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Contact:
Science in Public Pty Ltd
26 Railway Street South
Altona VIC 3018
Australia
ph +61 3 9398 1416
Niall Byrne
+61 417 131 977
niall@scienceinpublic.com.au
(backup address -
niall@scienceinpublic.com )
Sarah
Brooker
mobile +61 413 332 489
sarah@scienceinpublic.com.au
Are you a scientist
who was awarded a PhD
less than five years ago? Do you have interesting results that have
not received any publicity?
Why not enter
Fresh Science
and tell your story.
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science stories?
We send out a collection of science stories every couple of weeks. If
you would like to receive the media bulletin, please email
Niall.
Science story archive
Read previous science story bulletins.
In April
2007, Australia
hosted the
5th World Conference of Science Journalists.
We helped organise the event for the Australian Science
Communicators.
Australian Science Communicators
We help organise the Victorian activities
for the Australian Science Communicators, an association of writers,
journalists, teachers, communicators and generally anyone with an interest
in communicating about science.
In Melbourne we generally meet every third Thursday
of the month at the Redback Brewery hotel, 75 Flemington Road North
Melbourne.
If you would
like to receive email bulletins about the upcoming events,
please email
Niall.
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Archive
We are now using
a new website. For all our 2009 work please go to:
www.scienceinpublic.com/blog
The 2009
L’Oréal Australia For Women in Science
Fellowships are now closed.
Click here for more details.
Nominations
for Fresh Science 2009 are now
closed and the winners have been notified.
Stories from 2008:
From the Australian Institute of
Physics 18th National Congress in Adelaide.
3 December 2008
From menace to Mexico;
physics education gets real and revealing crystal structures
Three CSIRO
scientists will be awarded the Walsh Medal in Adelaide
tonight for their work to destroy CFCs. University of
Adelaide lecturer Judith Pollard will be awarded the
Australian Institute of Physics' Education Medal, in
recognition of her achievements in making physics real for
university students.
And Oxford-based
Australian physicist David Cockayne will be awarded the
biennial Harrie Massey Medal for his research in the
development of electron microscopy techniques designed to
reveal the structures of materials at close to the atomic
scale.
2 December 2008
Giant icecubes, giant
telescopes and pulsars
Jocelyn Bell
Burnell talks about the properties of pulsars, which she discovered as a
student. Jenni Adams describes how detectors in the ice at the South Pole
are used to search for cosmic neutrinos. Australia's new Chief Scientist,
Penny Sackett, discusses plans for the international Giant Magellan
Telescope.
1 December 2008
The world’s largest solar plant, the sun and climate change, the physics of
violins and the Large Hadron Collider
Michael Geyer talks about
introducing concentrated solar power on the international
energy market. Marvin Geller talks about the impact of the
sun's variations on our climate.
29 October 2008
Counting viruses and
mustering molecules
How many viruses are there in your blood? How many dangerous nano-particles
in your car exhaust? qViro is a revolutionary New Zealand invention that
offers the potential to quickly and cheaply answer these questions. It’s a
feature of Ausbiotech – the national biotechnology conference.
A clean, safe vaccine
booster
Most vaccines need a ‘magic’ booster or adjuvant to boost our immune
response to the vaccine. But the best adjuvants are too toxic for human use.
Now NZ scientists believe they have created a powerful and safe adjuvant and
are trialling it as part of a new cancer vaccine.
27 October 2008
Put the Lord of the
Rings supercomputer on your desktop
From today,
thousands of Australian researchers have access to the power of the
computing cluster that created the Lord of the Rings and King Kong. By using
a new service called Green Button, professional scientists and students will
get instant access on their desktop to a cluster of 3,000 processors based
in Wellington, New Zealand, to perform fast genetic analysis.
14 October 2008
Prime Minister's Prizes for Science
The prizes were awarded at a dinner in the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra on
Thursday night, 16 October 2008.
7 October 2008
New head of synchrotron science hits the spot
- Queenslander scores top science job at the Australian Synchrotron
University of
Queensland researcher Prof. Ian Gentle has today been appointed the
Australian Synchrotron’s Head of Science. His own research includes plans to
use the facility to study and improve the effectiveness of drugs treating
acne and other skin diseases.
