Blogs

Life 2.0 explores how our notions of nature and technology may need to change in an era in which we design hybrid and synthetic life forms and can rebuild nature from the ground up. The new breed of UK designers – Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, James King, the 2009 Cambridge iGEM ... Continue Reading »

This event provided a forum for those keen to learn about synthetic biology and share their views. ABC Radio National’s Alan Saunders hosted this special interactive event as participants discussed their thoughts on this emerging science policy issue, as part of a genuine university research project. Local and international researchers ... Continue Reading »

Life is just a chaotic series of events without purpose or meaning... unless you are a mathematician. Then everything makes sense! Simon Pampena is a stand-up mathematician who, like Steven Bradbury, knows the truth behind dumb luck. "... hilarious, a riot from beginning to end." -- The Advertiser Restricted 18+ View ... Continue Reading »

Dante's Laboratory followed Dante's path through Hell, with a scientific perspective and an entertaining twist. Chris KP (Pre-Coital, Somnium) gave us a cabaret exploring behaviour, morality and the secrets of sin -- with reference to evolutionary biology, genetics and psychology. Dante's Laboratory asked the big questions and did it ... Continue Reading »

Daniel Keogh (ABC TV's Hungry Beast) presented a science comedy show that looked at what makes people act like idiots. A unique mix of stand-up, animation, experiment and film, The Stupid Species showed us why everyone thinks they're above average, and why they're incredibly wrong. Adults: $10 Concession: $8 Restricted 18+ View media ... Continue Reading »

A man is perched on a bicycle with a birdcage on his head. An alarm clock rings. A bird sings. A mousetrap triggers a rickety contraption... A hammer swings, a tray flies out and four eggs drop into four glasses. Cause and effect, logical yet unbelievable, fascinating but pointless... Reviews: ... Continue Reading »

Welcome to Woomera. It has a rocket park in the centre of town. It has a military test range the size of England. And now it has you. This new play explored the characters' relationships to the scientific heritage of this unusual and remote town. It explored what it means to ... Continue Reading »

Former psychology student turned award-winning entertainer, Simon Taylor attempted to solve the puzzles of the mind. He knew what we were thinking -- and made us laugh out loud as he told us. In his unique show, Pieces of Mind, Simon taught us how to trick ourselves into feeling ... Continue Reading »

Anger has long been viewed as a dangerous emotion. In its extreme form, it can cause a range of medical and social problems. People who are angry have strong physical responses and their highly charged emotional state can cause them to make uncharacteristic decisions, and easily become aggressive. Why is ... Continue Reading »

Catalyst was screened from 7:30pm at the Science Exchange, and followed by an expert panel comprising Peter Langridge, Hugh Possingham, Dana Cordell and Mike Young, and hosted by Mark Horstman. The discussion covered issues raised in the program. View ... Continue Reading »

Envy and desire are strong emotions that influence our product choice, and can be harnessed in marketing campaigns. Scientific advances in the areas of neuroscience and psychology have the power to revolutionise the marketing industry. Neuromarketing is a relatively new area that uses neuroscientific techniques to study consumer's responses to ... Continue Reading »

The world of Sir William Henry Bragg and his son, Sir William Lawrence Bragg was made available for discovery with this guided tour of their Adelaide lives. The Bragg men are two of Adelaide's most prestigious scientists, with their discoveries leading to the award ... Continue Reading »

Continuing our examination of the science of the Seven Deadly Sins, our March Book Club selection covered Sloth -- with Philip K Dick's 1968 novel Do androids dream of electric sheep?, (the book on which the film Blade Runner was based). In a post-apocalyptic world where massive species extinctions have occurred, ... Continue Reading »

Chocolate. Doesn’t everyone love it? More than just satisfying a "sweet tooth", there’s something special about chocolate that brings out the passionate foodie in many of us. In this two part event we examined firstly what is it about chocolate that makes it so desirable, with Haigh's chief ... Continue Reading »

We started the new year with some short adventures in science fiction. The RiAus Book Club met to discuss and unravel the questions thrown up by some classic short stories: Nightfall by Isaac Asimov (1941): the story of the sudden coming of darkness to a world which never experiences sunset. ... Continue Reading »

Psychopaths… they’ll charm you, manipulate you, then ruin your life. But not all of them with a gun or a knife. In this extra-ordinary documentary, suspected corporate psychopath Sam Vaknin goes in search of a diagnosis…was he born without a conscience? The tables are turned when film-maker Ian Walker becomes a ... Continue Reading »

