The Pilbara is big, isolated and gorgeous. It's also a beautiful place to view the stars from and is filled with curious school kids who attend my talks on indigenous astronomy and dark matter. I also got to explain just what it is I do as an astronomer and how they could get into science too.
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I got to indulge my geek side with the rest of the awesome panel on the Splendid Chaps' podcast discussing the Science of Doctor Who. Little did I know this would lead to a BBC supported national tour with the RiAus' Science of Doctor Who Live.
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I spoke at Fed Square for The Age's Science at the Edge event discussing the search for habitable worlds as part of the search for life with three other scientists.
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I spent a fun day in the gorgeous Dandenong ranges East of Melbourne chatting to the schools there as part of the Mt Burnett Observatory Science Day. Hundreds of pupils attended a day-long series of talks at the Observatory (where I got to show off the helioscope to view the Sun in H-alpha) and then I headed to Emerald High School to speak there about Australian astronomy.
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It was an honour to make it all the way to the State Finals for the national Fresh Science competition to find great science in the country and learn how to present it to the general public.
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I was part of an amazing initiative by Jacinta Lee Den Besten to get astronomy as part of schools curriculum across the State. Known as Telescopes in Schools a dozen quality telescopes have been housed in schools that then run regular evening night sky tours. I swung round a few schools to chat about what you can see (and what you can't like Dark Matter).
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Can science be taught through comedy? I headed to the Adelaide Fringe to test the theory out. I will never do stand up again but yes particle physics lessons were remembered by the audience later that evening which was cool
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A planetarium show using the latest simulations of dark matter created at the same time as the science. Together with legend director Peter Morse and data visualisation guru Professor Paul Bourke, Dark has been (as of August 2015) shown by 148 planetariums in 25 countries around the world and dubbed into 6 languages.
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I gave a few words on the opening night of my planetarium show Dark at the SciTech planetarium in Perth, WA. In particular I pointed out that the simulations shown on the big screen were used in my research papers at the same time that this outreach effort was undertaken.
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My first TEDx talk at Northbridge to talk about the amazing discoveries in astronomy and the technological innovation that made them possible (as well as the lucrative spin off tech that came from these).
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A great experience touring the gorgeous Wheatbelt of Western Australia visiting schools and government environment agencies in Narrogin with my favourite Chief Science Prof Lyn Beazley. I spoke about astronomy to everyone I could find but I was also given tours by expert park rangers into the outback and learn about the vast arrays of species in this tough but stunning landscape.
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