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Science In Public

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

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Arc welders in the operating room; the physics of kangaroo’s knees; no more exploding smartphones; women in leadership; and more

Tuesday 6 December 2016

No more exploding smartphones: Australia-China supercapacitor collaboration (Brisbane)

The perils of lithium-ion batteries are well known to owners of the Galaxy Note 7, but battery fires have also plagued power plants and even passenger jets in-flight. The Queensland Government is getting behind an Australia-China collaboration to build supercapacitors: purely electric storage devices using graphene, which promise many advantages over their chemical-based cousins.

QUT’s Professor Nunzio Motta is leading the Australian end of the research. The major challenge is developing scalable ways of growing graphene sheets. At the Congress, he’ll present his work on growing graphene for other kinds of electronic components but he’s happy to talk about both areas and the potential of graphene. He imagines, for example, a car or train in which the body panels act as energy stores extending the battery range, and storing energy from braking.  [Read more…] about Arc welders in the operating room; the physics of kangaroo’s knees; no more exploding smartphones; women in leadership; and more

Australian scientists stalking, sensing and trapping elusive dark matter

banner Monday 5 December 2016

Scientists available for interview from the Physics Congress in Brisbane

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Australian physicists are using all the skills of experienced hunters in their quest for dark matter, the 85 per cent of matter in the Universe we have not been able to detect. And they are getting closer to their quarry.

Members of three separate groups from across the continent will give the latest updates from the hunt at the APPC-AIP Physics Congress in Brisbane.

Dark matter is so called because it does not interact with light or any other electromagnetic radiation. So the physicist hunters need to use all their ingenuity to track it down.  [Read more…] about Australian scientists stalking, sensing and trapping elusive dark matter

Satellites the size of bread; why making anti-matter matters; telescopes on a chip; our neutrino world and more

Monday 5 December 2016

A new constellation of Australian satellites – packed up and ready for launch in 2017 (Canberra)

Credit: Stuart Hay, ANU
Credit: Stuart Hay, ANU

Australia is heading into space: Professor Christine Charles (ANU) was part of the Australian team of Universities that are launching Australian research satellites into space for the first time in over a decade.

Three Australian designed and built cubesats – satellites the size of a loaf of bread – are soon to be launched into space as part of the EU QB 50 Program.

Credit: Stuart Hay, ANU
Credit: Stuart Hay, ANU

Charles’ plasma thruster system for spacecraft is just one of the Aussie ideas which is being studied to extend the capabilities of nano-satellites. Christine Charles will explain the possibilities for this renaissance of Australian space science.

[Read more…] about Satellites the size of bread; why making anti-matter matters; telescopes on a chip; our neutrino world and more

QLD’s forgotten Nobel Prize winner

Rediscovering the physicist born a century ago in Far North Queensland who went on to win a Nobel Prize for his role in the invention of the laser.

AOSlogo Australia’s forgotten Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Prokhorov was born 11 July 1916 in Atherton, Far North Queensland—the child of refugee parents fleeing Tsarist Russia.

When he died in 2002, Prokhorov was a nation AIPlogo al hero in Russia. Here, his Australian roots are largely forgotten.

Australian physicists are now working to change that.

The Australian Optical Society (AOS) sessions at the Congress on Monday morning will be held in honour of Prokhorov— AOS President, Professor Stephen Collins can speak to the topic.

The centenary of Prokhorov’s birth was also celebrated in a series of spectacular laser-shows in Far North Queensland as part of National Science Week.

[Read more…] about QLD’s forgotten Nobel Prize winner

Shape shifting particles; underground labs; QLD’s forgotten Nobel Prize winner; and more

Sunday 4 December 2016

  • Highlights from Day 1 of the Physics Congress
  • Australian and international researchers available for interview throughout the week
  • For more highlights, and daily updates visit www.scienceinpublic.com.au/physicscongress

Our neutrino world – explained by 2015 Nobel Prize winner Professor Takaaki Kajita

We live in a world of neutrinos. Thousands of billions of neutrinos—mostly created by the Sun—are flowing through your body every second. You cannot see them and you do not feel them. So how did we discover they have mass, and why does that challenge our standard model of the Universe?