6 October 2008
Bringing life to dying languages
Australia and its immediate neighbours are home to a third of the world’s
languages, most of which could disappear without trace. A national archive
project is capturing what it can, and making the resource available online
to researchers and regional cultural centres.
The miracle of milk revealed online
Milk is complex, and understanding its molecular biology
is a difficult but rewarding challenge. Not only are human and cow milk of huge social and
economic importance, the milk of other animals reveals much about the evolution
and development of mammals – including us.
1 October 2008
$2.9 million computer to track single
cancer cells
The
Victorian government announced today that they will contribute $1.45 million
towards a $2.9 million high performance computer facility at the Australian
Synchrotron.
Fast crystallography for high profile
research
Australian protein chemists and drug developers will be able to access
synchrotron light within weeks and without leaving home thanks to a new
service at the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne.
Monday 22
September
Trains,
trams and cable cars show their emotions to children with autism
A revolutionary animated
DVD is teaching children with autism aged two to eight years to recognise
emotions.
15 September 2008
New disease threats to Australia: chikungunya, Hendra/Nipah and more
-
Are we ready? A new intelligence-gathering team will have the answers.
-
Hundreds of people have died
from chikungunya disease. Millions have been infected across the Indian
Ocean and South East Asia. Australian mosquitoes are capable of carrying
it. But most of us have never heard it.
-
Tassie devils, frogs,
woylies, abalone, kangaroos and other native animals are being struck
down by new diseases.
10 September 2008
Landmark study reports breakdown in biotech patent
system
-
Authors call for overhaul of intellectual property laws worldwide
The world’s
intellectual property system is broken, stopping lifesaving technologies from
reaching the people who need them most in developed and developing countries,
according to a report released in Ottawa today by an international coalition of
experts.
9 September 2008
Australia’s
role in the LHC: the world’s largest physics experiment
Just after 6pm tomorrow,
Wednesday 10 September, the Large Hadron Collider will start up. Twenty
years in the making, the A$6 billion machine will smash particles together
in an attempt to recreate the conditions of the early universe fractions of
a second after the Big Bang. It’s the result of a collaboration between
scientists from eighty five countries.
 |
| 2008 Fellows (L-R) Angela
Moles, Erika Cretney, Natalie Borg, Amanda Barnard |
26
August 2008
L'ORÉAL Australia
For Women in Science Fellowships announced
The 2008 Fellows
are:
-
Amanda
Barnard, theoretical physicist, The University of Melbourne
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Erika Cretney, immunologist, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne
-
Angela
Moles, evolutionary geneticist, The University of New South Wales
-
Natalie
Borg, protein chemist, Monash University, Melbourne.
These four young
women are already leaders in their fields. They were chosen from 213
applicants. Each receives a $20,000 Fellowship which we hope will
help them through the most challenging part of any science career –
the transition from PhD to independent researcher. This is the
second year of the L’Oréal Australia For Women in Science
Fellowships.
Their stories:
Unravelling the complexity
of the immune system -
Erika Cretney is pursuing a new target: a small group of T cells that play a role
in controlling inflammation and in auto-immune diseases.
Are nanoparticles safe?
- Amanda Barnard will create computational tools to predict the behaviour of nanoparticles in the environment.
Crystallising a career in
immunology -
Natalie Borg is analysing protein crystals with synchrotron light,
to figure out how our bodies mount a rapid defence when we are
attacked by viruses. |
2008 Fresh Science
6 August 2008
Silicon back in the race for quantum
computers
The odds that a futuristic quantum computer will be built of silicon
have received a boost, thanks to new technology recently invented by
researchers in the Centre for Quantum Computer Technology (CQCT). They’ve made a
silicon chip that can control and observe individual electrons and
they are now using this chip to make quantum test chips.
3
August 2008
Cleaner flights, smaller footprint
Smarter air traffic control could
save 500 kg of fuel and reduce airport noise by 35% for a typical Boeing 747
flight between Sydney and Melbourne according to a team of Canberra-based
researchers.
15
July 2008
Does my
asinina look big in these genes?
