Brooke Topelberg’s students are so keen on science that her lunch-time science club has a waiting list. And Jane Wright has been taking high school girls to explore science in the bush for over 25 years. Both of these passionate professionals have been awarded a Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching.
Many plastics and polymers—including paints, glues and lubricants—will be transformed in the coming years by the work of Australian chemists, Professors David Solomon and Ezio Rizzardo. Their work is integral to more than 500 patents and their techniques are used in the labs and factories of DuPont, L’Oréal, IBM, 3M, Dulux and more than 60 … Continue reading Changing the world one molecule at a time
Stories of Australian Science 2012 Hidden art revealed Higgs boson: the Australian connection Frog peptides versus superbugs The Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science Changing the world one molecule at a time New chlorophyll a gateway to better crops Birth of our hot Universe Camping and puppets top teaching prizes Birds, bees, robots and flying … Continue reading Contents Science 2012
An Australian physicist is unravelling the mystery of how the hot, brilliant stars we see today emerged from our Universe’s “dark age”. Theoretical physicist Prof Stuart Wyithe is one of the world’s leading thinkers on the Universe as it was 13 billion years ago, when there were no stars or galaxies, just cold gas. In … Continue reading Birth of our hot Universe
A new fibre optic medical tool is revolutionising our understanding of serious but socially embarrassing digestive illnesses, such as constipation, diarrhoea and irritable bowel syndrome. Thanks to this device, medical scientists can see for the first time the coordinated, fine and complex muscular activity of the human digestive system in action. CSIRO optical physicist Dr … Continue reading Fibre optics: from cables to colon health
A chance finding has led to the first new chlorophyll discovered in 67 years, opening up possibilities for biofuel and food crops to use sunlight more efficiently.
We’ve put together this collection of Australian science stories to give journalists and others around the world a taste of the breadth and depth of research activity in Australia. You’ll read about uniquely Australian work: a new form of chlorophyll found at Western Australia’s Shark Bay; the immune tricks of wallabies; protecting lives and buildings … Continue reading Stories of Australian Science 2012
Far outback in Western Australia, 32 tiles—flat, stationary sensors—each carrying 16 dipole antennas have begun collecting scientific data. These first tiles will ultimately form part of a much bigger array of 512 tiles, the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA)—Australia’s second Square Kilometre Array (SKA) demonstrator project. Like CSIRO’s Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP), the MWA is being … Continue reading Telescope of tiles
In 1998, two teams of astronomers —one led by the Australian National University’s Brian Schmidt—independently reached the same conclusion: the expansion of the Universe is not slowing down or petering out, as most people had assumed, it is accelerating. The discovery has triggered a flurry of activity to understand more about dark energy, the … Continue reading Our Universe is getting bigger, faster
Australia’s impact on world health has been profound: from devices helping deaf children hear, to cancer-preventing vaccines and even the development of penicillin. But there is much more to come. Australians are working, often with researchers from the United States, on hundreds of projects including medical spin-outs from genome research, HIV vaccines, the use of … Continue reading Science collaboration improves health