Do you dare to delve into the science of attraction? On Valentine’s Day we investigated with the RiAus what men and women really desire. When it comes to meeting new people, can you judge a book by its cover? Can a man’s face predict his likely parenting skills? Thanks to your ... Continue Reading »

RiAus hosted a wide-ranging discussion with Lynette Wallworth (ReKindling Venus: In Plain Sight), Douglas Trumbull (2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner), Tim Baier (creator of 3D movie Standing in Amazement) and Dr Chris Fluke (Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing) exploring how ... Continue Reading »

December's choice saw us embrace the near future. Astronaut Sam Bell is living on the far side of the moon, completing a three-year contract with Lunar Industries to mine Earth's primary source of energy, Helium-3. It is a lonely job, made harder by a broken satellite that allows no live ... Continue Reading »

In 1951, a young black American woman died of cancer. Her death changed the history of medicine. Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer whose cancer cells -- taken without her knowledge -- became one of the most ... Continue Reading »

In October 2010, the RiAus marked its first year of celebrating science, and everyone was invited to the party! As part of our month-long celebrations, we had an open-house evening showcasing the highlights of our programs from the last 12 months. We brought back crowd favourites such as the ... Continue Reading »

Presented by Professor Fiona Wood Traumatic injuries such as burns can have far-reaching effects. The path to recovery can be long and arduous, but medical research is working on ways to improve the journey. Computer modelling to determine the extent of damage to tissues; bioinformatics revealing the complex circuits ... Continue Reading »

Is the heart just a muscle for pumping blood, or is it something more? Aristotle thought that the mind resided at the heart. So do Tibetan Buddhists. Increasingly, scientific evidence suggests there is a special relationship between the heart and the brain. But what does this mean for real life? ... Continue Reading »

Why does an editor employ specialist reporters? What benefits do they bring to the paper? Do specialist reporters give a media outlet additional credibility? And how effectively do media outlets cover science without reporters with a science background? [wpaudio url="http://riaus.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/ASCSA-Nov-2010-science-in-the-media-an-editors-perspective.mp3" text="Podcast from ASCSA monthly: Science in the media, and ... Continue Reading »

The new ways science is finding to battle the mysterious and long-ignored behaviour of self-injury, which affects over 200,000 Australians each month. The Silent Epidemic explores this dark and often secret behaviour, asking why more and more people are turning to self-injury as a way to cope with life. Interweaving their ... Continue Reading »

Humanity has always been fascinated by the idea of immortality. Over the ages many have tried to find the secrets of eternal youth and evade the natural ravages of time. Now, thanks to the science of Nobel Prize winning Australian Elizabeth Blackburn, we finally have an ... Continue Reading »

In 1961 Michael Alpers, a young medical researcher from Adelaide, put up his hand to work on a new and strange disease in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea that seems to target women and children. The local people, the Fore, term the disease kuru; their word ... Continue Reading »

How do we know that our science engagement programs and activities are making a difference? Do we have the impact we desire? Are we reaching the right audiences? How do we evaluate what we're doing? We invited several people from community engagement/education programs, including science shows, museums and ... Continue Reading »

How do science communicators break down and report complex results in digestible form without getting the story wrong? How does a scientist approach an interview that concerns risk, knowing the public may use that information to inform their choices? And how do we deal with dissident voices? ... Continue Reading »

The early origins of a life of obesity Women who enter pregnancy overweight or obese are at greater risk of developing diabetes in pregnancy. They are also at greater risk of having a large baby, who, in turn, may have an increased risk of developing obesity in later life. This lecture ... Continue Reading »

Devil Facial Tumour Disease, or DFTD, first reported in 1996, is a transmissible cancer that only affects Tasmanian Devils. It is characterised by large tumours, mostly on the face and mouth, which often spread to internal organs. Our guest speakers, who form part of an international team of ... Continue Reading »

Since time immemorial, humans have tried to achieve immortality. In ancient times, this involved using religious and cultural rituals as a means of ascending to other planes of existence. More recently some  have turned to science to find a way to stop the body's clock. In association with the ... Continue Reading »

Medical simulation is becoming accepted as a tool for enhancing medical training and the marketing of new medical devices. This symposium showcased advances in medical simulation in South Australia and discussed the implications for skilling our medical professionals.

