Making motorcycle clothing safer, a robotic arm for stroke rehab, prospecting for gold using prehistoric volcanoes—these are some of the highlights of the past year featured in Stories of Australian Science 2017.
Australian scientists are making silk-derived implants to fix damaged eardrums, and working to stop people going into flood waters. They’re flying unmanned drones to record our reefs in incredible detail, and teaching bots to search out and destroy crown-of-thorns starfish. They’re keeping stored red blood cells in shape, testing water safety with fingernail-sized sensors, expanding the net for gravitational waves, and much more.
Australians are also working with colleagues in the USA, Indonesia, and Japan. We’ve got special features on these collaborations, including: ‘blood tests’ for big machines and new artificial hearts; using a radar-in-a-suitcase to make bridges safer; and making chewing gum that reverses tooth decay.
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Browse the collection
You can browse this year’s collection at stories.scienceinpublic.com.au/2017
Or use the menus on the left to search all our stories by field or science, organisation or State.
You can download the PDF of Stories of Australian Science 2017 (7MB).
We’re currently distributing the print publication.
Contents
- After 160 years, it’s time to throw away the needle and syringe
- Aussie kit detecting threat of toxic algal blooms
- Drone swarms that can think for themselves
- Using algorithms to predict flu outbreaks
- Tracking space junk
- Measuring the risk of an Australian Zika outbreak
- A scarce Sarah: new blood group making transfusions safer
- Keeping in shape: what happens to red blood cells in storage?
- How to stop people entering floodwater
- The sweet side of sulphur: cheap mercury clean-up
- Touch of silk to repair ruptured eardrums
- When boron nitride outshines gold and silver
- Converting body heat into useable electricity
- Making motorcycle clothing safer
- Improving carbon fibre production
- Seeing medical devices from concept to commercialisation
- Towards a portable test for tiredness
- The right juice for your heart
- Turning off toxic T-cells in MS clinical trial
- Testing water safety with tiny nanodot sensors
- Making pollution sponges out of nanoparticles
- Mobile games are for paws, too
- How social media can help businesses get ahead
- Teaching search engines to know what you need
- The dream to get every Australian connected online
- Mapping liveability across cities
- How the ice plant thrives in high-salt areas
- Mangroves’ message from the grave
- Drones protecting humans and sharks
- Sharpening vision in bionic eyes
- Robotic arm to help stroke patients regain movement
- Using stars to overpower superbugs
- Honey for your wounds?
- The hidden infection causing infertility
- Unravelling atoms: the Centre for the Subatomic Structure of Matter
- Improving survival for patients with acute leukaemia
- Are memories stored in DNA?
- Detection of cancer and PTSD
- Prehistoric volcanoes to prospect for metals
- Gravitational waves—looking further
- Lenses a fraction of a hair’s width, faster communication and better solar cells
- Quantum computers with photons
- Tuning out our internal voices
- Harnessing the data from everything that’s online
America and Australia: partners in innovation
- Protecting phones, robots and governments
- Heading into deep water
- From car batteries to grid storage
- Paint fit for a Dreamliner
- A new heart
- ‘Blood tests’ for big machines
Japan and Australia: partners in innovation
- Fighting disease together
- Repairing teeth together
- Making mining safer
- Harnessing the sun
- Improving agriculture, together
- Earthquake-proofing ports
- Radar-in-a-suitcase making bridges safer
- Growing food and stopping floods with rain gardens
- Robo reef protector
- Does coral help create rain?
- The hidden reef made of giant algae doughnuts
- Mapping species and coral bleaching by drone
- The mystery of leaf size solved
- Reinventing the laser
- Modern humans were in Southeast Asia 20,000 years earlier than previously thought
- Protecting surfers from shark attacks
- Curing blindness by repairing corneas with invisible films (Vic)
- Fighting dust-mite allergies with fish oil (SA)
- Perth community can help save Carnaby’s cockatoo (WA)
- Immune boost for cancer patients with HIV (NSW)
- Taking the cow piss out of our waterways (Qld)
- 2016 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science
- Australian Science Prizes 2016
- Thanks to our supporters
Editor in Chief: Lydia Hales
Concept/Editor: Niall Byrne
Writing: Rebecca Barker, Rebecca Blackburn, Signe Dean, Suzannah Lyons, Ellie Michaelides, Toni Stevens, Tim Thwaites, Tanya Ha, Karl Gruber, Branwen Morgan, Niall Byrne, Lydia Hales.
Design: www.saltcreative.com.au
Print: Immij
Credit for banner image: Country Fire Authority