Saving oiled penguins , halving brain scarring after stroke, building foldable batteries, and ‘flying’ sharks – these are some of the highlights of the past year featured in Stories of Australian Science 2016.

Australians are collaborating with international colleagues to pinpoint the causes of Motor Neurone Disease, and to see through the smoke of bushfires. They’re in underground observatories to make sure we’re using groundwater sustainably; building a wave pool in a wind tunnel to investigate the role of turbulence in climate models; and are among the front-runners in the global race to build the first quantum computer.

We also have a special feature on Australia–Indonesia collaboration: combatting the big-killers tuberculosis (TB) and pneumonia; improving efficiency of ports and tropical houses; fishing for food security, and more.

Please feel free to use the stories for your own social media, website, or publications. Everything is available for reuse under a Creative Commons licence.

Browse the collection

You can browse this year’s collection at stories.scienceinpublic.com.au/2016

Or use the menus on the left to search all our stories by field or science, organisation or State.

The full publication is also available as a PDF and in print. If you’d like us to send you some copies please email niall@scienceinpublic.com.au

Contents

• Flying whale sharks
• Geoffrey Rush talks stars
• Fighting stroke damage
• Saving penguins with a wave of the wand
• Unboiling an egg
• Foldable batteries and scaffolds for muscle
• Renewable fuels turn over a new artificial leaf
• Printing a cartilage repair kit
• From jet engines to personalised surgical tools
• Seeing through bushfire smoke
• Reading the whispers of MH370
• Cool paint for Aussie warships
• Head to tail: the molecules that tell you how to grow a backbone
• Making blood on demand
• Under pressure: stable storage for radioactive waste
• World’s oldest gem leading us to hidden treasures
• More accurate readings of the heart
• Distilling value from industrial waste
• Big data gives Australians a sporting chance
• Eye, repair yourself
• Expanding treatments for the ‘Australian’ cancer
• Supercharged rice to feed the world
• How we imagine the future
• Add colour for 10 times more gas
• The water beneath our feet
• Micro plastic is unfantastic
• Deadly animals helping us understand pain
• Can algae fuel our future?
• Zika testing with a smartphone
• The ageing brain can repair itself
• Taking autoimmune disease personally
• Qubit by qubit: the quantum computing race continues
• A path to large-scale manufacturing
• Build it and they will come – chip design creates computer blueprint
• Mission accomplished: seek and don’t destroy quantum information
• Shedding ‘spooky’ light on unbreakable security
• Widening the net on Motor Neurone Disease
• A big deal for small science
• USA backs Australian qubit research
• Nano diamonds: not a cancer’s best friend

It’s not always 42: new maths for the big questions

• Saving seagrass sanctuaries
• Smart credit limits save money for customers and banks
• Tracking dust
• Tracking fish with parasites and maths
• Traffic matrices for more reliable digital networks

When earth, wind, and sea meet

• The answers are blowing in the wind
• Making waves in a wind tunnel
• Making jet engines (and power generation) more efficient

Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science

• Feeding the world, and asking where the wind went
• Trillions of bubbles at work for Australia
• Making polymers with light
• Where are the plants and animals we want to conserve, and the invaders we want to control?
• Improved primary science teaching at no extra cost
• Bringing students to science

Australia Indonesia collaborations

• Fishing for food security
• Putting a window and lasers in a ship’s hull to improve efficiency
• Making efficient port to keep cities connected
• Designing the coolest and most efficient tropical houses
• Collaborating to combat killers

Building an emotionally healthy community

• Genetics guiding anxiety treatment
• Changing the minds of dementia patients
• Helping patients cope with cancer
• Cool Kids goes bush – helping rural children with anxiety
• Hoarding: why is it hard to part with stuff?

Science Prizes

• Eureka Prizes
• State Awards
• Australian Academy of Science Medals 2015
• Early career awards
• ATSE Clunies Ross Medals
• Fresh Science

Credits

Editor in Chief/Project coordination: Lydia Hales

Concept/Editor: Niall Byrne

Writing: Ellie Michaelides, Toni Stevens, Errol Hunt, Tim Thwaites, Tanya Ha, Sarah Keenihan, Tom Eddershaw, Jane Lyons, Niall Byrne, Lydia Hales.

Design: www.saltcreative.com.au

Print: Immij