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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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Indigenous health, shark gonads, blind books, and future food: it’s National Science Week!

This year’s festival runs 14 to 22 August with thousands of events around Australia.

Entertainment, business, environment, food and wine, Indigenous, the Arts, health, sport, technology, farming and agriculture, lifestyle, education, and disability media …

EVERY round can find a story in this year’s National Science Week.

National Science Week 2021 runs from 14 to 24 August. Here are some of the early top picks:

Future-proofing food
How are we going to feed 10 billion people on a planet hit by climate change? Ask one of the hundreds of Australian scientists working on solutions. For instance:

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Free telescopes for Launceston, Exeter and Ulverstone schools, April 29 and 30

Sky-gazers visit the region to get kids dancing with the STARS

Astronomers, students and telescopes available for photographs. Key dates and locations:

April 29, morning: Riverside High School, 354 West Tamar Road, Launceston; Jay Duggan: 03 6327 6333
April 29, afternoon: Exeter High School, 28 Glen Ard Mohr Road, Exeter; Greg Finnigan: 03 6394 4366
April 30, morning and afternoon: Ulverstone Secondary College, 38 Leven St, Ulverstone; Kylie Waters: 03 6425 1433; 0400 126 282

Three schools in Launceston, Exeter and Ulverstone will be visited by astronomers, who will present them with powerful telescopes and show eager students how to use them to unlock the secrets of the stars.

Dr Brad Tucker, from the Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics in 3D (ASTRO 3D) and the Australian National University, together with Mr Peter Swanton, also from ANU, will give the telescopes to Riverside, Exeter and Ulverstone high schools on April 29 and 30.

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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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Can a brain scanner fit into an ambulance?

Innovative Adelaide-based manufacturer Micro-X has received funding to develop a game-changing portable brain scanner from the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund.

The scanner will be small enough to be placed in ambulances or Royal Flying Doctor Service aircraft and will give more Australians rapid access to treatment in the crucial first “golden hour” after a stroke.

It is expected to revolutionise stroke care particularly for rural and remote Australians who are twice as likely as city stroke survivors to be left with a serious, lifelong disability.

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Vaccine comments from the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences

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COVID-19 vaccines will protect individuals, families and communities

Expert health and medical science leaders welcome vaccine roll-out, but caution that the vaccines alone are not enough.

See here for comments from Tania Sorrell, Tony Cunningham, Fran Baum, and other health experts.

The COVID-19 vaccination roll-out is a major development for Australia. It will enable people to take action that will help to protect themselves, their families and the wider community from a disease that has killed millions of people and impacted everyone, says the country’s expert body in the health and medical sciences.

The Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS) is an independent body comprising more than 400 senior researchers and health leaders. It has been active in monitoring and guiding the nation’s pandemic response.

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At cosmic noon, puffy galaxies make stars for longer

Galaxies with extended disks maintain productivity, research reveals

Massive galaxies with extra-large extended “puffy” disks produced stars for longer than their more compact cousins, new modelling reveals.

In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, researchers led by Dr Anshu Gupta and Associate Professor Kim-Vy Tran from Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence in All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), show that the sheer size of a galaxy influences when it stops making new stars. 

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The secrets of 3000 galaxies laid bare

Completion of Australian-led astronomy project sheds light on the evolution of the Universe

The complex mechanics determining how galaxies spin, grow, cluster and die have been revealed following the release of all the data gathered during a massive seven-year Australian-led astronomy research project.

The scientists observed 13 galaxies at a time, building to a total of 3068, using a custom-built instrument called the Sydney-AAO Multi-Object Integral-Field Spectrograph (SAMI), connected to the 4-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales. The telescope is operated by the Australian National University.

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