Fire weather; seed-planting farmbots; Songlines; Southern lights; DNA music at the Opera House

Tuesday 12 August

Highlights from day 4 of National Science Week

Researchers, experts, and other interesting talent available for interview around the country.

NSW: Why bushfire season is now year-round, with the Canadian author of Fire Weather and a UNSW Canberra expert

ACT: AI agronomists, seed-planting farmbots and pest-detecting drones: how will farmers use AI to boost sustainability and profit? Find out at Canberra’s Shine Dome

NSW: What does DNA sound like? 80s pop drummer (ex The Hummingbirds) turned molecular biologist reveals all at the Sydney Opera House

TAS: Beaker Street Festival kicks off today with an Antarctic outpost on Hobart’s waterfront and the Southern Nights aurora photograph exhibition

QLD: Eco-acoustics, thermal imaging, drones, AI and more: why citizen scientists need upskilling – Gold Coast 

NT: TAFE course for kids to build and program weather stations in Palmerston City

NATIONAL: Kids’ Conference Antarctica taps into climate change 

WA: Find out about quantum computing from an expert – Perth

WA: Physicists’ road trip stops to share dark matter in Kalgoorlie

VIC: Burning lessons from County: virtual ‘fire lab’ tour with Melbourne researchers – online via Melbourne

VIC: Is psychology a science, art, pseudoscience or potato? Experts and comedians debate ‘Psychology is a Freud’ at Melbourne’s Sci Fight

NSW: Planetarium show tells stories of Indigenous science, Songlines and stars in Wollongong.

Read on for direct contact details for each event, or contact Tanya Ha, [email protected] or 0404 083 863; and Shelley Thomas, [email protected] or 0416 377 444.

Also today:

• SA: Explore time, memory and mortality: FOREVER exhibition at University of South Australia’s Museum of Discovery and Phantastic Physics with Nitro Nat
• National (online event): Meet deep sea engineer Tim Macdonald who travelled to the deepest part of the ocean in a submarine he helped build! He chats live from a research trip in the Arctic Circle. 

Coming up tomorrow:

Parenting tips from quokkas; future pharma; AgScience at Ekka’s People’s Day; and ocean pollution detectives – see a preview of Wednesday’s highlights.

National Science Week 2025 runs from 9 to 17 August.

Visit ScienceWeek.net.au/events to find more stories in your area.

Media centre here. Images for media here. Radio news grabs available here.

Fire weather, a year-round reality – Kensington, NSW

‘Bushfire season’ is now a year-round reality – and not just in Australia.

In the aftermath of the hottest decade on record, Australia’s extreme bushfire behaviour expert and mathematical scientist Professor Jason Sharples (UNSW Canberra) unpacks the future in conversation with John Vaillant, award-winning Canadian author of Fire Weather.

Tuesday 12 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/john-vaillant-fire-weather/kensington

Media enquiries: Alison Sobel, [email protected] or 0404 902 729 and Ione Davis, [email protected].

Professor Jason Sharples is an authority in dynamic bushfire behaviour and extreme bushfire development. He was an expert advisor and witness to the NSW Independent Bushfire Inquiry following the 2019-20 Black Summer fires, with the resulting recommendations framed by his research.

John Vaillant is a bestselling author and freelance writer. In Fire Weather he recounts the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire in Alberta. The book won Britain's Baillie Gifford Prize, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the US National Book Award and was named one of the ten best books of 2023 by The New York Times.

Burning lessons from Country – online via Melbourne, VIC

Take a virtual tour of University of Melbourne’s fire lab and meet two researchers studying wildfires and learning from Indigenous fire management practices:

• Dharug woman, Maddison Miller, who explores ways of bringing non-Indigenous and Indigenous sciences together.
• Trent Penman, a bushfire risk modeller.

Tuesday 12 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/burning-lessons-from-country-ancient-and-new-understanding-of-bushfires-2/

Media enquiries: [email protected] or (03) 8344 4123.

Can AI cultivate sustainable farming? – Acton, ACT

How will farmers use AI to boost sustainability and profit? 

AI agronomists, seed-planting farmbots, pest-detecting drones, and robotic noses geared for evaluating wine and beer could be part of the answer.

Researchers are busy cultivating its use to selectively control weeds (saving on herbicide); figure out the perfect time to water crops; and identify grapes damaged by bushfire smoke.

Meet the experts when the Australian Academy of Science hosts ‘AI in Food’ at Canberra’s Shine Dome (as part of its series of talks on ‘AI in Science: the promise, perils and path forward’), featuring:

• CSIRO’s Dr Sarah Hartman who is using deep learning to develop an AI agronomist that works for and with farmers.
• University of Melbourne’s Associate Professor Sigfredo Fuentes, who uses high-tech digital instruments for agriculture, food and wine, alongside his role as investigator at the Plants for Space ARC Centre of Excellence.

Tuesday 12 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/ai-in-science-the-promise-perils-and-path-forward-ai-and-our-food/acton/

Media enquiries: Dan Wheelahan, [email protected] or (02) 6201 9444.

Dr Sarah Hartman and Associate Professor Sigfredo Fuentes are available for media interviews.

What does DNA sound like? – Sydney, NSW

Join 80s pop drummer-turned-molecular biology scientist, Dr Mark Temple, for a live performance at the Opera House. 

The Hummingbirds ex-drummer, now based at Western Sydney University, shares a novel perspective on genetic information, including music created from eucalyptus and myrtle rust DNA. 

