- Please touch the dinosaurs: museum accessibility for visually impaired kids – Brisbane
- Should we 3D print pills? – Brisbane
- ‘We’re All Aliens, Baby’: science songs and astrophysicists at a live Planetarium concert – Brisbane
- What the froth? Raise a glass to innovation and discovery at ‘Science in the Brewery’ – Gladstone
- Play with rocket scientists – Springfield Central & Toowoomba
- When ‘bad’ fungi attacks: is there a doctor in the forest? – Julatten
- How will quantum reshape Queensland? – Fortitude Valley
- The Sound of Symmetry: exploring the interplay between maths and music – Cloncurry & Brisbane
- Are robots rolling onto farms? – Royal Queensland Show, Brisbane
- 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.
Queensland launch event today in Cloncurry, the Outback’s ‘friendly heart’
National Science Week kicks off at 10am, when Cloncurry Community Precinct transforms into a buzzing STEM Fair, packed with experiments, talks and activities. Everything from VR stations to building solar-powered lights, the relationship between maths and music, frog calls, and underground drones. Cloncurry Shire Council is hosting the event (10am – 2pm) in collaboration with Inspiring Queensland Australia.
Launch event with:
- Dr Anita Milroy, Senior Project Manager, Inspiring Australia Queensland.
- Mitakoodi elder Ronald ‘Hombre’ Major performs Welcome to Country.
- Philip Keirle, CEO of Cloncurry Shire Council.
- Professor Rick Valenta, Director of The University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute.
- Bulugudu Ltd Director and UQ Adjunct Associate Professor Colin Saltmere AM, an Indjalandji-Dhidhanu elder involved in spin out company, Trioda Wilingi.
Where: 37 Scarr Street, Cloncurry
Media enquiries: Melissa Doyle, melissa.doyle@cloncurry.qld.gov.au or 0428 552 158 and Kelly-Jo Litchfield, kellyjo.litchfield@cloncurry.qld.gov.au or 0428 453 759.
Please touch the dinosaurs: Queensland Museum exhibition supersizes accessibility for visually impaired kids – Brisbane
Queensland’s own ‘velociraptor’, Australovenator wintonensis – a fiersome carnivore with serrated teeth and 30cm long claws – features in a sensory adventure for young Vision Australia members (aged six to 12).
Queensland Museum Palaeontologist, Dr Scott Hocknull, who discovered the dinosaur, nicknamed ‘Banjo’, will lead an accessible, behind-the-scenes tour of Dinosaurs Unearthed; a permanent exhibition containing more than 50 life-size reconstructions of Queensland’s prehistoric species and 100+ fossils and meteorites.
‘Touch, Feel and Imagine the World of Dinosaurs’ is the brainchild of the Vision Australia Library team, with the tactile experience enhanced with a ‘sensation soundscape’.
Saturday 10 August: https://www.scienceweek.net.au/event/touch-feel-and-imagine-the-world-of-dinosaurs/south-brisbane/
Media enquiries for Vision Australia: Phil McCarroll, phil.mccarroll@visionaustralia.org or 0416 632 253.
Media enquiries for Queensland Museum and Dr Scott Hucknull: Christine Robertson, christine.robertson@qm.qld.gov.au or 0417 741 710.
Design and 3D print pills: ask a pharmacist how and why – Woolloongabba
Ask pharmacist and 3D printing researcher Dr Jared Miles why 3D printed pharmaceuticals should be brought to the clinic. And design and print your own tablets.
Customisable colour, flavour, texture, and even braille or symbols play an important role in medication usage. For example, polypills with multiple active ingredients could reduce the mix-ups that often occur when people take several different drugs daily.
Following a talk from Jared, participants will take part in a workshop demonstration of 3D printing tablets facilitated by University of Queensland researchers, with the opportunity to design and print their own.
Friday 16 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/from-pixels-to-pills-why-we-should-be-3d-printing-medicines/woolloongabba/
Media enquiries: Liam Krueger, l.krueger@uq.edu.au
Scientists available for media interviews.
‘We’re All Aliens, Baby’: science songs and astrophysicists at a live Planetarium concert - Toowong
Award-wining songwriter and science communicator Nathan Eggins (aka Conspiracy of One) is bringing his signature sciencey music back to the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium, with a couple of University of Queensland astro-experts in tow.
Nathan’s pop-rock-funk music explores scientific and psychological concepts while highlighting and satirising many forms of pseudoscience, misinformation, and cognitive biases.
Nathan and his band will share songs from his debut album ‘Road to Reason’, along with fan favourite science songs like ‘We're All Aliens, Baby’ and ‘The Sound a Duck Makes’, set against the backdrop of the starscapes of the Skydome.
Participants will also hear from dark energy expert Tamara Davis and extrasolar planets researcher Benjamin Pope and enjoy free popcorn and ‘homeopathic cocktails’.
