen—a secret geo-engineering project financed by a billionaire eco-warrior in frustration at the lack of government action on climate change? It is possible, but how likely? ABC’s Bluebird alternative reality project explores real issues in geo-engineering.

Getting fire-safety messages into the home, using bacteria to break down rocks,  cleaning up soil with ultrasound and the meat quality of beefier cattle were just some of the fascinating research projects about which I heard at the Cooperative Research Centres Association (CRCA) Conference in Alice Springs last week. [continue reading…]

“Our failure to act on climate change could encourage an underground movement to take action and fix climate change through geo-engineering. It’s a real threat according to leading academics. And the ethics of geo-engineering were explored at a Victorian government backed conference in California earlier this year,” says science commentator Tim Thwaites.

Shock? Horror? Why should we be surprised? As climate provocateur, Bjorn Lomborg pointed out to Robyn Williams recently on the ABC’s Science Show, many geo-engineering possibilities are inexpensive enough to be with the reach of a billionaires like Bill Gates and Richard Branson —and Governments seem hamstrung about coming to agreement on any other action. This makes the ABC online drama project Bluebird timely, as it explores these very issues. [continue reading…]

11 am, 27 April 2010

From Australians stranded in Europe to fresh vegetable growers in Africa, people dependent on the world’s airlines have done it hard in the past two weeks.

If the eruption of one volcano in Iceland can disrupt us so badly, what could the Bluebird project do? You are about to find out.

From today, the ABC invites you to enter the world of the experimental science of geoengineering—the deliberate manipulation of the Earth’s atmosphere to counteract climate change. Bluebird AR, an interactive alternative reality story about geoengineering, will play out on websites, in the social media, on ABC programs, and all around you. [continue reading…]