Dozens of Science Week stories around Tasmania
- An Aussie astronaut, adult ADHD, de-GOOPing wellness, and 150 roving scientists – Hobart
- Tracking cats, robot cars, drones, fossils, and more at Festival of Bright Ideas – Hobart
- Vaginal vignettes: Sex in the animal kingdom - Hobart
- Ice blasts, penguin eggs, and mobile Antarctic classroom – multiple locations
- Nature’s jewels: The tiny, enchanting world of slime moulds – Westbury
- Where the krill are going, and the whales are following – online
- The art and science of relaxing your nervous system – Kingston, Cygnet, Deloraine & Ulverstone
- Tasmanian wildlife caught on camera – Launceston & Hobart
- Space treasures on tour – multiple locations, West Coast and North West Tasmania
- Can you see the stars? Dark skies versus light pollution
More on these highlights below.
Scientists, experts and event organisers are available for interview throughout National Science Week.
Read on for direct contact details for each event, or contact Tanya Ha – tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0404 083 863.
Visit ScienceWeek.net.au/events to find more stories in your area.
Media centre here. Images for media here.
Tassie launch event today at 11am: hot, cold & polar at Mawson’s Pavilion
National Science Week kicks off at Mawson’s Pavilion with the Minister, Mayor, and scientists. Australia’s gateway to Antarctica will be transformed into a bustling Antarctic outpost as Beaker Street’s ‘Hobartica’.
Launch event with:
- Dr Jess Melbourne-Thomas – marine, Antarctic, and climate change scientist, and Tasmanian National Science Week Patron
- Margo Adler – director of Beaker Street Festival
- Saunas, plunge pools, visual/auditory features from Antarctica, and a music performance.
Where: Mawson Place, Hobart 7000
Media enquiries: Tiana Pirtle, Tiana.Pirtle@utas.edu.au or 0456 826 322.
An Aussie astronaut, adult ADHD, de-GOOPing wellness, and 150 roving scientists – Hobart
- 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.
Tracking cats, robot cars, drones, fossils, and more at Festival of Bright Ideas – Hobart
- Become a Nature Tracker and about Tasmanian threatened species, such as birds of prey, burrowing crayfish, bats and bitterns.
- Meet the microbiologist hunting the bad bugs, the tabby cat tracker, the astrophysicist creating virtual black holes, and other Young Tassie Scientists.
- Tap into 50,000 years of the Palawa Traditional Knowledge.
- ‘Drive’ a Sphero Indi, the cool little robotic cars that react to colours.
- Come face-to-face with Tassie wildlife, both land and marine creatures.
- Go fossil finding or see drones in action.
- Meet the feline friends and ferals from Ten Lives Cat Shelter and find out how to reduce the impact of cats on the environment.
- Connect with makers and tinkerers from Hobart Hackerspace.
These are just some of the speakers, activities and displays at the Festival of Bright Ideas, Tasmania’s largest public STEM event, at Princes Wharf 1 on Hobart’s waterfront.
Friday 16 August: Schools Day. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/festival-of-bright-ideas-3/hobart
Saturday 17 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/festival-of-bright-ideas-4/hobart
Media enquiries: Belinda Brock, Belinda.Brock@utas.edu.au, 0438 616 747
Vaginal vignettes: Sex in the animal kingdom - Hobart
Think the vagina is a simple tube? Think again!
Dr Tiana Pirtle’s Vaginal Vignettes shares the stories of the multi-chambered vaginas and temporary passages, elongated clitorises, pseudo-penises, vaginas that can sort sperm, and armoured vaginal openings that put female animals in the driver’s seat of reproduction and evolution.
From the times of Aristotle and Darwin to today, there has been a stereotype of the male as the active player in sex and the female as the passive recipient of sperm. This stereotype has shaped how science and the wider world view those possessing vaginas. But vaginas are anything but simple receptacles, and female animals are not the passive players they've been made out to be.
It’s time to re-write these stories.
This event is part of Beaker Street Late Night Sessions: hot, mad, and scientific. 18+
Friday 9 to Saturday 10 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/vaginal-vignettes-sex-in-the-animal-kingdom/hobart
Friday 16 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/vaginal-vignettes-sex-in-the-animal-kingdom-2/hobart
Media enquiries: Tiana Pirtle, Tiana.Pirtle@utas.edu.au
Ice blasts, penguin eggs, and mobile Antarctic classroom – multiple locations
Tasmania is the nerve centre for Antarctic scientists, driving Australia’s research activities in the coldest, driest and windiest continent on Earth – also recognised as the world’s most important natural laboratory.
Mawson’s Huts Foundation has converted a bus into a ‘Mobile Antarctic Classroom’, complete with snow tent, to accelerate education about Antarctic and Southern Ocean science, and inspire schoolchildren to become future scientists.
What to expect: play with magnets, replica penguin eggs, and polarising filters; take a #Selfie in the snow tent; and learn about Australia’s Antarctic history, plate tectonics, magnetism, climate, and animals.
Media enquiries: Daryl Peebles, daryl.peebles@bigpond.com or 0418 972 420.
Nature’s jewels: The tiny, enchanting world of slime moulds – Westbury
It isn't an animal, a plant, or a fungus. It has no brain but can learn and teach what it’s learnt to its fellows.
It’s a strange, creeping, feeding giant blob-like cell that produces miniscule fruiting bodies that release spores.
Slime moulds... What are they? What ecological roles do they play? Why do they look so beautiful?