The world’s fastest
growing abalone—the tropical donkey’s ear abalone, Haliotis asinina—can
be bred to grow rapidly and reliably for aquaculture, Queensland biologists
have found. And that makes it potentially a high value alternative crop for
struggling prawn farmers.
12 July 2008
Turning on the atom laser
The first practical atom laser
is a step closer today thanks to Australian researchers.
The researchers have shown how
to refuel the laser with ‘quantum foam’ allowing continuous
operation. The results, reported today in Nature Physics,
hold great promise for precision measurement in navigation, industry
and mining and for fundamental tests of quantum mechanics.
5 July 2008
Clue to anti-male gene
action: an extra gene can stop boys being boys
Researchers at Prince Henry’s
Institute in Melbourne have discovered how an extra copy of a gene halts the
process of becoming a boy.
3 July 2008
Child crash test
dummies not crashworthy?
We’re not
protecting young car passengers as well as we could, according to
researchers at Sydney’s Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute. They’ve
shown that the spine of a young child is significantly different from that
of an adult in ways which could influence the risk of spinal cord injury and
the results of crash testing. And they’ve called for new crash dummy designs
that better mimic what happens to a real child in a crash.
24
June 2008
Change
your sidestep, save your knee
Footballers and netballers
may be able to reduce the risk of knee injuries simply by modifying the way
they change direction, researchers at The University of Western Australia
have found in research supported by the AFL.
How brains go from digital to analogue
Electrical communication in the brain works not only like a digital
computer, but also like analogue tape. How this occurs has been unravelled
by researchers at The Australian National University’s John Curtin School of
Medical Research. Their studies suggest that the brain operates in a much
more sophisticated manner than being purely digital, and their insight could
lead to a better understanding of brain disorders such as epilepsy.
19
June 2008
Ocean warming on the
rise
During the
past four decades, the oceans have been soaking up heat, expanding and
rising at a rate about 50 per cent faster than previously estimated by the
IPCC, a team of Australian and US oceanographers has found. The team’s
research published in Nature today, corrects errors in ocean
temperature data that had led to conflict between observed and simulated
changes. The effect of major volcanic eruptions on ocean temperature can
even be clearly seen in the data.
Bone breaking tests
A
technique which measures the variation in bone density within spinal bones
may improve the ability to identify people at special risk of breaking their
backs.
Man tests own tears: New treatments to result
University
of Western Sydney (UWS) student Chendur Palaniappan analysed his own tears
to find clues to producing better and longer lasting lubricants to help
millions of people with painful dry eyes. And the secret is in how proteins
and oils interact.
17 June 2008
Fin tips reveal the secret of underwater
flight
Certain small reef fish use wing-like fins to
‘fly’ underwater, allowing them to cruise at speeds equivalent to tuna, a
team of Australian and US researchers has found. The design of the fins has
drawn the attention of underwater submersible designers and the US Office of
Naval Research.
The future of foot-and-mouth disease
control: new test makes vaccines an option
Researchers at the CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory have
developed a new test for foot-and-mouth disease that involves no infectious
viral material and can differentiate between infected and vaccinated
animals. This ‘DIVA’ test could transform how foot-and-mouth disease is
controlled in future, because it’s so inexpensive and does not require
infectious virus to produce the reagents.
Soy milk shouldn’t put you off peanuts
Drinking soy milk or soy-based formula does
not trigger peanut allergy in children, researchers from the Murdoch
Children’s Research Institute have found. Their work challenges the results
of an influential previous study.
2 June 2008
PNG running out of forests to protect
As Papua New Guinea pushes for payments for forest conservation, new
analysis says the nation may be running out of forests to protect.
Satellite images show that PNG is rapidly losing its extensive forest cover,
under pressure from industrial logging, agricultural expansion and forest
fires.
L'ORÉAL Australia For Women
in Science Fellowships are now closed for 2008
18 April 2008
James Watson’s genome published today
Today the co-discoverer of the double helix, James
Watson, had his genome published in the journal Nature. His was the second
genome published. The first cost billions. Watson’s genome cost just a few
hundred thousand.
17 April 2008
Why are we so complicated?
Fifty five years
after Watson and Crick discovered DNA’s double helix and ten years after Australia’s
national genome facility opened, how are genetics and genomics changing our lives?
What will the next decade bring?
