Listen to: Gold, Galahs and the Milky Way: unlocking the universe, on ABC Big Ideas

Additional menu

Science In Public

Science writers, communicators, media, training, and public relations

Operations

Wine science; Bull S…cience; flying robocops; and a ‘rock’ musical

South Australia launches National Science Week tonight

4 August 2015, launch at 5pm, Goyder Pavilion Mezzanine, Adelaide Showground

  • Flying robocops: how are Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems being used by SA police?
  • Going batty: are you living with tiny bats that you can’t see?
  • America’s 1950s Dyna-Soar spaceplane
  • Moonlandings, global warming, and vaccinations – all science conspiracies, right? WRONG.
    But how hard is it to get scientists to believe BS (bad science)?
  • The chemistry of your buttery chardonnay
  • Plus Brian Cox, dolphins after dark, space robots and more.

More than 170 National Science Week events will be held across the state – these are just some of the highlights. More on each below.

[Read more…] about Wine science; Bull S…cience; flying robocops; and a ‘rock’ musical

Help find the wild things: citizen scientists needed to spot wildlife caught on camera

wildspotter

Australian wildlife scientists need your eyeballs this August to help them study where Australia’s wild things are for Wildlife Spotter—the ABC’s citizen science project for National Science Week.

Australia is a vast country. Researchers have set up automatic cameras that are snapping wildlife day and night. Now they need your help to analyse the millions of photographs they’ve captured in tropical rainforests, the dry rangelands, and around our cities.

From superb lyrebirds to common wombats, from bettongs to bandicoots, from brush turkeys to Tassie devils, and even feral cats and foxes—scientists want to know which species are roaming both in the wild and in urban areas. Participants will help answer questions including: how many endangered bettongs are left; how well native predators like quolls and devils are competing with cats for food; and how common are common wombats.

You can join in by heading to the Wildlife Spotter website at www.wildlifespotter.net.au. [Read more…] about Help find the wild things: citizen scientists needed to spot wildlife caught on camera

National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia

The National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia supports stem cell science and educates the community about the potential and dangers of stem cell therapies.

The winners of the 2016 Metcalf Prizes for Stem Cell Research are:

  • James Chong: Stem cells healing broken hearts
  • Tracy Heng: Making cancer treatment less aggressive and more effective

Read the media release.

The winners will receive their awards at a breakfast ceremony on Wednesday 27 July in Melbourne. Visit the website: stemcellfoundation.net.au

https://www.scienceinpublic.com.au/stemcells/stemcellfoundation

Making cancer treatment less aggressive and more effective

Tracy Heng wants to make cancer treatment gentler and more effective for elderly patients with blood cancer and other blood disorders.

“Bone marrow transplants have transformed survival rates for blood cancers. They replace a diseased blood system with healthy blood-forming cells, but first, doctors have to wipe out a patient’s immune system, which takes a big toll on elderly patients. My goal is to change that,” says Tracy. [Read more…] about Making cancer treatment less aggressive and more effective

Stem cells healing broken hearts

James Chong has two starters in the race to develop stem cell therapies for heart failure as viable alternatives to heart transplants. His research is exploring both the potential for transplanted stem cells to regenerate new heart tissue and how to repair a patient’s heart by rejuvenating their own heart stem cells.

“In Australia, 54,000 people suffer a heart attack and 20,000 die from chronic heart failure each year. I want to develop stem cell treatments that can save the lives of the thousands of people who miss out on heart transplants,” says James. [Read more…] about Stem cells healing broken hearts

Australia is number 12 in high quality global research in Nature Index

Press release from Springer Nature

Group of Eight jostle for high-quality scientific research leadership in Australia

Australia is placed 12th globally for its contribution to high-quality scientific research papers, according to the Nature Index Tables released together today.

Australia is just ahead of India and three places behind South Korea. The US leads the index, followed by China, Germany, the UK and Japan.

[Read more…] about Australia is number 12 in high quality global research in Nature Index

Movers and shakers in the world of high-quality scientific research

Press release from Springer Nature

The US is the world’s largest contributor to high-quality scientific research papers, followed by China and Germany, according to the Nature Index 2016 Tables. Of the top ten countries in the Nature Index, only China has shown double-digit compound annual growth between 2012 and 2015 with some of its universities growing their contribution to the index as fast as 25% annually. US contributions have declined 2.8% in the same period from a very high base.

The Nature Index Tables, which show Nature Index calendar year outputs for the last four years, are released together today for the first time. The Nature Index is built on a country or institution’s contribution to about 60,000 high-quality papers each year, and counts both the total number of papers and the relative contribution to each paper. (See notes for editors for full definitions of measures.)

Harvard University, US, has the highest 2015 contribution of any university in the world. Stanford University (second), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (fourth), University of California, Berkeley (seventh), University of California, San Diego (ninth) and University of Michigan (tenth) — all from the US — occupy top ten positions. The University of Tokyo, Japan, is placed third, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, UK, are fifth and sixth, respectively, and ETH Zurich, Switzerland, is placed eighth.

[Read more…] about Movers and shakers in the world of high-quality scientific research

University of Otago is New Zealand’s top high quality research contributor in the Nature Index

Press release from Springer Nature

Otago at 303 in global index of thousands of universities, ahead of Auckland at 386

New Zealand is 30th globally for its contribution to high-quality scientific research papers, according to the Nature Index Tables released together today. That puts it just behind Ireland, but ahead of Saudi Arabia, Chile, and Argentina.

The US remains the world’s largest contributor to high-quality scientific research papers, followed by China and Germany, according to the Nature Index 2016 Tables. Australia is 12th.

The University of Otago is New Zealand’s leading research university in the index, placed 303 in the world ahead of the University of Auckland at 386.

[Read more…] about University of Otago is New Zealand’s top high quality research contributor in the Nature Index