National Science Week is coming up in August. There are hundreds of stories, events, and interesting people to interview.
Here are some early highlights from around Australia:
- Your brain on AI at the Opera House. Step into a future where mind and matter converge – Sydney
- An Aussie astronaut, adult ADHD, de-GOOPing wellness, and 150+ roving scientists at Beaker Street Festival – Hobart
- Dark matter hunters and quantum experts bring the mysteries of the Universe to a city, town or pub near you – National tour starts in Queensland
- How to grow a Martian garden – Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne & regional Victoria
- The secret life of orangutans - Newcastle
- Daleks, drones, Nitro Nat, and exploding elephant toothpaste at Science Alive! – Adelaide Showgrounds
- Science meets Dr Seuss: Poetry Zoo wants Aussie kids to submit weird and wonderful rhymes about ‘Loving Living Things’ in time for a big public reveal – online
- A stingray in the stars and other Sea Country Stories of Yuin Gadu’ – Sydney
- Bomb bacteria with beanbags at the Broome STEM Festival – Broome.
National Science Week is one of Australia’s largest festivals and was first held in 1997. Last year about 2.7 million people participated in 1,862 events and activities. It is proudly supported by the Australian Government, CSIRO, the Australian Science Teachers Association, and the ABC.
Visit ScienceWeek.net.au/events to find stories in your area. Media centre here. Images for media here.
General media enquiries: Tanya Ha – tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au / 0404 083 863 or Shelley Thomas – shelley@scienceinpublic.com.au / 0416 377 444.
Individual event details and media contacts
Your brain on AI at the Opera House – Sydney, NSW
Paul Davies, the inventor of DishBrain, and others will discuss how our brains are going to change with AI.
Paul asks if we relinquish our intellectual supremacy in favour of thinking machines.
What makes a mass of cells come together to think, do and become self-aware?
Technologies like DishBrain, brain organoids and organic AI – using the computing power of brain cells – could revolutionise fields from neuroscience and psychology to data science and robotics.
But how do intelligence and consciousness arise? How are emotions and feelings generated? How do our brains adapt to technological evolution?
The University of Sydney AI expert Sandra Peter will explore these topics in a panel event at the Sydney Opera House, featuring:
- renowned British quantum physicist, cosmologist, author and TV presenter Paul Davies
- neuroscientist, DishBrain co-inventor, and Chief Scientific Officer at Cortical Labs Brett Kagan
- cognitive scientist and expert on brain-computer interfaces Inês Hipólito.
Saturday 17 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/sydney-opera-house-your-brain-on-ai/sydney
Paul Davies, Ines Hipolito, Brett Kagan, and Sandra Peter are available for media interviews.
Media enquiries: Emily Cook, ecook@sydneyoperahouse.com, 0484 566 133.
An Aussie astronaut, adult ADHD, de-GOOPing wellness, and 150 roving scientists – Hobart, TAS
- In space with Australia’s first astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg and astrophysicist Alan Duffy
- ‘Science Vs’ podcaster Wendy Zukerman myth-busts wellness GOOP from Gwyneth Paltrow and other influencers
- The Year I Met My Brain author, journalist, and ADHDer Matilda Boseley
- The Dr Karl vs Everyone Game Show! with MC Adam Spencer.
These are some of the highlights of this year’s Beaker Street Festival, lutruwita/Tasmania’s annual celebration of science and art.
Centred around the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and nearby venues, the week-long Festival features talks and workshops presented by top local and visiting scientists, interactive science/art installations, photography exhibitions, live music and performance, Tassie food and drink, and 150+ Roving Scientists to chat with.
This year, attendees will dive into Antarctic science (literally!), help bring stars back to the city skyline, and taste the future of food.
Tuesday 6 - Tuesday 13 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/beaker-street-festival-4/hobart
Media enquiries: Emily Macgroarty, emily.macgroarty@organic-publicity.com or 0432 490 406.
Dark matter on the move – touring Australia’s cities and regions
Meet dark matter hunters and quantum experts at events across Australia.
The National Quantum & Dark Matter Road Trip will tour pubs and schools in cities and towns around Australia starting off at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, then heading to Dalby, Cloncurry, Ballarat, Sydney, Perth, Kununurra, Broome, Dandenong, Melbourne and many other places between 4 August and 19 August.
Dark matter accounts for 84 per cent of all the matter in the Universe… but we don’t yet know what it is. Australia is a key player in the quest to find out.
Quantum technologies are crucial in the hunt for dark matter, and they’re already used in smart phones and cars, medical imaging, manufacturing, and navigation. But today’s technologies capture only a small fraction of the potential of quantum physics.
Media enquiries: Fleur Morrison, fleur.morrison@unimelb.edu.au or 0421 118 233.
Multiple experts involved with different legs of the tour are available for media interviews, including dark matter enlightener Jackie Bondell and particle physicist Ben McAllister.
How to grow a Martian garden – Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne & regional Victoria
Could you live in a Martian garden? Over the next 30 years, human missions to the moon and Mars are planned: but can these extreme environments provide habitat for humans?
‘The Martian Garden’ events across South Australia, Victoria, and Western Australia will invite the public to explore the challenges and try their hand at life beyond Earth at four activity stations while Mars rovers roam nearby.