10 April 2008
Australia and Papua New Guinea launch efforts to crush
deadly Hib disease in Pacific region
Papua New Guinea will begin
immunising children this month with a vaccine that promises to rid the
nation of Haemophilus Influenzae type b, or Hib disease, one of the
deadliest causes of meningitis and pneumonia.
9 April 2008
Australia New Zealand Biotechnology Partnership Fund (ANZBPF) applications open
Following the recent announcement of a NZ $3.8m grant package for the Australia New Zealand
Biotechnology Partnering Fund (ANZBPF), applications for the 2008/09 fund
are now open.
1 April 2008
New grasses for a new climate
An
Australia-New Zealand biotechnology partnership is creating a new kind of
grass that will reduce cattle burps, improve productivity, and help dairy
farmers prepare for climate change.
1 April 2008
Mustering molecules
An
Australian - New Zealand partnership is developing a way of diagnosing
cancer and other diseases by mustering individual molecules and measuring
their properties as they pass though a gate. Their ideas are based on a unique elastic nanopore
technology developed by New Zealand company Australo.
6 March 2008
Australian receives L’Oréal Laureate for North America
Elizabeth Blackburn is one of five women to receive the 10th annual
L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Awards For Women in Science in Paris on 6 March 2008.
5
March 2008
Platypus sex; drugs from
shellfish toxins; the secret of ageing; cancer cells cheat death
Australians in Paris for L’ORÉAL/ UNESCO For Women In Science program - talking
about:
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The secret of ageing – telomerase
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How cancer cells cheat death
-
How the platypus and wallaby genome are revealing human
secrets
-
Deadly shellfish toxins that may fight pain and save lives
One in ten Australian women suffer from bacterial vaginosis (BV). But
how is it spread?
First year female
students at the University of Melbourne are being sought to take part in a
study on bacterial vaginosis (BV), a common but poorly understood known
genital disease.
7 February 2008
Genetic
analysis of light assists faster internet
 Australian
scientists have used genome analysis tools to create a patented technology
to investigate the fate of the laser beams zapping through the optical
fibres that connect our cities.
Their ideas have broken the back of a communications industry problem – how
to identify the causes of noise in these optical cables that form a key part
of the backbone of the internet.
January 2008
Of bats, bugs and men: Lessons for Australia in 2008
 The equine 'flu outbreak was a
reminder to all Australians that our health and our livelihood continue to be at
risk from emergency disease outbreaks.
So what did happen and what can we
learn for 2008?
Stories from 2007:
The Australian Synchrotron at
work
Sunday 9 December 2007
Just months after the Australian
Synchrotron opened for business in July 2007, scientists are already
achieving stunning research progress in important fields such as climate
change, in-vitro fertilisation and cancer therapies.
Australian
genetics pioneer receives international For Women in Science Award
Telomeres keep our
chromosomes young
Sunday 9 December 2007
Elizabeth Blackburn is one of five women to
receive the 10th annual L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Awards For Women in Science. She
discovered the enzyme telomerase that repairs the ends of our chromosomes
and may play a role in ageing and cancer.
She will receive the honour, and a US$100,000
cheque at a ceremony in Paris 6 March 2008.
Shigetada Nakanishi receives
$500,000 Gruber Neuroscience Prize
for discoveries about the molecular
processes that drive our nervous system.
Two early career researchers also recognized.
November 4, 2007, San Diego, California
Over the last forty years, Shigetada
Nakanishi has unraveled many of the molecular secrets that underpin the
function of the human nervous system. His work has created new tools for
researchers, and new drug targets for pharmacologists. Today at 2.30 pm he
will receive the Gruber Neuroscience Prize at the Society for Neuroscience
conference in San Diego. In the 2007 Gruber Lecture he will address the
fundamental question of how synaptic transmission is regulated and
integrated in the neural network.
Maynard Olson receives $500,000 Gruber Genetics Prize
and reflects on personalized genomics
October 24, 2007, San
Diego, California
The human genome would have been
an impossible jigsaw puzzle without the work of Maynard Olson. Today at 3.30
pm he will receive the Gruber Genetics Prize at the American Society for
Human Genetics Conference in San Diego.