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Artists and scientists approach creativity, exploration and research in different ways and from different perspectives, leading to new experiences and interpretations of the world. In this event we heard from the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT)'s Vicki Sowry about its Art Science ... Continue Reading »

What does it mean to die? How do humans define death, life and consciousness? Is it possible that people resuscitated from 'clinical death' really experienced death, or might they have gone through something else? Has modern medical technology complicated the boundaries of mortality? And what might be the legal ramifications ... Continue Reading »

RiAus celebrated Pi Day on 22 July 2010. National Numeracy Ambassador Simon Pampena introduced this amazing and useful number to a group of school students -- who in turn amazed with their ability to recall up to 25 digits of pi!  In the evening, Simon presented Darren Aronofsky's cult film ... Continue Reading »

Simulation for training purposes is a vitally important means of reducing errors, ensuring competency, refining responses to public emergencies and reducing costs. Medical schools now use the lessons learned from simulations in commercial aviation and the military to improve healthcare. Will these new techniques enhance the treatment administered by ... Continue Reading »

The Uncanny Valley was a group exhibition, curated by Lynne Sanderson, that featured in the Science Exchange's Future Space and Thinking Space from June 4 to July 23, 2010. Exhibits explored the aesthetics of the misrepresentation of the human body and its emotional impact on humans. In ... Continue Reading »

Can sustainable housing help turn our large cities from environmental disasters into dynamic eco-cities able to shelter large human populations with minimal environmental impact? A panel of experts joined eco-city pioneer Dr Paul Downton to present their visions of what a city could, and should, be. Is it possible ... Continue Reading »

Analysing how anatomical structures correlate with function has fascinated humans for millennia. How do we represent what we know about the human body? How do we find out what's going on 'in there?' And how do we communicate and record these important discoveries? Professor Ian ... Continue Reading »

Augmented reality, or AR, is a technology that inserts digital information and graphics over what you can see in the real world. It is used in a variety of fields, from art to industry, gaming and landscape gardening. The technology can be as large as a warehouse or as small as ... Continue Reading »

National Science Week 2010 was launched by Professor Gavin Brown, Director of RiAus, at the Science Exchange in Adelaide, in the presence of the Minister for Science and Information Economy, the Honourable Jack Snelling. Simon France from the Federal Government also explained what the Inspiring Australia report means ... Continue Reading »

Aimed at stimulating student interest in dynamic and proactive careers, the Serious Games Training & Employment Expo brought together the expertise, innovation and know-how of a wide range of organisations to create training and employment opportunities for the benefit of South Australia's innovative, creative, enthusiastic and highly talented young people. View ... Continue Reading »

The science-arts interface is a fertile space where researchers and artists of all sorts challenge the divide. This event, hosted by COSMOS editor Wilson da Silva, celebrated science and the written and spoken word with readings from diverse wordsmiths showcasing some of the wonderful work going on 'where worlds collide'. Winners ... Continue Reading »

Computer games are reaching a larger audience than ever before and gamers constitute a significant segment of society. Some of the most popular games are military combat simulations such as America's Army, but there are also more serious games that tackle problems across medicine, business, education and industry. This event ... Continue Reading »

Laboratory or kitchen? Chef or scientist? Nutrition scientist Dr Russell Keast and Culinetic chefs introduce the wonders of scientific cuisine in a presentation incorporating chemistry and food. Watch the video from this event http://vimeo.com/11703740 View photos from this event In association with Culinetic, Flavour SA and ... Continue Reading »

Is the modern male evolution's greatest mistake? Anthropologist and author Peter McAllister claims today's man isn't a patch on what he once was; that despite his huge brain, the modern bloke fails to measure up physically, creatively and emotionally with men of the distant past. Discover why ancient men were smarter and ... Continue Reading »

The World Health Organisation issued their first report on swine flu on April 24, 2009. By July 2009, the South Australia-based biotech company Vaxine had started a clinical trial of the world's first recombinant H1N1/2009 (swine flu) vaccine. Vaxine's research director, Nikolai Petrovsky, took ... Continue Reading »

April marked the 50th anniversary of SETI, or the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. So what do we know today? Is there life in the cosmos, waiting to be found? Or is Earth the only site of life as we know it? And if life exists elsewhere, what ... Continue Reading »

Professor Marina Wallace, director of Artakt at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, talks about curating the exhibition "Spectacular Bodies: The art and science of the human body, from Leonardo to now". Illuminating, at times disturbing, the exhibition uncovered a new way ... Continue Reading »