Visitors will see plant growing cabinets similar to those on the International Space Station, they can code plant bots to harvest produce, find out what makes different foods suitable for space, and explore a range of space crops including duckweed, microgreens, tomato, strawberry and chilli.
Hear from ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space researchers about selecting and adapting plant and microbial species to survive and thrive in new and extreme environments, how to support sustainable new ecosystems off-world, and how to find novel approaches back on Earth.
Media enquiries: Lieke van der Hulst, lieke.vanderhulst@adelaide.edu.au or 08 8313 6669; Frazer Thorpe, f.thorpe@latrobe.edu.au or 0459 762 299.
Scientists Mat Lewesy, Kim Johnson and Frazer Thorpe from La Trobe University, and Jenny Mortimer and Christine Feinle-Bisset from the University of Adelaide are available for media interviews.
The Roseworthy, SA location will include demonstrations of Mars Rovers at the Exterres Analogue Facility, which could provide interesting visual opportunities.
The secret life of orangutans - Newcastle, NSW
Dr Birutė Galdikas spent 50 years living with and studying orangutans in Borneo. Hear firsthand her experiences living at Camp Leakey, when she first observed orangutans using tools, and how she gained trust with an orangutan named Priscilla. Her work has been crucial in understanding orangutans and saving them from extinction. Dr Galdikas is one of the iconic ‘Trimates’, along with Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey.
“I continue to learn about the spectacular spectrum along which orangutan behaviour exists. Each orangutan teaches us about the wide variety of personality and capacity for intelligence—and complex emotions that are typical of the species.”
She will speak about her life in orangutan conservation at Newcastle City Hall.
Tuesday 6 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/orangutans-a-conservation-legacy-2/newcastle
Media enquiries: Tim Roberts, tim.roberts@newcastle.edu.au or 0418 205 664.
Birutė Galdikas is available for media interviews.
Daleks, drones, dino puppets, and Nitro Nat at Science Alive! – Wayville Showgrounds, SA
- Nitro Nat – Science of Music Show
- Animals Anonymous Wildlife Show
- Meet the baby dino puppets
- Plus, footy science, esports, exploding elephant toothpaste, robot wars, live animal encounters, flying drone displays, daleks, and the scientific bubble show: more than 80 different science sessions, displays, and activities, all under one roof.
These are just some of the speakers, activities, and displays at a bigger than ever Science Alive!, with events held over 3 days in over 16,000 m2 at the Adelaide Showground.
STEM Day Out (schools): Friday 2 August. Saturday 3 August – Sunday 4 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/science-alive-6/wayville
Media enquiries: Francesca Doyle, francesca@eventcrowd.com.au or 0424 96 288.
Science meets Dr Seuss: submit your poetry – online
Poetry Zoo is calling Aussie kids to submit weird and wonderful poems about ‘Loving Living Things’ in time for a big public reveal during National Science Week.
Deadline to submit via feedback@sciencerhymes.com.au: Monday 5 August.
For inspiration, consider a creepy creature, peculiar plant, funny fungus, mysterious microbe, amazing animal, or what it means to be eco-friendly. A winning anthology will be published on Science Rhymes website in celebration of Science Week’s 2024 school theme, Species Survival – More than Just Sustainability.
Celia Berrell, the Science Rhymes poet, is available for interviews. She is happy to read some of her own science poems on air.
Saturday 10 August – Sunday 18 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/poetry-zoo-competition/
Media enquiries: Celia Berrell, celia@sciencerhymes.com.au or 0408 069 192
A stingray in the stars, ceremonial ochre painting, calling humpback whales – Sydney, NSW
These are just some of the cutural experiences shared in ‘Sea Country Stories – Yuin Gadu’, offering an experience of being on Country, linking ancient and modern knowledge systems, and inspiring the next generation of Sea Country custodians.
Participate in a Welcome to Country, didgeridoo and ochre painting by Yuin cultural elder Joe Brown McLeod, before the premiere of a short film in which he, together with daughter, Iesha, and granddaughter, Alaynah, share intergenerational stories about the gathering of ceremonial ochre and muriyira whale song.
After the screening at the Australian National Maritime Museum, science commmunicator Laura Wells hosts a panel discussion about whale song, ocean cultures, and Indigenous knowledges of Sea Country as science.
Saturday 3 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/sea-country-stories-launch-event/sydney/
Media enquiries: Alexis Farr, alexis@greenislandcreative.com.au or 0490 064 529.
Bomb bacteria with beanbags at the Broome STEM Festival – Broome, WA
Extract DNA from strawberries, join yarning sessions on First Nation science, and ‘kill’ bacteria with mini beanbags at the second annual Broome STEM Festival.
The festival brings scientists, educators, displays, and activities from the Telethon Kids Institute to WA’s Kimberly region to provide fun, free education sessions for students and community members. The event aims to celebrate and highlight scientists from the local region as well as promote science as a potential career opportunity. The festival will also explore the principles of two-way science, highlighting the rich tradition of Indigenous Australian scientific knowledge.
Wednesday 7 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/broome-festival-of-stem-2/broome
Media enquiries: Caitlin Sweeney, caitlin.sweeney@telethonkids.org.au or 0425 437 605.
Touring medical research scientists available for media interviews. Images and video from last year’s event available.
