20 Qs at Questacon
Alan Duffy
Questacon is the national science and technology centre and an absolute treat to get to spend a day visiting but the questions I was asked when there were so tough! What would you have answered?
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Searching for Dark Matter underground in a gold mine
Alan Duffy
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
Read MoreAustralia's responsibility (and opportunity) to clean up Space Junk
Alan Duffy
ncreasing amounts of space debris are nearing a critical point, where unavoidable collisions will cause more debris, in a disastrous chain reaction that will make space inaccessible to us. This has been termed the Kessler Syndrome. Once the cascading collisions begin, they cannot be stopped.
As I explain in this thought piece for the The Age, Australia has an important role in this global issue as we monitor vast skies with space technologies that few others in the Southern Hemisphere have.
Image by ESA
Read MoreMatt is a 3MT world winner!
Alan Duffy
I’m beyond thrilled to celebrate our Space Institute PhD student Matt Shaw and his incredible win at the 3MT APAC international finals. Against entries by 54 universities from around the region his work on mining the moon to provide metals for constructing moonbases (seriously how cool is his Thesis) was found the most engaging - considering you have just Three Minutes(!) to explain three years of work, his efforts to connect with the audience are nothing short of amazing
Read More"Mineral Processing and Metal Extraction on the Lunar Surface - Challenges and Opportunities" - Shaw et al (2021)
Alan Duffy
When it comes to mining the Moon, and how best to extract those critical resources, for fuelling our further exploration of the Solar System this massive review paper will be seen as a critical resource itself! Incredibly work by Matthew Shaw and Matthew Humbert, two doctoral candidates within the Extraterrestrial Resource Processing group led by Profs Geoff Brooks and Akbar Rhamdhani, at Swinburne’s Space Technology and Industry Institute.
Read MoreFabricating for space with Titomic
Alan Duffy
Incredible news as one of the largest Federal Government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative grants ($2.325M from Gov, for a total expenditure of $4.65M) is awarded to Titomic and Swinburne!
Read MoreInternet of Space Things a seamless future
Alan Duffy
A seamlessly connected world, where information streams effortlessly across people, industry, cities, farms and satellites. In which data that originates from Earth is conveyed and used as easily as the data generated from sensors in orbit. All of which is combined to inform decisions in either domain.
This is the Internet of Space Things (IoST), and it is the natural future extension of the internet as the predominant communications and data-exchange structure of our time. We already have half a dozen devices connected to the Internet of Things for every person on Earth, producing 79 ZETA bytes of information (that’s nearly a million million 4k movies worth of data!) by 2025, the options in using this data are endless and the future is seamless.
Read MoreAstronomical - Looking for Life Beyond Earth (my new audiobook!)
Alan Duffy
In the next two decades we will search the skies, solar system and space for alien life with new techniques and technologies thousands of times more powerful than all of humanity's efforts to date. I toured the world speaking to experts in this search for alien life, as well as the kinds of life we might uncover, and of course a serious investigation into the claims that it may already be here(!)
My thanks to Audible for making possible this incredible journey. I hope you enjoy listening to what I discovered with Astronomical - Looking for Life Beyond Earth
Read MoreSpace and Spatial podcast chat
Alan Duffy
I got a chance to speak to the space and spatial focussed Locate podcast about all things to do with space, the industry, my efforts and more. It was a lot of fun chatting with Alicia and Roshni, I hope you enjoy it too!
Read MoreHow can your old mobile save the planet?
Alan Duffy
It is a pleasure to be the MobileMuster Program Ambassador and support their campaign to have Australian's send in the 5 *million* broken smartphones lying around in homes nationwide. If our campaign is a success we will have recovered nearly 10,000 tonnes of precious minerals and metals, as well as the CO2 saved equivalent to planting 50000 trees. All from us collectively sending in our broken phones!
Let's #GoForZero broken phones at home this March.
Read MoreSpace Technology and Industry Institute Launched!
Alan Duffy
I'm beyond thrilled to announce that I have been appointed the inaugural Director of the new Space Technology and Industry Institute at Swinburne University of Technology !
I can’t wait to help companies and communities solve their problems on Earth through Space, together with my amazing Swinburne colleagues.
Read MoreAcademic of the Year in the Australian Space Awards
Alan Duffy
This is a staggering, and very surprising, announcement by the Australian Space Awards to name me the Academic of the Year! This is particularly so given the incredible and world-leading efforts of my fellow finalists in this category.
Space is a multidisciplinary domain so my individual Award is actually a team Award in reality - and one that recognises my extraordinary Swinburne colleagues (Virginia Kilborn, Bronwyn Fox, James Davern and Geoff Brooks to name but a few!) who have worked so hard to make our collective efforts deserving of this recognition, efforts that are truly out of this world.
Read MoreMelbhenge is on tonight, view responsibly friends
Alan Duffy
Melbhenge is where the Sun sets at 7:57pm (get there at least 15 minutes before) at exactly 250 degrees, meaning it aligns perfectly with a mile of skyscrapers in Melbourne’s Hoddle-grid. Remember, please don’t look directly at the Sun! But viewed safely this is a truly gorgeous evening event (just enjoy J L R Reyes’s work from last year!) and finding exactly the best place to view is always important. This year it’s particularly important we move out across the city to find the best spot (tag your photo with location and #Melbhenge) as we have to ensure we keep a safe, social distance from one another. So be safe and enjoy the Sun responsibly friends.
Read MoreWhat If... the moon was closer than we thought?
Alan Duffy
Together with principal supervisor Prof Geoff Brooks, I co-supervise a fantastic PhD student Matt Shaw on techniques to mine the moon (or rather how to process the regolith you mine!) He gave a fantastic talk on the Moon as part of the wonderful What If? series of lectures organised by the City of Boroondara where Swinburne’s Hawthorn campus is based. Great work Matt!
Read MoreCool Science Stuff at Home - The Project
Alan Duffy
A fantastic initiative by The Project to showcase some science experiments you can do at home. Alongside our experiments, they also brought together amazing resources such as the free RiAus education packs or NASA STEM@Home, perfect for students or teachers (and parents!) exploring this strange new quarantined world of teaching at home.
Read MoreAustralian Space Awards (finalist!)
Alan Duffy
I was amazed to find myself nominated as Academic of the Year in the inaugural Space Connect Australian Space Awards but to find myself now a finalist is beyond ridiculous..! Thankfully the Honour of being alongside such incredible finalists is all I need, as there's no way I'm winning against such legends.
Read MoreServing the Australian Space Agency
Alan Duffy
I don’t want this to sound like an Oscar acceptance speech but this is truly an incredible (and humbling!) honour to serve on the Australian Space Agency’s inaugural Space Industry Leader’s Forum. It’s even more humbling when you see my fellow exceptionally experienced and talented colleagues on this Forum…!
Read MorePrime Minister's Prizes for Science
Alan Duffy
It was a career highlight for me to be the MC for the Nation’s most prestigious awards, the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science, and that it was the 20th anniversary just made it all the more amazing to be a part of, for me. The end result that a majority of awards went to women (for the first time!) made that experience even more wonderful.
Read MoreJoining the Questacon Advisory Council
Alan Duffy
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.
Read MoreBragg Fellows Announced
Alan Duffy
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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