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How healthy is your relationship with your smartphone?

Are you a slave to your smartphone? Or have you mastered your mobile?

Researchers want your help to build a deeper understanding of our relationship with our smartphones.

Take part in Australia’s Biggest Smartphone Survey—the online project for National Science Week.

How has having a smartphone changed your life?

Has it made your life easier? Or harder? How much time do you spend on it? Does it help you connect (or disconnect) with people? And could you live without it?

Australia’s Biggest Smartphone Survey is asking you to share how you use your smartphone and what impact this ubiquitous device is having on your life.

Modern humans were in Southeast Asia 20,000 years earlier than previously thought

New dating of ancient human teeth discovered in a Sumatran cave site suggests modern humans were in Southeast Asia 20,000 years earlier than previously thought.

The international research led by Dr Kira Westaway from Macquarie University and published in Nature, has pushed back the timing of when humans first left Africa, their arrival in Southeast Asia, and the first time they lived in rainforests.

This evidence of humans living in the Sumatra rainforest more than 63,000 years ago, also suggests they could have made the crossing to the Australian continent even earlier than the accepted 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.

Other Australian universities involved in the research included the Australian National University, the University of Queensland, the University of Wollongong, Griffith University and Southern Cross University.

National Science Week 2017 showcases key importance of science to the community

Press release from: Senator The Hon Arthur Sinodinous AO, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science and Senator for NSW

National Science Week, which I am delighted to launch today, provides a valuable opportunity for all Australians to meet scientists, discuss hot topics, do science and celebrate its discoveries and impact on our society.

This is the 20th anniversary of National Science Week and it will be held from 12-20 August.

It has become one of Australia’s biggest festivals with 1.3 million people expected to participate in more than 2000 events, including hands-on and online activities and competitions from the Tiwi Islands to Antarctica and Christmas Island to Cape York.
[Read more…] about National Science Week 2017 showcases key importance of science to the community

Bumper program of National Science Week events to inspire families about wonders of STEM

Media release posted on behalf of the New South Wales National Science Week Coordinating Committee and the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist

10 August 2017

Communities across New South Wales will have their eyes opened to the wonders of science and technology through a packed program of National Science Week events.

Close to 600 fun and family-friendly events will be hosted by universities, museums and research organisations across the state as part of the annual celebration of science, technology and innovation.

National Science Week, now in its 21^st year, provides an opportunity to acknowledge the contribution of Australian scientists to the world of knowledge.

NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer, Mary O’Kane, says it also seeks to foster a love of science in young Australians.

“National Science Week is a chance not only to celebrate really great achievements and advances in science; but also to stir our next generation of science minds,” Professor O’Kane said.

Dozens of stories and interesting people at 260+ Science Week events in Queensland

Scientists in the shopping mall; the science behind the energy crisis; forensic facial reconstruction; and more

Brisbane

Remarkable science careers: TV presenting, engineering sports tech, immunology with worms, and putting parasites in a book for kids
Are batteries the answer for keeping the lights on? What’s Australia’s energy crisis all about? Find out at the Big Picture Energy talks
Commonwealth Games sports science, medical science and making slime at Westfield
Meet the curators, and a science sleepover at Queensland Museum
The science of fireworks with the Brisbane Broncos
Meet the ‘farmer robot’ at Street Science at EKKA
Battle of the brains: who is the funniest physicist?
Find out how facial forensic reconstruction works from the scientist whose work helped identify a Belanglo victim—also in Toowoomba

Regional Queensland

Microbes cleaning up mine sites, how the land effects the Reef, and an ancient fanged kangaroo—talk with science’s female rising stars, touring Cairns, Cloncurry, Mt Isa, and more
New MacDonald has a drone: how science is shaping rural futures—Charters Towers
Art-science experiences in the tropics at Cairns

Everywhere: do you have a healthy relationship with your smartphone?

570 Science Week events in NSW New South Wales launches National Science Week with NASA’s mission to Mars; boozy botany; the chemistry of life and death and more

8 August 2017, launch at 8.30am at Australian Museum

1 William Street, Sydney. Please enter via Crystal Hall, corner of William and College Streets

With NSW Chief Scientist Mary O’Kane, Australian Museum Executive Director and CEO Kim McKay molecular biology guru Merlin Crossley, Winny the Muttaburrasaurus, and students from Chifley Public School, animals and experiments.

