Tag Archives: CSIRO

2021, Fresh Science

A smart new way to charge electric vehicles

Integrating electric vehicles into the grid could prevent blackouts

Electric vehicles consume a large amount of energy. As more people get electric cars and charge them at home, it puts a strain on our current electricity distribution, but researchers from the CSIRO says it doesn’t have to be that way.

They devised a computer module to model how electric vehicles could be integrated into the electricity grid to make it more reliable and efficient.

Continue reading A smart new way to charge electric vehicles →
Macquarie University, Media Release

Fast radio burst provides clues to galactic halo

Macquarie astronomers find a well of serenity in deep space.

Masters student Lachlan Marnoch has been credited as co-author in a paper in Science before even submitting his thesis. Credit Macquarie University

A massive galaxy four billion light-years from Earth is surrounded by a halo of tranquil gas.

The finding, which reveals a galactic halo much less dense and less magnetised than expected, was made by a team of astronomers that included two researchers from Macquarie University.

Continue reading Fast radio burst provides clues to galactic halo →
2019, Australia-China Collaboration

X-rays for gold

China and Australia are the world’s two largest producers of gold. So, it’s fitting that a device combining Australian and Chinese research, and capabilities in high-tech manufacturing, is set to shake up the industry.

Ore processors need to know how much gold is in their raw material to get the most out of it. The current industry standard for testing ore is the fire assay, an elaborate and time-consuming process that requires temperatures over 1000 degrees and toxic chemicals such as lead. It also takes at least 8 hours to complete.

Continue reading X-rays for gold →
2019, Australia-China Collaboration

Clean gas, clean air

New technologies are making natural gas a cheaper and greener fuel

Air quality in China’s cities is improving thanks to government initiatives to reduce urban coal burning. In Beijing, for example, homes, schools, hospitals and factories are switching from coal to gas for heating. As a result, demand for gas has quadrupled over the past decade. Now Australian researchers are partnering with Chinese industry to make gas production even cleaner and more efficient.

Both countries will benefit. China has large gas reserves but much of the gas is in unconventional sources such as coal seam gas and shale gas. The gases from these sources can contain less than 50 per cent methane so impurities such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen must be removed. For nitrogen that usually means cooling the gas to separate the valuable methane from the nitrogen in an energy-intensive process costing billions of dollars.

Continue reading Clean gas, clean air →
2019, Stories of European-Australian Research

The world’s largest scientific instrument

In a whisper-quiet area of the outback in Western Australia, 133,000 radio telescope antennas are about to be built.

When complete, they’ll be able to pick up radio signals from the time when the first stars in the universe formed.

Continue reading The world’s largest scientific instrument →
2019, Stories of European-Australian Research

How much carbon can we dig in?

Healthy soil for a healthy planet

To rein in global warming, scientists believe it will not be enough to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions: we will also need to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

Soils are an important reservoir for carbon, as they contain nearly double that found in the atmosphere and vegetation combined. Agricultural practices have degraded soil carbon stocks, so there is a large potential for atmospheric carbon to be sequestered in soils.

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2019, Stories of European-Australian Research

Spying on the denizens of the Southern Ocean

Sonar and satellites reveal the fish and other creatures that live far below the surface.

The depths of the ocean still hold great mysteries. At depths between 200 and 1,000 metres live creatures that, taken altogether, weigh as much as 10 billion tonnes.

Rudy Kloser, an expert on echo sounding and deep-sea ecosystems at CSIRO in Hobart, says these creatures are vital but poorly understood. Continue reading Spying on the denizens of the Southern Ocean →

2019, Stories of European-Australian Research

Australian mirrors helping to power Cyprus

Australian-made mirrors are helping the Mediterranean country of Cyprus move to renewable energy and secure its supply of drinking water.

Though Cyprus is blessed with plentiful sunshine, rainfall is low and the country depends on energy-intensive desalination plants for its drinking water. Continue reading Australian mirrors helping to power Cyprus →

2019, Stories of French-Australian Innovation

Wheat that’s good for guts

A new kind of wheat high in resistant starch can improve intestinal health

Bowel cancer is the world’s third most common cancer. A diet that includes more resistant starch, a kind of fibre that feeds good bacteria in the large intestine, can make it less common. Resistant starch helps improve gut health and reduces the risk of conditions such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease and cancer.

Since 2006, CSIRO scientists have been working in a joint venture with French company Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients and the Grains Research and Development Corporation to develop wheat with more resistant starch. Continue reading Wheat that’s good for guts →

2019, Stories of French-Australian Innovation

Balloons over the Red Centre

A perfect view of the Milky Way

On a series of calm, cool mornings in April 2017, 70 French scientists (from the French space science agency CNES, CNRS IRAP, and the Université Paul Sabatier de Toulouse) launched three enormous balloons into the sky above the heart of Australia.

CNES was using the Alice Springs Balloon Launching Centre (ASBLS) to send three precision scientific instruments up to altitudes of 30–40 kilometres to make observations that are impossible from the ground.

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