Professor Kajita will give a public lecture, telling the story of shape-shifting particles and underground super-labs on Monday night hosted by Australian physicist Hans Bachor (ANU), with early career astrophysicist Tamara Davis (UQ) and neutrino physicist Yvonne Wong (UNSW).  [Read more…] about Shape shifting particles; underground labs; QLD’s forgotten Nobel Prize winner; and more

A week of physics stories – starting Monday: our neutrino world; hunting dark matter; Australia’s role in big international science; and more

 

More on these and other stories from this week’s Physics Congress below. [Read more…] about A week of physics stories – starting Monday: our neutrino world; hunting dark matter; Australia’s role in big international science; and more

A week of physics stories – starting Monday

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The biennial Physics Congress in Brisbane
4 to 8 December

Researchers from every State plus international and Asian leaders
All stories embargoed until released during the Congress.

 

The biggest discovery of 2016 – gravitational waves. Hear from one of the leaders on what’s next.

Einstein said we’d never find them. But we did. Have more been found? What’s Australia’s role, and why should we care? Researchers from Canberra, Melbourne, and Perth will talk about their work on gravitational waves.

Our neutrino world – explained by 2015 Nobel Prize winner Takaaki Kajita

We live in a world of neutrinos. Thousands of billions of neutrinos—mostly created by the Sun—are flowing through your body every second. You cannot see them and you do not feel them. So how did we discover they have mass, and why does that challenge our standard model of the Universe? Kajita will also be meeting with school students.

$20 billion, with a result is expected in 2035. The world’s largest science experiment hopes to crack fusion power.

Speakers from around the world, including senior advisor to the ITER project Jean Jacquinot, will speak about the global race to harness the process that powers our Sun. Researchers from ANU will be available to speak about Australia’s involvement. [Read more…] about A week of physics stories – starting Monday

Shape-shifting particles and underground super labs: 2015 Nobel Prize winner tells his story

aip2016-web-banner-thin Public Lecture 7pm Monday 5 December

Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Great Halls 1 & 2

Register for the event here: www.trybooking.com/OBQF

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We live in a world of neutrinos. Thousands of billions of neutrinos—mostly created by the Sun—are flowing through your body every second. You cannot see them and you do not feel them; and they are very hard for scientists to measure.

Then, when scientists were finally able to catch them, there were fewer than they expected. But why? Was our Sun losing its power?

Join us on Monday 5 December for a free public lecture by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2015, Professor Takaaki Kajita: the man credited with the discovery of neutrino oscillations, and the solution to this riddle. [Read more…] about Shape-shifting particles and underground super labs: 2015 Nobel Prize winner tells his story

Transforming Indonesia and Australia with science and innovation

We’re assisting with media for the Australia-Indonesia Science Symposium, held in Canberra from Monday 28 November – Thursday 1 December.

Transforming Indonesia and Australia with science and innovation

Australian and Indonesian Ministers open international science symposium

 

Monday 28 November at the Shine Dome, Canberra
Opening ceremony 8.30 am, press call with Ministers 9:20 am with

  • Senator the Hon. Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Australia’s Minister for International Development and the Pacific
  • Dr Bambang PS Brodjonegoro, Indonesia’s Minister of National Development Planning
  • Professor Andrew Holmes, President of the Australian Academy of Science
  • Professor Sangkot Marzuki, President of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences

Indonesia is on track to become the fourth largest economy in the world by 2050. It’s undergoing massive economic and social change. Poverty is falling, health is improving, the nation is urbanising. The nation is hungry for energy, health, water and food security. Its people are early adopters of new technologies from social media to big data.

[Read more…] about Transforming Indonesia and Australia with science and innovation