Contact: Claire Vince on Claire.Vince@austmus.gov.au, or 0468 726 910.

Statewide highlights include

Can parasitic worms halt MS? Or honey fight superbugs?
Sporty science at the Innovation Games
The botany of brewing
The chemistry of the smell of death, with a modern-day Sherlock
Chemistry saving lives and creating jobs
Greenhouse or madhouse? What’s holding back climate action?
Dinosaurs invade the Blue Mountains, and more…

And more than 570 other events across the state.

Future Earth, life on Mars, and a gallery full of bloody science

August a prime time to talk innovation and science—National Science Week kicks off 12 August

It’s time to plan your coverage of over 1,800 events across Australia for National Science Week from 12-20 August.

We have national touring speakers, and local events everywhere from the Tiwi Islands to Hobart:

the man behind the visual effects of Interstellar: Oliver James in Canberra and Melbourne
US science writer Dava Sobel, author of books The Glass Universe and Longitude in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Bendigo
the 17-year-old inventor of a build-it-yourself tablet, Taj Pabari—in Perth, Darwin and Brisbane
Australia’s Biggest Smartphone Survey—ABC’s national project
Australia joins the global Moonhack world record attempt for the most kids coding—national
Canadian astronaut and ‘Space Oddity’ Chris Hadfield coming to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne
Innovating Energy Summit: Powering Australia’s Future at Parliament House in Canberra
art meets science in ‘Blood’, the first exhibition of the new Science Gallery Melbourne
Future Earth science lessons in schools; science-themed Brain Break morning teas in workplaces

1,800 events across Australia during National Science Week, with more registered each day, including: [Read more…] about Future Earth, life on Mars, and a gallery full of bloody science

Wine science, outer-space, hackerspaces, the scent of death, and are you a slave to your smartphone?

A taste of some of the 1,800+ National Science Week events and activities around the country.

What’s your relationship with your phone? (national)
Is your future written in your genes? (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth)
NASA scientists and potential Martians on the Red Planet (NSW)
Science Gallery International’s bloody Australian debut (VIC)
Hunting pests in pantries (WA and SA)
Plus many more

International guests

Canadian astronaut and ‘Space Oddity’ Chris Hadfield
The man behind the visual effects of the movie Interstellar Oliver James
US science writer Dava Sobel, author of The Glass Universe, revealing more hidden figures from the history of astronomy
English physicist, writer and broadcaster Paul Davies

Local science stars

Katie Mack—the astrophysicist J K Rowling follows—will be the Women in Physics Touring Lecturer, before heading back to America in 2018
Astrophysicist and science communicator Alan Duffy, Mamamia’s ‘hot astronomer’
Lee Constable—Steminist, host of Network Ten’s science show SCOPE, and the brains behind Co-Lab: Science Meets Street Art
17-year-old inventor, social entrepreneur and educational pioneer Taj Pabari, who developed a build-it-yourself tablet and creativity kit for kids
Forensic chemist and modern-day Sherlock Holmes Shari Forbes, who uses a ‘farm’ of buried bodies to study the smell of death and decay
Comedian, science communicator and Mars One candidate Josh Richards

[Read more…] about Wine science, outer-space, hackerspaces, the scent of death, and are you a slave to your smartphone?

Smarter electrification: providing energy isn’t enough

Four years ago life in Pulau Bau, a village on a tiny island off North Maluku in Indonesia, was transformed. The community was supplied with electricity via small-scale diesel generators and a state-of-the-art solar energy system with battery backup.

Every house was receiving some electricity—not a lot, but some. But early in 2017 the system broke down, and the cost to repair it (equivalent to AUD$20,000) was beyond the budget of the community.

The Indonesian government is committed to providing energy to all citizens by 2020. It isn’t going to be easy for a 5,150km-long archipelago where more than 65 million people, many in remote communities, currently go without.

An Australia-Indonesia Centre project is working to identify the opportunities and challenges in meeting the real needs of these communities.Technology alone won’t deliver. The solutions will need to be tailored to community aspirations, and be resilient so they keep working when the engineers go home.

What are your gut bugs telling you to do?

What fly guts could reveal about our health: microbes in the gut can influence diet and reproduction, and the changes could be passed on to the next generation.

Discoveries from Macquarie University and Sydney University illustrate how microbes in the gut can influence host animals. The work could be important for understanding the effects of the gut microbiota on physiology and cognitive function in humans in the future. More below.

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