After years of work from teams worldwide, we are finally nearing the completion of the deepest underground physics laboratory in the Southern Hemisphere all searching for dark matter!
So it was a double thrill that I could take one of Australia's biggest shows - Network 10's #TheProjectTV - on a tour of this Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory
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I am thrilled (and also a little intimidated!) to join the Questacon Advisory Council and help, in whatever small way I can!, Australia’s leading science communication and engagement centre. Each year, Questacon welcomes over 500,000 visitors to the two facilities in Canberra while more than 660 000 see their exhibitions in other museums and centres around Australia and overseas. Outreach programmes take to the roads each year, visiting an additional 110 000 in towns and communities across the country.
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One of the great strengths of the Royal Institution of Australia is our community of distinguished figures from science, education and industry, who have made this Nation better through science; we call them our Braggs. At a fancy lunch that brings together distinguished guests, former recipients and of course our new Braggs we celebrate their achievements and encourage all involved to collaborate in the hopes that a room full of brilliant will do brilliant things, both with the RiAus but also beyond it.
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Anyone who knows me knows that I am a big fan of space, a huge fan of Apollo and a MASSIVE fan of Apollo on the biggest screen in the world. In other words, it was a complete joy getting to explain the incredible achievements that made the Moon Landing possible, as well as the film itself Apollo, to attendees at the premiere screening at IMAX Melbourne. Afterwards I was able to try and answer a few of the hundreds of attendees questions in the Q&A that really kept me on my toes..!
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Delivering they keynote address for the South Australian Science Excellence Awards is an intimidating prospect - how do you teach such a learned audience? Surely they had already heard everything I could say. Well I made the decision to lean into that, and talk about the incredible success stories of South Australia that they all should know, and how these are providing an exciting platform for the State to surge ahead through STEM in the years ahead.
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To my amazement (and with gratitude to the judges!) I won the 2018 Celestino Promoting Understanding of Science at the Australian Museum’s national Eureka Awards. This is basically the highest honour scientists who communicate that science to the public and that it was decided by an illustrious judging panel who I look up too is an incredible feeling of support and acknowledgement.
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It's nearly time for #NationalScienceWeek and we have updated the amazing (and free!) SciVR app to let you explore the universe in virtual reality on your smartphone! As before we are also giving you the chance to enter a ballot for free VR headsets that make the experience even better. Just head to www.scivr.com.au to register for that, download the app and book tickets for the live events (streaming online to over a dozen satellite events across Australia and the world!)
Huge thanks to our partners who make this possible; OzGrav, Swinburne, Fleet, State Library of Victoria and of course the Inspiring Australia grant for National Science Week
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I loved making this short ABC ME series with the wonderfully talented and ever enthusiastic Grace Koh trying to explain the answers to questions that we all think of, while restricting ourselves to a green screen and about 3 minutes in total. You can watch all 5 episodes on iView or catch them as interstitials between your favourite shows on ABC ME. Also who doesn't love a big red button?!
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Todd Sampson is insane. There. I said it. I understand physics, I trust 100% in the universality of the laws we explore in Life on the Line, but I certainly don't have 100% trust in the engineering. In episode 3 we discuss Friction by throwing Todd off a bungee jump without it being secured (simply interleaved pages of a phonebook). The principle of geometric amplification of the friction means that these phonebooks won't slip by. Everything else however could go wrong. In episode 4 we discuss Conversation of Energy by using a one tonne wrecking ball. This actually DOES go wrong. Yet still he risks his life. I love Todd's trust in my calculations, I just wish he wouldn't actually put his Life on the Line with them.
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I've been involved in some mammoth science communication events, and I firmly believe to ensure the role of STEM in our society we need these huge shows to make science cool again. I shared my thoughts on this and alarming decline in STEM enrolment rates on theconversation.
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A stunningly beautiful project to explain the night sky to a younger audience on ABC ME by Camilla Hannan. If you don't feel captivated by the visuals, and awed by the wonderful dialogue (my bits aside) then you have no soul. Seriously though, have a watch on iView, I'm so proud to have been involved in this.
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