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Astronauts, fossil fossicking, and a giant brain you can walk inside

South Australia launches National Science Week tonight

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

South Australians will have the opportunity to meet scientists, discuss the hot topics, do science and celebrate its cultural and economic impact on society.

There are more than 100 National Science Week events across the state; these are just a few of the highlights:

  • Walk through the human body and brain, and jump on a giant plant cell at Science Alive!
  • See astronaut and YouTube star Chris Hadfield, and some incredible cosmic photography
  • Meet SciBabe, the woman who survived an ‘overdose’ of 50 homeopathic sleeping pills
  • It’s not all about ice caps and polar bears: how will climate change affect our health?
  • My Research Rules: science meets comedy in a battle of the brains
  • Caves, calcite and fossils on Kangaroo Island
  • Bettongs and bilbies on the big, blow-up screen

… and there’s more on each below. [Read more…] about Astronauts, fossil fossicking, and a giant brain you can walk inside

Supernovas, synapses and salt-water crocodiles

73 - 4208 - Saltwater Crocodile
Saltwater Crocodile, Justin Gilligan

Ten stunning images from the Australian Museum New Scientist Eureka Prize for Science Photography  – from WA, QLD, SA, ACT, NSW.

 

From the fading tendrils of a long-exploded star to the new connections between nerve cells in our brains: this year’s Australian Museum New Scientist Eureka Prize for Science Photography finalists give glimpses into life at every level.

The three finalist and seven highly commended images will be published publicly on Friday 24, on the Australian Museum and New Scientist websites, and are also available for publication in connection with stories on the Eureka Prizes.

If you need high resolution copies for publication you’ll need a password to access the following link: www.scienceinpublic.com.au/embargoed/high-res-photography-protected

Please drop us an email saying which images you need and why.

[Read more…] about Supernovas, synapses and salt-water crocodiles

High-res versions of the Eureka Prize Photographs

High-resolution images from the Australian Museum New Scientist Eureka Prize for Science Photography  – from WA, QLD, SA, ACT, NSW.

You can see the media release and low resolution copies here: www.scienceinpublic.com.au/eureka/finalists-and-highly-commended

But if you need high resolution copies for publication you’ll need a password to access the following link.

www.scienceinpublic.com.au/embargoed/high-res-photography-protected

Please drop us an email saying which images you need and why.

Contact errol@scienceinpublic.com.au or call (03) 9398 1416

Fresh Science judging

Nominations for Fresh Science 2015 have now closed and judging has begun.

Thanks to all 170+ nominees who took the time to tell us about themselves and their science.

We are reading all the nominations right now, and we’ll get back to you all as soon as as soon as we can.

We have quite a few to get through, so we’ll prioritise them by date: Victoria first, then Townsville, etc. We’ll make sure we give you all at least three weeks’ notice of the event in your state.

Looking for fresh, young researchers with a story to tell

Fresh Science 2015

We’re looking for the best and brightest early-career researchers who have made a peer-reviewed discovery and received little or no media attention.

Fresh Science is a national competition that selects researchers with research results, an invention, or a discovery, trains them in how to tell their story, and helps them share their findings with the media and the public.

We’re looking for:

  • early-career researchers (from honours students to no more than five years post-PhD)
  • a peer-reviewed discovery that has had little or no media coverage
  • some ability to present your ideas in everyday English (something we can build on).

Successful applicants will participate in Fresh Science 2015. First, a day of media and communication training, learning how to find the key, compelling story in their research, and how to tell that story. Then, in the following pub night, they’ll face the challenge of explaining their research. We’ll also publish short profiles on each Freshie, and we’ll pitch the best story in each state to the media.

Nominations are now open and close 1 July. [Read more…] about Looking for fresh, young researchers with a story to tell

Corals already have the genes to adapt to warmer oceans

Townsville and Texas researchers discover a genetic basis to temperature tolerance in coral. And it likely depends on ‘mum’s genes’.

Media resources:

A team of Australian and US scientists have discovered that corals already have the genes to tolerate global warming. It may only be a matter of shuffling them to where they are most needed.

[Read more…] about Corals already have the genes to adapt to warmer oceans

Corals already have the genes to adapt to warmer oceans – images

Please click on an image to access the high resolution version.

Far Nothern GBR_by LK Bay
Far Northern Great Barrier Reef. Reefs around the world are threatened by climate change. A new study shows that some corals have the genes to adapt to warmer oceans. Credit: Line K Bay, AIMS

[Read more…] about Corals already have the genes to adapt to warmer oceans – images

Share – and boost Australian research by up to five billion dollars

A national showcase and national study, 19 June 2015, Hyatt Hotel, Canberra, media welcome

Share your data and boost science productive is the message of a national workshop in Canberra today.

Over 40 data collections will be released – covering everything from cloud measurement to pavements and roads, ancient DNA, oral histories of Western Sydney and the changing coastline.

A national study conducted earlier this year showed that sharing and reusing data generated by publicly-funded research activities could lead to haring data could boost Australian research output by between $1.4 billion and $4.9 billion.

[Read more…] about Share – and boost Australian research by up to five billion dollars

University of Texas at Austin release

UT Austin logo

 

Corals are already adapting to global warming, scientists say

AUSTIN, Texas — Some coral populations already have genetic variants necessary to tolerate warm ocean waters, and humans can help to spread these genes, a team of scientists from The University of Texas at Austin, the Australian Institute of Marine Science and Oregon State University have found. The discovery has implications for many reefs now threatened by global warming and shows for the first time that mixing and matching corals from different latitudes may boost reef survival.

The findings were published this week in the journal Science.

[Read more…] about University of Texas at Austin release