Join us to hear the latest science from 11 of Australia’s most innovative young scientists as they talk about their discoveries over a drink at a pub in Melbourne on Monday night, 6 June.
[Read more…] about Fresh Science at the Duke of Kent
Australia Hears launch – images
Below are a range of images taken at the Australia Hears launch on Wednesday 27 April, 2011.
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First man in space 50 years ago today – there's an Australian connection
Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space on 12 April 1961, ramping up the Space Race.
To celebrate, a dozen events across Australia join over 340 ‘Yuri’s Night’ parties globally, with many events showing First Orbit, a new film of Earth vistas shot from the International Space Station as it matched the original path of Gagarin’s spaceship.
[Read more…] about First man in space 50 years ago today – there's an Australian connection
Fresh Science 2011 Nominations now closed
Nominations closed 5pm Wednesday 30 March 2011.
We’re trying to identify the best research produced in the past year or so by early-career scientists, for Fresh Science and AMP’s ‘Tech on Tap’.
Fresh Science serves as a communication boot camp for early-career researchers – getting their stories out to local, national and international media, and teaching them essential communication skills.
This year we will be holding state finals so we can expose more young scientists across the country to the Fresh Science experience. Short-listed entrants will be invited to the State finals which will include a day of media training in their home state. The top candidates will then be flown to Melbourne for the Fresh Science National Final.
We won’t hold finals in every state – our final choice will be dictated by nomination numbers, quality of nominations and sponsorship. But entries from every state and territory will be eligible for the National Final.
In essence we’re looking for:
- early-career researchers (from honours students to no more than five years post-PhD)
- a peer-reviewed research with a significant result which has had no media coverage
- some ability to present ideas in everyday English.
This year we are also offering an additional opportunity for research students (doing honours, masters, PhD as of June 2010).
Those nominating for Fresh Science who are students also have the option to also nominate for AMP’s Tech on Tap, a Sydney-based partner event to Fresh Science.
Technology on Tap is an event which is held as part of AMP’s Amplify Festival of Innovation and Thought Leadership. The Festival is a week-long celebration of learning designed to get people thinking, talking, acting and innovating around emerging technologies and trends.
Technology on Tap provides an opportunity for early-career scientists and researchers to win $5,000 by sharing their research and how it benefits society with the Amplify Festival audience.
Nominations for Fresh Science and AMP’s Tech on Tap closed at 5pm, Wednesday 30 March 2011.
Fresh Science State finals will be held between 18 April – 6 May with the national Fresh Science event in Melbourne 6-9 June 2011.
AMP’s Tech on Tap will be held on Monday 6 June 2011 in Sydney.
Nominations for Fresh Science or Tech on Tap are now closed. If you’re interested in the selection criteria or nomination process for 2011, check out the how to nominate page to read the selection criteria.
Fresh Science is supported by the Federal Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Museum Victoria, and New Scientist magazine.
For further information about Fresh Science visit www.freshscience.org.au or contact Tim Thwaites on (03) 9078 5398 or email tim@freshscience.org.
Tech on Tap is an AMP project, and part of their AMPlify Festival.
For more information about the AMPlify festival or Tech on tap, visit http://www.amplifyfestival.com.au/tech-on-tap1 or contact Danielle Miller on (02) 9257 7756 or Danielle_Miller@amp.com.au.
Australian Institute of Physics Congress 2010 – a summary of stories
Here are the stories that emerged from The 19th Australian Institute of Physics Congress incorporating the 35th Australian Conference on Optical Fibre Technology that took place from 5-9 December 2010 at the Melbourne Convention Centre.
Use the table of contents below to see a brief paragraph on each story and then click on the story headline to view the full story.
For more information contact Niall Byrne at niall@scienceinpublic.com.au [Read more…] about Australian Institute of Physics Congress 2010 – a summary of stories
The physics of money – testing the stability of the system
Every working day some $150 billion flows through Australia’s Interbank system.
Postgraduate student Andrey Sokolov from the University of Melbourne, together with colleagues from Melbourne and Swinburne universities, is analysing the flow of that money to study the dynamics of the overnight loan flows and the stability of the network.
The team is developing dynamic models that test whether the daily flow of funds between Australia’s banks is as robust as it seems – and what might cause its collapse.
Following this money trail as it grows and evolves should help financial regulators to protect our banks better.
[Read more…] about The physics of money – testing the stability of the system
Good Aussie home wanted for $140 million gravitational wave detector
9 December 2010
US researchers are offering Australia a gravitational wave detector worth $140 million provided Australia can build an appropriate facility, costing a further $140 million, to house it.
The sophisticated detector would be part of a global search for gravitational waves, which were predicted by Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity, but have not yet been found. [Read more…] about Good Aussie home wanted for $140 million gravitational wave detector
Invisible fibres disappearing soon
Alessandro Tuniz and colleagues at the University of Sydney have designed a fibre that would be invisible over a range of colours. And because of recent developments in ways to draw hybrid materials into fibres, their proposal may be relatively straightforward to put into practice.
Such fibres could lead to interesting effects in art, architecture and fashion. They are also being studied in the broader context of building cheap, next-generation devices with special optical properties, such as fibre-based super-lensing which improves the resolution limit of microscopes. And the fibres could also provide support for optical elements but without optical distortion.
Light rays treat tumours
By James Mitchell Crow
Recurring prostate cancers can be subdued with a blast of laser light, say Swedish researchers who presented their latest research at the Australian Institute of Physics conference in Melbourne.
Katarina Svanberg and colleagues at Lund University Hospital use lasers to build 3D maps of the tumours, and then to kill the cancerous cells in them.
She reported early success in managing what is usually a fatal condition. More work remains to be done, however, before the technique is used routinely in hospitals. [Read more…] about Light rays treat tumours
Laser beams on steroids
By James Mitchell Crow
UK physicists have developed new ways of generating industrial lasers powerful enough to slice through steel. The trick is to pass the beam along active optical fibres, David Payne from the University of Southampton told the Australian Institute of Physics conference in Melbourne. And 50 years after the first demonstration of a laser, the intense beams that can be generated in this way are so powerful they can be used to cut out car parts and weld them together. [Read more…] about Laser beams on steroids