Blogs

Dr Paul Willis is a respected leader in the science community, and takes up his appointment at RiAus as the next step in an impressive career in science. Dr Willis' early interest in dinosaurs and fossils lead him to Sydney University to study zoology and geology, then on to further studies ... Continue Reading »

James Colley isn't your typical science nerd. More at home in a hoodie than a lab coat, James's show melded a long background in stand-up comedy with a lifelong love of science to create a unique show that had you laughing and perhaps, even accidentally learning. It was ... Continue Reading »

A smorgasbord of factual funniness - with a few surprises thrown in. Australia's finest thinking comedians have joined forces! Simon Pampena rocked you with the power of maths, Nicholas JJohnson detailed the science of scams and Ben McKenzie helped you cope with our vast cosmos. "Who would have thought science and ... Continue Reading »

Two comedians, two distinct acts, 60 minutes. Seaton answered life's great questions in his existentialist romp: 'Where? Why? Where?' - with an extraordinary mix of comedy, theatre, puppetry, storytelling and chilli eating!! Jazz's dissected human conquest and failure, as he looked to the past, projected to the future and told us ... Continue Reading »

An immersive meditative visual and live sonic performance that transport you on a journey into the worlds of fractal patterns and the realms of supernature. Rated GA Read about the science behind Syntony (PDF)

This unique show featured great original rock music and science demonstrations live on stage. Ologism has toured Australia many times with a wide range of musical styles including rock, punk, pop and soul. In that time they have enjoyed air showers, looked for lost bees and revealed the cyber nose. ... Continue Reading »

Three leading women in science will share their secrets to career success at a key industry event in Melbourne this month. Baroness Prof Susan Greenfield CBE, former Australian of the Year Prof Fiona Stanley AC and 2012 Young Australian of the Year Marita Cheng will discuss the challenges and opportunities facing women ... Continue Reading »

Science + rock = Ologism! This unique show featured great original rock music and science demonstrations live on stage. Ologism has toured Australia many times with a wide range of musical styles including rock, punk, pop and soul. In that time they have enjoyed air showers, looked for lost bees and ... Continue Reading »

We found out why music can be good for you. At our Music Lab marquee you could have tested your musical ability on one of our interactive computer programs or have a go at playing one of our instruments. New technology and wearable musical instruments were on show too. We also ... Continue Reading »

Spanish businessman Javier Moll is the owner of the Barcelona-based media company Editorial Prensa Ibérica. His media holdings in Australia include The Adelaide Review and other titles. Mr Moll is the former owner of the heritage-listed Science Exchange (previously the Adelaide Stock Exchange), which is now owned by the South Australian ... Continue Reading »

In celebration of the Great Big Science Read I revisited one of my favourite books, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the science fiction comedy by Douglas Adams. I confess science fiction has never grabbed me as a genre, unless you count enjoying the first couple of ... Continue Reading »

Dr Allie Ford completes our superstar group of scientists. An astrophysicist from Monash University, Allie has spent years peering through telescopes working out the universe. But when it comes to the search for extra-terrestrial life - well even that is a difficult question to answer. While it could be ... Continue Reading »

Look at the person nearest to you. Are they human? Look closely, and check that they are breathing or moving properly. If not, they could be a robot designed to infiltrate human society to learn about us. You could probably start poking pins into them just to be certain, however ... Continue Reading »

Australian Numeracy Ambassador Simon Pampena’s sellout Fringe Show is back by popular demand at The Science Exchange during National Science Week 2012. What’s the secret to fame and fortune? Looks? Talent? Opportunity? Not anymore. In today’s world you need to know MATHS. Read the full media alert - The Fame Algorithm

As part of the Great Big Science Read, prominent Australian scientists told us about their favourite science books. Then you could have voted for the next book club title in our People's Choice poll. The winning book was the best-selling and prize-winning book by Bill Bryson A Short History ... Continue Reading »

Deborah Kelly is a Melbourne-born, Sydney-based artist whose works have been shown in streets, skies and galleries around Australia, in the Singapore and Venice Biennales, and elsewhere. Her award-winning collaborative artwork with Tina Fiveash, Hey, hetero! has been shown in public sites from Sydney to Glasgow, and is taught in ... Continue Reading »

Acrylic and screen print on board. 5.12m x 2.28m x 2.85m Artist's Synopsis This work is an extension of my painting practice. The edge of the canvas is expanded to create an all-encompassing environment. The painting becomes a pattern which is applied to the walls, floor and ceiling. The lighting brings out ... Continue Reading »