Australian-Korean business
and technology opportunities
24 October 2007, Melbourne
Companies
from Australia and Korea are both are working together to bring their best
technologies to a global market. A delegation of 20 Korean technologists
visited Melbourne to look for business and technology matching opportunities
with their Australian peers. They discussed:
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Mobile Live Pen
- a pen that can read and speak words by touching one part of a page.
-
Nanobits - a
learning package for students, families and business that allows
them to see, touch, build and wear nanotechnology in action.
-
Solar powered
charger for mobile telephones - Solar
powered chargers, about the same size as your mobile, that can be
plugged into your unit for a full recharge regardless of where you are,
as long as it’s daytime.
-
Manage
subcontractors using SMS - A next-generation SMS-like communications
product promises dramatic improvements in productivity, security and
cost.
Grass fuels; drugs in hair;
low GI super chocolate; easy care sheep
Biotech in action: NZ scientists at AusBiotech
Tuesday
23 October 2007, Brisbane
Australian and New Zealand biotechnologists
are revealing their latest work at the 2007 Australian Biotechnology
Conference – AusBiotech – in Brisbane this week. Highlights include:
An
Antarctic winter test for Vitamin D
Saturday 20 October 2007
Antarctic researchers–leaving
Hobart today–the perfect test subjects for Vitamin D trial. As we slip,
slop, slap, to reduce the risk of skin cancer, some of us are no longer
getting enough Vitamin D and babies are again being born with rickets. Are
Vitamin D supplements the answer?
AIP physics media breakfast: ‘Big machines for Big questions’
Thursday 20 September 2007
Across the world
governments are investing in big machines like the $3 billion Large Hadron
Collider to search for the “God particle” and the Australian Synchrotron, a
$200 million investment in Melbourne. Do we need these machines?
What questions will they answer? Will they change our lives – tomorrow, in a
decade, in a century?
Wednesday 19 September 2007
Silencing plant genes; modelling the ocean ecosystem; and the science behind
stopping oil rigs falling over win the 2007 Prime Minister's Prizes for
Science.
Tuesday
4 September 2007
Biobank to turn surgical waste
into new opportunities to fight cancer. It's a unique resource for Australian cancer
researchers.
-
At the Cancer Council
Victoria, 100 Drummond Street, Carlton Victoria 3053
-
With Victorian Innovation
Minister Gavin Jennings, donor and researchers
-
Beta sp file footage and
photos available.
More information: at
the Biobank web or contact Niall on (03) 9398 1416, niall@scienceinpublic.com.au
Therapy
stops arteries reblocking
Monday 3 September 2007
Within 6 months of heart disease surgery, up to
60% of patients suffer from their arteries reblocking. Queensland scientists have discovered a way to precisely deliver
drugs to blockage sites in the arteries – preventing complications
after surgery.
Beauty meets science:
L’Oréal For Women in Science
Fellowships_small.jpg)
Tuesday 28 August
2007
The
world needs science. Science needs women. The inaugural L’Oréal For Women
In Science Fellowships have been presented to four inspirational early
career scientists.
“We
hope our $20,000 Fellowships will help these women consolidate their careers
and rise to leadership positions in science,” says L’Oreal Australia
managing director Mark Tucker. “The majority of science graduates are
women,” he says. “But very few make it through the grind of study to
establish careers in science.”
Details at
www.scienceinpublic.com\loreal
Monday 27 August 2007
Some
forms of noise can actually improve your hearing, University of South
Australia researcher, Mark McDonnell has found.
The Scent
of worms: First steps to a machine to smell
parasites in sheep poo
Monday 27 August 2007
Doctoral student
Jacqueline Burgess from La Trobe University has identified odour molecules
associated with the small brown stomach worm.
Monday 27 August 2007
Healing without scars and more effective therapy for women with period
problems—those are possibilities raised by the research of Tu’uhevaha
Kaitu’u-Lino (Tu’hu for short pron Tu hay) at Prince Henry’s Institute and
Monash University.
Bad eggs: more casualties in the obesity
epidemic
Wednesday 23 August 2007
Studies by
University of Adelaide doctoral student Cadence Minge have shown
that a high fat diet can cause damage to eggs in ovaries.