Saturday 17 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/planetarium-concert-live-music-in-the-skydome-2/toowong
Media enquiries: Nathan Eggins, nathan@sentientproductions.com.au or 0402 593 431.
Pint-sized wonders – Gladstone
What the froth? Raise a glass to innovation and discovery at ‘Science in the Brewery’, co-hosted by Inspiring Australia Gladstone STEM Hub Network and Ward's Brewery.
Whether you're a scientist, beer aficionado or simply curious about hop chemistry, quench your thirst for knowledge, while enjoying a cold one, at the intersection of science and brewing.
Thursday 15 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/science-in-the-brewery-3/gladstone-central
Media enquiries: Jocelyn Sticklen, j.sticklen@cqu.edu.au or 07 4150 7142
Play with rocket scientists – Springfield Central & Toowoomba
Water rockets, lightning talks and solar telescopes feature in a ‘Space Family Fun Day’ with iLAuNCH Trailblazer, a national space commercialisation hub headquartered at the University of Southern Queensland’s Toowoomba campus.
The Innovative Launch, Automation, Novel Materials, Communications and Hypersonics (iLAuNCH) Trailblazer is a $180-million, four-year program invested in space industry research, commercialisation and manufacturing. University of Southern Queensland leads the program in collaboration with the Australian National University, the University of South Australia, and 20+ industry partners.
Meet the rocket scientists and tech brains, including iLAuNCH Chief Technologist Officer, Dr Joni Sytsma, working to fast-track a space manufacturing sector that will create the spacecraft and systems needed to push the boundaries of interstellar journeys, Moon-to-Mars exploration, and space sustainability.
Saturday 10 August (Springfield): www.scienceweek.net.au/event/space-family-fun-day/springfield-central
Saturday 17 August (Toowoomba): www.scienceweek.net.au/event/space-family-fun-day-toowoomba-qld-2/toowoomba
Media enquiries: Kavanna Trewavas, kavanna.trewavas@unisq.edu.au or 0475 915 557
How will quantum reshape Queensland? – Fortitude Valley
Quantum technologies could reshape our industries. But how much do we really know about it? And are we truly ‘quantum ready’?
Researchers, industry professionals, investors, and government representatives will get together for a one-day symposium to explore the opportunities in Queensland's growing technology scene.
Hosted by the Queensland Government, with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems.
Tuesday 13 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/qx-queensland-advanced-technologies-future/fortitude-valley
Media enquiries: Kim Wood, kim.wood@des.qld.gov.au
When ‘bad’ fungi attacks: is there a doctor in the forest? – Julatten
Fungi are important to life on Earth, but some species can wreak havoc, attacking trees, crops and plants around the world.
Join ‘Forest Doctors’ scouting for sick trees impacted by pathogenic fungi.
Learn how to identify and collect specimens based on signs and symptoms of disease; isolate a pathogenic fungi from a living sample, and observe it under a microscope.
Did you know? Fungi are in a ‘kingdom’ of their own, being neither plants or animals.
Friday 16 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/forest-doctors/julatten/
Media enquiries: Athina Koutouleas, branch.bounty@proton.me or 0487 000 671.
The Sound of Symmetry: lecture/concerts exploring the interplay between maths and music – Cloncurry& Brisbane
Discover the sound of symmetry at joint lecture-concerts in Brisbane and regional Queensland. These events will introduce audiences to various types of symmetry that are central to maths and physics through music, with composer Rob Davidson, mathematician Artem Pulemotov, musicologist Denis Collins, and the award-winning Brisbane ensemble Topology.
Artem will introduce audiences to the scientific ideas involved, and musicologist Denis Collins will explain how these ideas find expression in sound.
Saturday 10 August (Cloncurry): www.scienceweek.net.au/event/the-sound-of-symmetry/cloncurry/
Sunday 25 August (Brisbane). Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/the-sound-of-symmetry-2/st-lucia
Media enquiries: Artem Pulemotov, a.pulemotov@uq.edu.au
Are robots rolling onto farms – Royal Queensland Show, Brisbane
Find out on the ‘Ekka Learning Trail’. Wellies optional.
The self-guided tour showcases Australian Curriculum linked educational activities for children of all ages, including a focus on AgTech and the science behind food and fibres; biological diversity; natural selection; adaptations; and evolution.
On the trail, meet the AgTech wizards of the future, aka winners of the Ekka's Greenhouse Innovator Competition for schools. Tasked with the challenge of optimising food production, students used robotics while collecting and analysing data from plant growth experiments on their own classroom lettuce farms.
Saturday 10 - Sunday 18 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/royal-queensland-show-ekka/bowen-hills
Media enquiries: Veronica Carew, vcarew@rna.org.au or 0408 323 631
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: https://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.
Contact details:
Direct contact details for each event are in the media release, or contact Tanya Ha on tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0404 083 863.