Pricking 1.2 Digital/multi media consisting of an interactive multi-touch table (wood) and custom developed design software. Additional credits: Paul Nicholas, Ian Maxwell and Indae Hwang. Artist's Synopsis Louis Kahn famously asked the brick what it wants to become, with the brick responding, ‘an arch’. This project poses the same question to lace. Pricking is ... Continue Reading »

Blue Wall Drawing #1 under construction Image courtesy Anna Schwartz Gallery Artist's Synopsis The work at RiAus is a prototype for whoosh: a wall drawing inspired by sound, motion, wave dynamics and time; a set of instructions that describes how to construct infinite variations of a geometric free-form (gestural) wave, within a defined ... Continue Reading »

Membrane Layer from the Natural Produce Series 2011 Disperse dyes digitally printed on polyester chiffon. 95cm x 210cm. With thanks to Huntech, Upper Hutt and Massey University, Wellington NZ. Artist's Synopsis Digital textile printing technology has not only revolutionized how printed textiles can be produced, it has also engendered an alternative design approach, ... Continue Reading »

Flicker 2010 Generative software program, computer, monitor. Duration 2:20 minutes. Developed in collaboration with Oliver Brown. Artist's Synopsis I work across the disciplines of art and science. I am interested in developing new modes of creative expression through computation, expression that, in the spirit of Gyorgy Kepes, leads to a “deeper and richer ... Continue Reading »

Model for Liquid Geometry 1, 2010 Custom made neon and plastic. 1.3 x 1.2 x 0.6m. Courtesy of the artist and Fehily Contemporary. Artist's Synopsis Model For Liquid Geometry 1 and 2 show my exploration of geometry and mathematics. The pieces embody the contradictions of nature versus culture, and the mathematical versus a ... Continue Reading »

Armed Space with Ornament 2012 Fluoro acrylic on wall 2.7m x 3m. With assistance from Julie Walker. Artist's Synopsis In this wall painting I play with fictive space, optical experience, intricacy and excess. The regularities of geometry and symmetry can mysteriously give rise to spatial and visual disorientation. I aim to create a zone ... Continue Reading »

Plotting Glitches, 2011-2012 Digital screen program. Additional credits: Todd Margolis, Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA). Acknowledgements: Lev Manovich and Jeremy Douglass, Software Studies Initiative, UCSD. Artist's Synopsis Computer glitches are the completely random, unpredictable and unexpected failures of digital systems. They are the result of approximated values and computational ... Continue Reading »

Kinetic Painting: real-time software application. Additional Credits: Copyright © Paul Brown 2012, all rights reserved. Acknowledgements: Made using Processing™ processing.org Artist's Synopsis Dragon continues my interest in artworks that use simple systems to construct themselves and it is a product my ongoing concern with the systematic creation and exploration of ... Continue Reading »

In anticipation of his May visit, we screened Dr Randy Olson’s clever and humorous documentary. Flock of dodos asks the question “who are the real dodos?” Is it the scientists who fail to communicate evolutionary arguments? Maybe it’s the advocates of intelligent design? Or is it all the people who ... Continue Reading »

The cast of Emily Steel’s latest play, Sepia, took some time to talk to us about their motivation to take part in the production. Let me introduce them first. Nescha Jelk is the director, and the play features three actors: Matthew Gregan, Holly Myers and Rory Walker. My first question ... Continue Reading »

The worldwide phenomenon Doctor Who has long been a television staple. With a mixture of drama, horror, comedy and sci-fi, the show caters for everyone. But just how much science is in science fiction? To find out, we brought together a group of experts and forced them to sit through countless ... Continue Reading »

Over the next week, RiAus is offering us up a couple of cinematic treats, with their 2011 jaunt through the best science films of the year.  Reading about what's on this Wednesday, 17 August already has set my mind sparking.  And isn’t that what it’s all ... Continue Reading »

St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences professor Laura J. Snyder’s book The Philosophical Breakfast Club was just voted the most popular science book in a poll taken by the Royal Institution of Australia.  The original list of 100 included not just classic science books like Darwin's Origin of ... Continue Reading »

Understanding what brings rain to south-eastern Australia can be a headache for farmers, but help is at hand. The "climate dogs" are trusty cartoon characters with catchy names—Enso, Ridgy, Sam and Indy. They were designed with Victorian farmers in mind to help explain complex weather systems but are equally relevant to South ... Continue Reading »

Sydney production company Essential Media and Entertainment has won Best Television Series at this year’s international Scinema Awards – a festival celebrating Science through film. The documentary series – Voyage to the Planets – shows the solar system as a kind of travellers guide to the universe, and was described ... Continue Reading »

A tale of friendship set in Victorian Cambridge has been voted Australia's most popular science book. The RiAus poll gives top billing to The Philosophical Breakfast Club: Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World by Laura J. Snyder. At No. 2 is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by ... Continue Reading »