Monday 20 August
2007
Edwina Sutton and colleagues at the University of Adelaide have been busily
turning female mice into males.
Australian orchid's sneaky sex
tricks: Floral arms race seduces insects
Monday 20 August
2007
Australian
orchids are engaged in an arms race, using sensory overload to seduce male
insects.
Little
Ripples, Big Swirl:
How mini-earthquakes
and tornados could one day be saving lives
Thursday 16 August 2007
Monash
University engineer Leslie Yeo is using tiny earthquakes and
tornados to assist the detection of biohazards and germ warfare. He
and collaborator James Friend at the Micro/Nanophysics Research
Laboratory hope to integrate their technology into an inexpensive,
credit-card-sized sensor within five to ten years.
Slime wars:
Bacteria harnessed to
fight biofouling
Thursday 16 August 2007
Warfare between bacteria could
provide an environmentally friendly solution to biofouling,
according to Dhana Rao and her colleagues at the University of NSW.
Thursday 16 August 2007
Bluefin tuna use three times as much
oxygen as other fish their size, making them more difficult to
culture. That’s just part of the valuable information uncovered by
University of Adelaide PhD student, Quinn Fitzgibbon and his
colleagues in a study where they monitored live tuna swimming inside
a 350-tonne “waterbed”.
Researchers and
healthcare leaders meet at The University of Melbourne on Wednesday 15
August to discuss the potential of, and the threats from, sharing health
records.
14 August 2007
Scott Cummins and his
colleagues at the University of Queensland have uncovered a potent
mix of chemicals which acts like a cross between Chanel No 5 and
Viagra—but only if you are a sea slug.
14 August 2007
Natalie Borg and
colleagues from Monash and Melbourne universities have shown for the
first time how the body’s immune defence system can be triggered by
fats, sugars and other biological compounds, not just by proteins.
14 August 2007
If you think that the idea
of a morning person or an evening person is nonsense, then
postgraduate student Martin Sale and his colleagues from the
University of Adelaide have news for you.
Award honours Melbourne biotechnology
pioneer Brian McNamee
Monday 6 August 2007
This time last year, CSL Ltd was worth about $9 billion. Now, that figure is
about $16 billion. In recognition of that achievement, Dr Brian McNamee, CEO
of CSL Ltd will tonight become the inaugural winner of the highest honour
the local biotech industry can bestow, the BioMelbourne Network Industry
Award.
History rots away without
synchrotron light:
Canberra scientists to stop iron gall inks from eating our national archives
31 July 2007, Melbourne
University of Canberra researcher Alana Lee is using Australia’s new
synchrotron to help in the conservation of historical documents at the
National Archives of Australia.
Could light help save the
Tassie devil?
31 July 2007, Melbourne
Australia’s new synchrotron could contribute to the fight against the facial
tumour disease that threatens the future of the Tasmanian devil, according
to Dr Jeff Church from CSIRO Textile and Fibre Technology in Geelong.
Toenails used to assess arsenic
risk
31 July 2007, Melbourne
University of Ballarat PhD student Dora Pearce and her colleagues are
analysing toenail clippings—with the help of synchrotron light. Dora Pearce
has been examining toenail clippings from school children in the goldfields
area of Victoria for arsenic, a natural accompaniment of gold ores which
occurs in the mining spoil or mullock heaps.
A crazy result delivers the $500,000
Gruber Cosmology Prize to two teams who discovered the fate of our universe
17 July 2007, New York
Saul Perlmutter and Brian
Schmidt and their teams: the Supernova Cosmology Project and the High-z
Supernova Search team, will receive the 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize for
their discovery that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating. They
will receive the prize at a ceremony at the University of Cambridge on
September 7.
Australian patents now under the Lens
12 July 2007, Canberra,
For the first time, the full text of Australian patents can be searched,
viewed and printed at no cost, by anyone, thanks to a non-profit
international organization based in Canberra.
Maynard Olson receives $500,000
Gruber Genetics Prize
9 July 2007
The human genome would have been an impossible jigsaw puzzle without the
work of Maynard Olson.
Shigetada Nakanishi Honored with
$500,000 Gruber Prize for Neuroscience
28 June 2007
Over the last forty years, Shigetada Nakanishi has unravelled many of the
molecular secrets that underpin the function of the brain.
