Sunday 14 August 2022
Highlights from day two of National Science Week
Researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country.
ACT: Footy Quake: can a rugby crowd register on the Richter scale?
NSW: Fighting superbugs, big bad tech, caring for sky country, and microfactories making new materials from old – Sydney Science Festival is back
NSW: What and where the wild things are in Western Sydney
TAS: How an astronomer is helping an ecologist eavesdrop on bats and bitterns – Swansea
ACT: A band of physicists go on a roadtrip to explain quantum and dark matter – Tharwa
VIC: Step inside the International Space Station and take a selfie
ACT: Science while you shop – multiple locations in Canberra
NT: Students survey the Territory’s soil, from Darwin’s dirt to sands in Central Australia
Read on for more on these, including event contact details.
Also today:
- Gamification meets science education in an online Game Jam
- Building mini ecosystems at the Adelaide Zoo.
Coming up tomorrow:
Dopamine addiction, the art of Antarctica’s future, and a modern-day Noah’s ark in Perth – see a preview of Monday’s highlights.
National Science Week 2022 runs from 13 to 21 August. Media kit at www.scienceinpublic.com.au. Or visit the National Science Week website for more events and activities: www.scienceweek.net.au.
For general Science Week media enquiries:
Tanya Ha: tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0404 083 863
Jane Watkins: jane@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0425 803 204
More about the event highlights
Footy Quake: can a rugby crowd register on the Richter scale? – Canberra, ACT
The ‘footy quake’ made by rugby league crowd cheers is set to be measured by researchers.
Scientists from ANU’s Research School of Earth Sciences will install a seismometer–a piece of equipment normally used to measure earthquakes–under the main stand at the GIO Stadium for the Raiders versus Dragons NRL match.
They want the Raiders crowd making seismic noise by stamping on the ground when the Raiders score and during the famous Viking clap, to see how large a footy quake fans can make.
Sunday 14 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/footy-quake/bruce
Media enquiries: Jillian Matthews, actscienceweek@gmail.com or 0406 355 996
Earth scientists available for media interviews.
Fighting superbugs, big bad tech, caring for sky country, and microfactories making new materials from old – Sydney Science Festival is back
TODAY: Discover how Professor Veena Sahajwalla created a new generation of green materials, products and resources, all formed from waste.
Coming up:
- Former Google engineer turned design ethicist James Williams discusses how big tech companies manipulate and persuade us in the attention economy.
- Caring for Sky Country: Karlie Noon and Krystal de Napoli discuss their new book Astronomy: Sky Country 2022 where they talk about bringing together Indigenous astronomical expertise and practices of caring for Sky Country and dark skies, with current issues in astronomical sciences.
- Hear how First Nations cultural burning practices can reshape Australia’s response to climate change: Victor Steffensen in conversation with Nate Byrne.
- Superbugs: By 2050, antibiotic resistant infections are projected to become the leading cause of death worldwide resulting in approximately 10 million deaths annually. Learn how Jon Iredell’s phage therapy research is fighting this threat.
Hear from compelling speakers on science’s hot topics. Sydney Science Festival is back with events in multiple locations around Sydney and online.
Friday 12 – Saturday 20 August. Multiple events and locations.
Media enquiries: Siân Davies, sian@articulatepr.com.au, 0402 728 462; or Sasha Haughan, sasha@articulatepr.com.au, 0405 006 035
Most speakers are available for media interviews.
What and where the wild things are in Western Sydney – Abbotsbury, NSW
Say hello to the life-size roving dinosaur, hunt for bugs, make a survival shelter or visit the pop-up ocean lab.
‘Science in the Scrub’ at Western Sydney Parklands will feature live animal displays, a liquid nitrogen show, and bush food activities.
Geologists, zoologists, astronomers and marine biologists are on hand to share their expertise.
Great photography and filming opportunities.
Sunday 14 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/science-in-the-scrub/abbotsbury/
Media enquiries: Rebekka Wake rebekka.wake@gsp.nsw.gov.au or Selina Khoo selina.khoo@gsp.nsw.gov.au.