Find out from Sarah Lloyd OAM, who started photographing and collecting slime moulds (myxomycetes) in the tall wet eucalypt forest that surround her home in Northern Tasmania in 2010.
From this site, she discovered an undocumented genus, Tasmaniomyxa umbilicata, and 4 new species.
Sarah shares photographs, micrographs, and numerous specimens she has accumulated over the past 14 years in a week-long exhibition.
Find out more about the different species including Fuligo septica, which is also known as dog’s vomit slime, demon droppings, and caca de luna (moon shit)!
Saturday 10 August – Friday 16 August, with talks on Saturday 10 August and Wednesday 14 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/cryptic-wonders-enchanting-slime-moulds-and-other-hidden-gems/westbury
Media enquiries: Sarah Lloyd, blacksugarloaf@gmail.com or 0474 175 162.
Sarah Lloyd is available for media interviews. Stunning photographs of slime moulds are available for use with this story.
Paige Kelly is available for media interviews.
Tasmanian wildlife caught on camera – Launceston & Hobart
Ever wondered what Tasmanian devils, quolls, wedgies, and barred bandicoots get up to when no one’s watching? Explore the hidden lives of Tasmania's wildlife at the Tasmanian Land Conservancy’s camera trap photo exhibition.
Researchers work in partnership with citizen scientists and local landholders to set up motion sensor camera traps to monitor animals. See the images they captured that show the unseen dramas, quirks, and delights of Tasmanian wildlife. Each photo is accompanied by personal stories from the photographers and scientific insights into the species' behaviours.
Launceston: Friday 16 August – Saturday 17 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/camera-trap-chronicles-a-photo-exhibition-of-tassies-wildlife/invermay
Hobart: Friday 23 August - Saturday 24 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/camera-trap-chronicles-a-photo-exhibition-of-tassies-wildlife/hobart
Media enquiries: Daniel McMahon, events@tasland.org.au or 03 6225 1399.
Scientists available for media interviews. Images available.
The art and science of relaxing your nervous system – Kingston, Cygnet, Deloraine & Ulverstone
What is the nervous system doing when it’s stressed? How can rest be more restful? Dive into the world of nervous system wellness at the Beaker Street Festival with yoga instructor Penny Jones, holistic therapist Harry Edwards, and singer/songwriter Isaac Gee. Learn everyday techniques to promote deep relaxation and understand nervous system health and through storytelling, therapeutic music, breathing exercises, and restorative yoga.
Media enquiries: Penny Jones, Harry Edwards and Isaac Gee available for media interviews
Media contact: Penny Jones, Penelope.Jones@utas.edu.au or 0490 389 415.
Where the krill are going, and the whales are following – online via TAS
Paige Kelly is back from Antarctica where she’s worked out where the wild things are and where they’re going as the oceans warm. She’s an expert in cold-loving krill, and other marine species.
The Southern Ocean is warming three times quicker than any other sea, making it too hot for the shrimp-like krill that whales usually eat, but perfect for other species like the jellyfish-like salps, which are blooming like weeds. Join Paige in this cartoon-based talk to learn about where the wild things are in a warming ocean.
Monday 12 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/species-that-like-it-hot-uctv-alive-for-kids-webinar-with-dr-paige-kelly/
Media enquiries: Tess Crellin, tess.crellin@utas.edu.au or 03 6226 7536.
Space treasures on tour – multiple locations, West Coast and North West Tasmania
Touch a meteorite, aka fallen space rock, and discover the wonders of our night sky using a high-powered telscope.
‘West Coast Space Show’ is hitting the road with a team of scientists, space artefacts and a Planetarium show in tow.
The all-ages tour is the brainchild of science communicators, Mars and Paris Buttfield-Addison, who are working hard to establish a permanent space-focused science outreach venue on the west coast of Tasmania.
Tuesday 13 August to Tuesday 20 August - Multiple locations: https://www.scienceweek.net.au/event/west-coast-space-show-queenstown-2/strahan/
Media enquiries: Paris Buttfield-Addison, hello@westcoastspacecentre.com or 0405 976 956
Why can’t you see the stars? – online
What happened to the night sky? The Milky Way is no longer visible to an estimated third of humanity, including more than half of Australians, thanks to light pollution.
This August, the ABC is exploring the dark sky and the impact of light pollution on science, creatures, and culture. Light pollution in the night sky is a problem for astronomers and stargazers, it confuses the circadian rhythms of some creatures and misguides the navigation of others, impacts Sky Country and Indigenous cultural practices, and contributes to sleep deprivation in humans.
ABC Science will invite people to explore the dark sky, contribute to an Australian National University study of the Milky Way’s visibility, see solutions to light pollution, stargaze with Radio National and guest astronomers, and vote in their poll on ‘the most amazing thing you’ve seen in the night sky.’
Monday 31 July – Friday 16 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/exploring-dark-skies-with-abc/ or www.abc.net.au/nightsky.
Media enquiries: Shelley Thomas, shelley@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0416 377 444.
Scientists available for media interviews.
About National Science Week
National Science Week is Australia’s annual opportunity to meet scientists, discuss hot topics, do science and celebrate its cultural and economic impact on society – from art to astrophysics, chemistry to climate change, and forensics to future food.
First held in 1997, National Science Week has become one of Australia’s largest festivals. Last year about 2.7 million people participated in more than 1,860 events and activities.
The festival is proudly supported by the Australian Government, CSIRO, the Australian Science Teachers Association, and the ABC.
In 2024 it runs from Saturday 10 to Sunday 18 August. Event details can be found at www.scienceweek.net.au.