Cars that talk to you, the road and the environment
29 May 2007
Australian and Taiwanese
companies are meeting in Melbourne today to discuss their role in delivering
the smart car revolution.
The world needs science, science needs women
Nominations for the L’Oréal Australia For Women in Science Fellowships are
now open. Three $20,000 scholarships are available.
5th World
Conference of Science Journalists
16 to 20
April 2007
Visit www. scienceinmelbourne2007.org for a roundup of the conference
that includes session summaries, access to a huge library of photograph and podcasts.
What is a metre? And why should
we care?
Nobel Laureate John Hall’s work is creating a more precise world – and the
applications could include GPS, faster computers, and even the discovery of
Earth-like planets. John will be in Perth, Melbourne and Canberra this week
after speaking at RiverPhys-the biennial conference for Australia’s
physicists in Brisbane last week. He is available to discuss lasers, the
Nobels and his hopes and fears for the future of physics.
Space, fusion, the perfect metre,
teleportation - RiverPhys Conference, Brisbane
4 to 8
December.
Highlights include: Nobel Laureate John Hall and the impact of his work on
‘the metre’, GPS and much more; teleportation, fusion, space exploration and
the physics of music. Physicists will also will also be debating, and voting
on Australia’s nuclear future.
Nature
rewards excellent scientific mentors in Australasia
The inaugural winners of the Nature awards for mentoring in Australasian
science have been selected. There are two awards, one for a scientist in
mid-career, another for lifetime achievement.
Light
links Switzerland and Australia
1 December
2006
Swiss scientists are at the forefront of creating an intense light source
that will transform Australia’s medical imaging capability. They will reveal
their work at a forum of Swiss and Australian scientists and business people
in Melbourne this Friday 1 December 2006.
New Zealand investor backs Australian firm to develop natural low GI sugar
21
November 2006
New Zealand
investment fund BioPacificVentures has backed an Australian firm to develop
a natural low Glycaemic Index (GI) sugar. The low GI sugar is expected to
play a significant role in helping to control the diabetes epidemic sweeping
the two nations.
Women fight for rights in the Americas:
Embargo/presentation 16.00EST, 2 November 2006
Jerome Greene Hall, Columbia University Law School, New York
Chilean, Guatemalan and US champions honored with Gruber Prize for Women’s
Rights
Fission? Fusion? Coal
17 October
2006
The Prime
Minister says it’s time for Australia to develop nuclear power. What are the
options? Is nuclear the way to go? What is the science behind the debate?
Prime Minister's Prizes for Science
16
October 2006
Bees, serpins and the Milky Way: find out more about the winners
of the Prime Minister's Prizes for Science.
The secrets of
memory
Ito and
Nicoll receive the 2006 Gruber Neuroscience Prize
How do we learn? How do we remember?
Seeing the
temperature of fusion: Australian companies ready to join the fusion
revolution
13 October
2006
Businesses in Australia
and New Zealand
are ready to contribute to the world’s largest science experiment – to build
a fusion reactor. Researchers, government and industry are in Sydney this week to discuss how Australia will be involved in
ITER, the international collaboration to see if fusion energy is viable.
Fusion energy opportunities for Australia
12 October
2006
Millions of years of clean power generation with virtually no greenhouse gas
emissions – that, say Australian experts, is the promise of nuclear fusion.
And they want Australia
to be part of the $16 billion international effort to turn it into reality.
The secret of
aging?
10 October
2006
Elizabeth
Blackburn receives the 2006 Gruber Genetics Prize in New Orleans today. Born in Tasmania, she has
transformed our understanding of how cells age and die. She has also fought
against the politicization of science.
Where did your burger come from?
10 October
2006
The latest developments in DNA traceability will help New Zealand sell its top quality meat
to discerning international consumers at a considerable premium, say AgResearch scientists.
[Story supplied by AgResearch NZ]
Should Australia help in the development of fusion
energy?
ITER
fusion science workshop
11 - 13 September, Manly Pacific Hotel, Sydney
Fusion energy is the energy that powers the sun. It is abundant, generates
little waste and produces no carbon dioxide. An international workshop will
be held in Sydney to discuss whether Australia
should be involved in ITER, an international collaboration to test the
feasibility of fusion energy. Media are invited along to the workshop.
