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ACCLIMATISE: A festival exploring how we (and the planet) can adapt to a changing climate

Media release from the Victorian National Science Week Co-ordinating Committee and Inspiring Victoria

How do we fire-proof our forests? How do we save endangered species?  What can you do to help?

ACCLIMATISE is a festival jam-packed with live and online events investigating insights into sustainability and adaption to climate change.

Australian temperatures and sea levels are rising. Droughts and bushfires are becoming more common. Around one million native species are on the brink of extinction.

Join us to explore the challenges of Earth’s complex climate and the search for creative solutions by bringing multidisciplinary fields of science together.

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Dying Moorabool River needs big drinks of water

Issued on behalf of the People for a Living Moorabool

Farmers, conservationists, and others available for interview + photos and HD overlay

Film premiere on Saturday 26 June in Ballarat

A cleared and desiccated stretch of the east branch of the Moorabool River
Credit: People for A Living Moorabool

“The Moorabool River will continue to deteriorate and die unless we give back some of its water,” says Cameron Steele, coordinator of river protection group, People for A Living Moorabool.

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Milky Way not unusual, astronomers find

Detailed cross-section of another galaxy reveals surprising similarities to our home

The first detailed cross-section of a galaxy broadly similar to the Milky Way, published today, reveals that our galaxy evolved gradually, instead of being the result of a violent mash-up. The finding throws the origin story of our home into doubt.

The galaxy, dubbed UGC 10738, turns out to have distinct ‘thick’ and ‘thin’ discs similar to those of the Milky Way. This suggests, contrary to previous theories, that such structures are not the result of a rare long-ago collision with a smaller galaxy. They appear to be the product of more peaceful change.

And that is a game-changer. It means that our spiral galaxy home isn’t the product of a freak accident. Instead, it is typical.

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Innovation Award for ADF’s new mobile medical X-ray

Using unique carbon nanotube technology, hospital grade X-ray imaging now available for field hospitals and humanitarian missions

Adelaide company Micro-X (ASX: MX1) has won the Land Forces 2021 National Innovation Award for inventing and manufacturing Rover, a lightweight go-anywhere X-ray machine ruggedised and optimised for high intensity use in field hospitals and remote locations.

Military doctors aim to provide combat soldiers who go in harm’s way with no less a standard of medical care than they can expect at home. However, conventional, hospital-grade mobile x-ray machines are heavy (typically 400 to 600kg), power hungry and very hard to move around on uneven surfaces.

So, prior to the Rover’s development, only small-animal veterinary x-rays units were light enough to be deployed by military forces.

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More than 60 years to achieve gender equity?

Modelling shows urgent need to revamp hiring and working conditions for astronomers

It will take until at least 2080 before women make up just one-third of Australia’s professional astronomers, an analysis published today in the journal Nature Astronomy reveals.

“Astronomers have been leaders in gender equity initiatives, but our programs are not working fast enough,” says Professor Lisa Kewley, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D).

Professor Lisa Kewley.
Credit: ASTRO 3D

Kewley is also an ARC Laureate Fellow at the Australian National University’s Research School for Astronomy and Astrophysics. She developed workforce forward modelling that can predict the fraction of women at all levels in astronomy from 2021 to 2060, given different initiatives in hiring or retention. The models show that Australia’s university leadership need to adopt 50:50 or affirmative action hiring and introduce exit surveys and retention initiatives.

“With these initiatives we can reach one-third women in 11 years, growing to 50 per cent in 25,” she said.

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Feast for the senses this National Science Week

Media release from the Hon Karen Andrews MP, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology

Tea bag rockets, doughnut-flinging robots and a singing palaeontologist are among the events being supported by the Morrison Government’s 2021 National Science Week grants.

33 public science projects will share in nearly $500,000 as part of Australia’s annual celebration of science and technology.

Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews said the Morrison Government was proud to support inspiring, innovative and accessible projects as part of National Science Week.

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