How an astronomer is helping an ecologist eavesdrop on bats and bitterns – Swansea, TAS
Sounds reveal the secret lives of bats and bitterns. Ecologist Dr Lisa Cawthen and radio astronomer Dr Jim Lovell have combined their differing expertise and skills to track Tassie wildlife by the noises they make.
They’re involved with the CallTracker project, eavesdropping on wildlife and deciphering their calls.
Lisa is a renowned expert on Tasmania’s bats. Born and bred in Perth, Tasmania, she loves to make the case for the state’s poorly understood wildlife and bust the myths about bats.
Jim also grew up in Tasmania, and has worked for UTAS, CSIRO and NASA using radio telescopes to study quasars. He recently started working with Lisa and other wildlife monitoring experts, applying his expertise to develop innovative acoustic monitoring approaches and to coordinate the CallTrackers project.
CallTrackers is a new project using audio recorders to survey for bats and the threatened Australasian bittern. They’re looking for people to get involved in the project and make a contribution to real science.
Sunday 14 August. Event details: https://www.scienceweek.net.au/event/presenting-ping-chirp-squeak/swansea
Lisa Cawthen lcawthen@gmail.com and Jim Lovell jejlovell@gmail.com are available for media interviews.
Sound recordings available.
Unlocking the mysteries of quantum and dark matter – Tharwa, ACT
Dark matter accounts for 85 per cent of all the matter in the Universe… but we don’t yet know what it is. Australia is a key player in the quest to find out.
Quantum technologies are crucial in the hunt for dark matter, and they’re already used in smart phones and cars, medical imaging, manufacturing, and navigation. But today’s technologies capture only a small fraction of the potential of quantum physics.
The National Quantum & Dark Matter Road Trip takes a bunch of quantum and dark matter physicists to cities and towns around Australia, travelling from Brisbane to Perth via Coffs Harbour, Sydney, Canberra, Bendigo, Stawell, Adelaide, Kalgoorlie and many more towns in between. This follows a successful tour of southern WA in National Science Week last year. Science joke: if you know where they are, you don’t know how fast they’re travelling!
More information: www.qdmroadtrip.org
Sunday 14 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/national-quantum-and-dark-matter-road-trip/tharwa
Media enquiries: Fleur Morrison, fleur.morrison@unimelb.edu.au or 0421 118 233.
Multiple experts involved with different legs of the tour are available for media interviews, including dark matter enlightener Jackie Bondell and UWA particle physicist Ben McAllister.
Step inside the International Space Station and take a selfie– Melbourne, VIC
Mars sunsets and Venus’s lightning storms can be seen from in a scale replica of the International Space Station that is ready to land in Melbourne.
Astronauts working weightlessly on the real-life space station sleep in bags attached to the wall and must swallow instead of spitting out their toothpaste after they’ve brushed.
Visiting the space station replica is much more enjoyable, as part of the award-winning Neighbourhood Earth exhibition.
Tuesday 19 July – Sunday 28 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/neighbourhood-earth/melbourne/
Media enquiries: Andy Lee (VP, Marketing and Design) – andy@totocreative.com
Images available for media interviews, email Andy for images.
Science in the Centres – multiple locations in Canberra, ACT
Science while you shop! Pop-up science activity centres will give shoppers the chance to meet scientists, engineers and daleks, and learn about space, mushroom growing, engineering with LEGO, parasites, chemistry, geology, space, robotics, and more.
Westfield Belconnen, Westfield Woden, South Point Tuggeranong, Cooleman Court, and the Canberra Centre will host a variety of displays and hands-on science activities during the weekends of National Science Week (13 – 14 and 20 – 21 August).
Multiple dates and locations. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/science-in-the-centres
Students survey the Territory’s soil, from Darwin’s dirt to sands in Central Australia – multiple locations across NT
Students from 30 remote schools will get their hands dirty digging into the variety and science of the Territory’s soils, including the red sands of Finke in Central Australia, rich dark soils in Tiwi Islands, and the silty deposits of the Roper River.
Each school will collect soil samples from their local area and send them to Darwin for analysis. The samples will then be split 30 ways, so that each school receives a full NT-wide set and soil science activity kit.
Media enquiries: Lachlan Hallett, ednt1@ausearthed.com.au or 0432 906 335
Lachlan Hallett from Australian Earth Science Education is available for media interviews.