For more information on the program and speakers,
click here.
Israel’s Aharon Barak receives 2006 Gruber Justice Prize
21
September 2006
Aharon Barak, retired President of the
Supreme Court of Israel, will receive the 2006 Gruber Justice Prize. President Barak is renowned for championing
an activist judiciary and the rule of law and democracy. It’s a remarkable
journey for a man who as a child survived the Holocaust, and was at one point
smuggled out of the Kovno Ghetto in a sack of
clothes.
Weaving a
scaffold for new nerves - New centre to repair damaged nerves and turn
bionics into business
20 September 2006
A woven plastic tube infused with chemicals that encourage new nerve growth
may allow patients with severed nerves in their arms and legs to regain the
full use of their limbs. The thin tubular scaffold is being developed by
Bionic Technologies Australia which was opened today by the Hon John Brumby,
the Victorian Treasurer and Minister for Innovation. The new device has the
potential to help people hurt in accidents, or patients who lose nerves and
tissue during cancer surgery. “This exciting idea stems from Australia’s
leadership in bionic technologies. It is one of the key developments at our
new centre, which is focused on quickly and effectively bringing new
technologies to market.”
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Conference
10 to
14 September 2006
Melbourne hosted the 17th World
Congress of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
and Allied Professions. More than 1400 delegates gathered for the congress,
which is held every four years.
Aboriginal art
to get laser cleaning
22 August
2006
Australian
treasures including Aboriginal paintings and funerary poles could soon be
getting a state-of-the-art clean thanks to the latest laser technology. Deb
Kane, professor in the physics department at Macquarie University in Sydney,
and her team plan to use short pulsed lasers to clean contaminants from the
surface of some of Australia’s
unique heritage. Professor Kane is on a national tour promoting women in
physics, at a time when physics is booming, and industry is desperate to
attract more physicists.
Physics in Australia booming - more students needed to meet demand
21 August
2006
Students looking for wide career opportunities, good pay and a chance to be
at the cutting edge of discovery should enrol in a
university physics course. That’s the message from David Jamieson, President
of the Australian Institute of Physics (AIP), who is keen to attract
tomorrow’s university students into physics. “Physics in Australia
is booming,” says Jamieson. “We have an unprecedented number of very high
profile projects in Australia
with physics at their core.”
COBE team
honored
15 August
2006
John
Mather and the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) team will jointly receive
the 2006 Gruber Cosmology Prize for their
ground-breaking studies confirming that our universe was born in a hot Big
Bang. The gold medal and a $250,000 cash prize will be awarded at
the opening ceremony of the International Astronomical Union’s General
Assembly in Prague
on Tuesday 15 August 2006. The instruments aboard NASA's Cosmic Background
Explorer, launched in 1989, looked back over thirteen billion years to the
early universe.
A chance to make a rational
decision on stem cells
7
August 2006
Late last year, the Lockhart Legislative Review Committee – the Federal Government’s
own handpicked experts – handed down its recommendations on the fate of stem
cell research in this country. Among other things, the Committee recommended
lifting Australia’s
ban on so-called “therapeutic cloning”. Having first shelved the report on
the basis of a cabinet vote, a backbench revolt saw the Prime Minister agree
to a broader discussion at the first party room meeting after winter break.
That meeting – otherwise known as Stem Cell D-Day - is today.
Fresh Science 2006
7 to 10 August 2006
Stories from this years fresh scientists:
Mercury Rising!
Offices to stay cool and save dollars
Why can we see
what our cameras can't?
Reducing the
killing power of strokes
Sound solution for
soil pollution
New research
could PAC punch against arthritis
Surfing in Alice
Springs
More muscle, less
body fat without dieting
Taking the bull
out of the china shop
How does an
embryo find its way?
Playing possum:
one love or free love?
Patterson's curse
may be a saving grace for salmon
Brainwaves reveal
disease and colour blindness
More to droplets
than meets the eye
The life and
death of diamonds
Fighting septic
shock
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Science Prizes
About Science in
Public
We believe science should be:
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We believe that
no-one's work is too complex to be discussed in public,
not even quantum computing.
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