My piece in ABC The Drum on what the 2016 budget means for science in Australia. Essentially things continue as we had hoped from earlier in the year with welcome long-term sustained funding. There was a welcome one-year extension to the Australian Astronomical Observatory delaying the end of that world-leading telescope facility by a year to 2019/20 which it is hoped will give time for a sustained and long term solution to astronomical funding in the nation.
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An incredible experience discussing science for the National Science Quiz hosted by no less than Charlie Pickering! On the panel were some of Australia's top minds, Prime Minister Science Prize winner Terry Speed, science communicator Tanya Ha, Victoria's Lead Scientist Leonie Walsh and ABC's Red Symons. My favourite question we had to answer was why a wet towel looks darker than a dry one (the water has a higher refractive index and bends the reflected light that would ordinarily reach your eye and hence means it would look darker).
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A strange opportunity to speak, well, about myself. Usually I only chat to the media about the latest breaking science but this time the Sydney Morning Herald asked how I got into astrophysics and my thoughts on STEM education. Suffice to say I'm pretty keen on everyone getting to learn at least a little science!
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Speaking to 4000 inspiring primary students from across the State was an incredible honour. I tried to tell them what makes a good leader (listening!), how to succeed in their career (passion!) and what’s the coolest job (astronomer!) I was alongside the YGAP co-founder Elliot Costello, Dr Paul McIntosh from one of my favourite supercomputers MASSIVE and Cat Cafe star Anita Loughran. All people who have succeeded against incredible odds. The event was organised by Halogen and the scale blew me away, it was a long day and yet the questions at the end were still so impressive and insightful. I wish this event had been around when I was young but then again I probably wouldn’t have been good enough to get in then!
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One of my great passions in life is reading, and I jumped at the chance to wax lyrical about my top books I’d read this past year on Radio National. Sarah Dingle was a champ, allowing me to get a bit carried away with some of the themes of the books...
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After an outstanding year of science and space events I grabbled with the thorny issue of summarising my highlights to a top 10 for theconversation (I could have easily listed another ten!) Unsurprisingly the main story of the year was Pluto.
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It was a busy day preparing for the Government’s new innovation policy, I chatted about what I hope to see and also what I thought would happen. Then I was able to sneak in some tips on viewing the Geminids meteor shower next week as well as some astonishing new images from the recent New Horizons flyby of Pluto.
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Deeply honoured to be featured alongside everyday Australian legends as Commbank’s Australian of the Day campaign. Fun chatting to them about my work on Dark Matter as well as helping inspire and educate Australians about the awesomeness of science.
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I had a horribly awkward fanboy moment when I got to meet the legend himself Buzz Aldrin! There are few people in this world I consider a living legend but Buzz is one, so getting to shake his hand and then hear about his experiences on the Moon and his hoped for plans about getting to Mars was incredible.
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I wrote an article for Cosmos Magazine explaining how NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft detected streams of Martian air blasted away by the Solar Wind. This tiny trickle (100g / s) was seen to increase 10-15x during even a moderate Solar Storm (or Coronal Mass Ejection). As the Sun was more active when younger these slow and fast processes of stripping air from Mars could explain how the red planet was transformed from a water rich world 4bn years go into the barren desert it is today.
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One of the best science lectures I've ever seen was at Monash University by Caltech's legend GR expert Prof Kip Thorne giving the Einstein Centenary lecture to celebrate a century since General Relativity was released to the world. Fittingly, he used the examples of Interstellar's Black Holes, time dilation and 5-dimensional (bulk) beings to make the topic all the more accessible to the (sold out) auditorium.
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This Monday will see the last lunar eclipse of the tetrad (sequence of four). A beautiful sight as the moon turns 'blood' red that millions across Europe and America will enjoy. For some however they see it as the apocalypse. Unsurprisingly I am less pessimistic in my explanation on theconversation.
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Dark matter is invisible and able to pass through matter almost completely without notice. As you might imagine finding it is a challenge. By using telescopes, particle colliders and 'glowing' crystals at the bottom of goldmines we are honing in on this mysterious new particle.
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Are we alone? It's a fundamental question that haunts us as we look up into a cold, dark sky and (so far as we know!) the answer is yes, but perhaps for not too much longer. With $100m from the Breakthrough Listen project Australia will be leading the search for ET's signals. This is something that everyone is fascinated by, including politicians! Myself and a group of distinguished scientists gave a briefing at Parliament House to, amongst others, then Minister for Industry Ian Macfarlane and Minister for Science Karen Andrews (seen above with me politely trying not to be bored by my awful ramblings).
You can watch the interview at the National Library of Australia hosted by 666 ABC Canberra's Genevieve Jacobs, Nobel Laureate Prof Brian Schmidt, Prof Naomi McClure-Griffiths, Laureate Fellow Prof Matthew Bailes, Prof Paul Davies and yours truly (completely out of my depth!)
You can also listen to the earlier news briefing arranged by AusSMC (Australian Science Media Centre)
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An amazing chance to open for Neil deGrasse Tyson in front of 5000 people, speaking about dark matter and generally hanging out with him backstage (and yes he's a top dude).
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Modern life can seem overwhelmingly complex. By showing the astounding insights into the world we live in from asking three brief questions, I told the Sydney Opera House that sometimes the best way to understand something complex is to ask a simple question.
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With the excitement of our funding secured to build the world's first dark matter detector in the Southern Hemisphere in Stawell, Victoria we hosted VIPs and a film crew from 7's Sunrise Weekend. It was 30+ degrees and 100% humidity a km underground but that's where you need to go to search for dark matter!
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Just an amazing experience heading up to the beautiful Pilbara region of West Australia to speak about aboriginal astronomy. I was part of an amazing lineup of speakers and events for the Karijini Experience, featuring everything from indigenous basket weaving techniques to Opera in the Gorge by the incomparable Deborah Cheetham
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I managed to corner the Prime Minister for a chat about my research during Science Meets Parliament when 200 scientists descended on Canberra to learn how to talk science to the funding bodies and politicians.
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I was honoured to be given the chance to tell the school my life and what lessons I've learnt from working in science and how they might be able to follow. And of course I mention the SKA!
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