Australian filmmakers have taken out more than half of the awards at the 2011 SCINEMA Festival of Science Film Competition ahead of more than 30 countries. Australian documentary series, Voyage of the Planets, which set out to offer the viewer a ringside seat to the splendors of the Solar System and ... Continue Reading »

Australian filmmakers have taken out top awards in the 2011 SCINEMA Festival of Science Film Competition. Festival Director, Cris Kennedy, said SCINEMA promotes links between science and the arts through film. View full media release: Aussie filmmakers bring home 2011 SCINEMA awards (3 August 2011) Visit the SCINEMA screening event ... Continue Reading »

Sarah: Last night I dreamt of gold latex and silk. I dreamt of cuttlefish.  I dreamt of whales. View full article from Bridge8: Last night, I dreamt of gold latex and silk (3 August 2011)

Australia’s most popular science book has been revealed. The most-loved title is The Philosophical Breakfast Club: Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World by Laura J. Snyder. View full media release: Australia's favourite book science book announced (3 August 2011)

In the lead up to her appearance at the RiAus event, Great Big Science Read: A sea of words, Kim Michelle Toft took the time to answer some questions for us. How and why did you start painting? I started drawing at the age of four, my inspiration ... Continue Reading »

Kim Toft is visiting South Australia to present workshops in a number of primary schools and will speak at a free public event at Walkerville Town Hall, sharing with parents how they can encourage an interest in science in their families. View full media release: A sea of words with ... Continue Reading »

For an avid reader, is there a harder question than this?  Yes. I could ask you "What's your favourite book?" My nephew asked me that question some time ago and I’m still not sure I have an answer for him.  It’s something that changes over time. Telling you my favourite science book ... Continue Reading »

Last weekend was my first experience as a judge on the SCINEMA science film-making competition. I’m always uncomfortable in the position of a judge on any competition because invariably you are making choices between several high-quality entrants based on almost trivial differences between them. And this years’ SCINEMA ... Continue Reading »

Peter McLeish is a Canadian born international multi-media artist/filmmaker with a Masters Fine Arts degree. Peter received over twenty various types of grants and support from different branches of the Canadian and Quebec Governments between 1991-2010. Since the late 1990s, Peter has been developing multimedia projects, films and research on science based themes. These ... Continue Reading »

As the head of Specialist Factual at ScreenWorld in 2009 and then Beyond Screen Production Pty Ltd in 2010, Mark Hamlyn has overseen a diverse range of factual/documentary productions.  This has included the three-part docudrama Darwin’s Brave New World a ScreenWorld/Ferns international co-production, the 3 part Logie winning documentary series ... Continue Reading »

The University of Melbourne’s Festival of Ideas is heading to Swan Hill next Thursday evening, with scientific experts discussing the latest in genetically modified crops, new medical treatments and cloning. The seminar gives the public the chance to put their questions to the scientists in a Q&A style panel discussion. View full ... Continue Reading »

Corangamite Shire residents will be treated to a film festival in the coming weeks. RiAus programs co-ordinator Kiran Shettigara said three science films will be screened for free over two days at the Theatre Royal in Camperdown. View full article from Cobden Times: Science on show (22 June 2011)

Originally from Toowoomba in country Queensland, Mark Horstman studied zoology, geography, geology, and marine biology for a science degree at James Cook University in tropical Townsville. This led to work with scientists and Aboriginal communities 'looking after country' across northern Australia, with groups as diverse as the Cape York Land ... Continue Reading »

Corangamite Shire will experience a festival of film with an upcoming Free Range Science event. RiAus Programs Co-ordinator Kiran Shettigara said three science films will be screened for free over two days at the Theatre Royal in Camperdown. “RiAus Free Range Science brings science out of laboratories and into towns in country ... Continue Reading »

Scientists have long been renown for their grasp of facts and figures, but not always their way with words - but a nationwide poetry jam is promising to change that, with a little help from the ancient Japanese art of the haiku. The Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus) has teamed up ... Continue Reading »

Dr Markus Schmidt has an educational background in electronic engineering, biology and environmental risk assessment. For almost 10 years now he has carried out environmental risk assessment, safety and public perception studies in a number of science and technology fields (GM crops, gene therapy, nanotechnology, converging technologies, and ... Continue Reading »

Painter Robert Habel and filmmaker Cole Larsen enmeshed themselves in established and emerging industrial landscapes including the ‘alternative’ energy landscape - solar and wind farms, geothermal, biomass and tidal energy. This collaboration uncovered an aesthetic appeal while delving into the debate surrounding the environment and our ... Continue Reading »