Dr Temple is available for media interviews. Before completing his PhD in molecular biology, he was a professional musician/drummer in Australian indie-rock group, The Hummingbirds. In 2020, he created Coronacode Music. The composition substitutes regions of the coronavirus genome with computer-generated musical notes. And, in 2017, he published a study in BMC Bioinformatics on how audio can be used to distinguish a gene sequence from repetitive DNA: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-017-1632-x

Live visuals of DNA sequences will be projected in sync with the music.

Tuesday 12 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/synthetic-compositions-music-made-from-artificial-dna-sequences/sydney

Media enquiries: Dr Mark Temple, [email protected] or 0412 600 712.

Southern lights, science of better sex, and death over drinks – Hobart, TAS

Beaker Street Festival is back. Pull up a seat where microscopes sit on bar tables, scientists take centre stage and boundary-pushing conversations – from death to pleasure – could change the world. 

Centred around Hobart’s Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) and nearby venues, the week-long festival features talks and workshops; interactive science/art installations; photography exhibitions; live music and performance; and Tassie food and drink.

From today:

• Hobartica: an Antarctic outpost on Hobart’s waterfront.
• Southern Nights: The science and beauty of Aurora Australis photography exhibition.

Other upcoming highlights include:

• Come Again? An Evening of Sex and Science: sultry scientists and pleasure experts provide insights into the science of better sex, complete with ‘a giant clitoris puppet and peer-reviewed innuendo’.
• No One’s Getting Out of Here Alive: a surprisingly uplifting evening with some of Australia's most buoyant death and dying experts, Tasmanian Aboriginal knowledge holders, and special guests.

Multiple dates and locations.

Media enquiries: Matt Fraser, [email protected] or 0401 326 007.

Kids’ Conference Antarctica taps into hot topics – national online

What can we learn when school kids steer research projects about the coldest, driest, highest and windiest place on Earth? What do they care about Antarctica’s changing climate and how will their findings have wider implications for people and planet?

Find out at Kids’ Conference Antarctica 2025, where primary and secondary students (aged 7 to 18) from Australia and the world step up to the presenter’s podium to share their own research.

Teachers can register students for the online forum until 28 July. See full details and research brief here.  

Tuesday 12 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/kids-conference-antarctica-2025/

Media enquiries: Kids’ Conference principal founder Dr Stephen Spain, [email protected] or 0466 608 706.

Find out about quantum computing from an expert – Perth, WA

Meet physicist Dr Danielle Holmes who makes qubits using individual atoms as the basic unit of information in quantum computers.

Quantum physics was born 100 years ago to explain the curious behaviour of tiny things. We now use it daily to connect with the world, light our homes, fight disease, and scan our groceries.

Find out how quantum physics is shaping your future at the Marie Curie Lectures in Perth and Brisbane (Thursday 14 August).

Tuesday 12 August. Event details: https://www.scienceweek.net.au/event/2025-marie-curie-lectures-quantum-century-unlocking-the-universes-secrets-and-shaping-our-future-with-dr-danielle-holmes-2/crawley/

Media enquiries: Karen Siu, [email protected] or 0478 260 533.

Dr Danielle Holmes is available for media interviews.

Quantum Year and dark matters touring Australia – Kalgoorlie, WA

Meet dark matter hunters and quantum experts at events across Australia. 

To celebrate Quantum Year, the National Quantum & Dark Matter Road Trip will tour pubs and schools in regional and remote communities in Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales – and run events in capital cities between 4 August and 17 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.

Tuesday 12 August. ‘The Extreme Search for Dark Matter’ public talk by Prof Elisabetta Barberio in Kalgoorlie’s Museum of the Goldfields: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/public-talk-kalgoorlie/kalgoorlie/

Media enquiries: Fleur Morrison, [email protected] or 0421 118 233.

Call of the wild: why citizen scientists need tech upskilling – Gold Coast, QLD, and online

Wildlife monitoring is being transformed by new technologies, including eco-acoustics, thermal imaging, drones, artificial intelligence and remote 4G cameras. But it can be hard for citizen scientists and rural and remote communities to keep up with how these tools can make it easier to track populations and identify environmental changes.

The ‘Tech Meets Nature Showcase’ will be delivered as a free in-person and livestreamed event (registration essential) at Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus. It will connect Indigenous rangers, researchers and community groups, providing education on use of these technologies and open-source tools to protect a range of iconic species, from koalas to glossy black cockatoos, platypus and malleefowl.

Experts include:

Minyumai rangers – blending Traditional Knowledge with 4G cameras, drones and acoustic monitors to protect koalas, dingoes and glossy black cockatoos.

Quandamooka ranger and rehab expert, Dan Crouch and Dan Carter – combining cultural knowledge and science for land management—from drone surveys of koalas to fire history, feral control, and swamp daisy recovery.

• Dr Daniella Teixeira (QUT) – acoustic monitoring for glossy black cockatoos.
• Dr Douglas Kerlin (Griffith University) – reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions with tech.
• Dr Mark de Bruyn (Griffith University) – eDNA to assess biodiversity at massive scales—unlocking insights from sediment to sea for both extinct and living species.
• Dr Tamielle Brunt (PlatypusWatch) – eDNA and platypus conservation.
• Joshua Cooper (National Malleefowl Recovery Group) – malleefowl conservation through LIDAR.

Tuesday 12 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/tech-meets-nature-showcase/southport/

Media enquiries:  Samantha Morris, [email protected] and [email protected] or 0421 709 519.

Kids build and code 3D-printed weather stations – Palmerston City, NT

Weather obsessed kids (aged 8 to 15) will build and program their own weather stations in a two-hour TAFE course. 

The project led by Charles Darwin University TAFE combines meteorology, environmental science and the Internet of Things. Participants will work with 3D-printed material and sensor modules, then learn how to write computer code that translates data into real-time forecasts based on humidity, temperature and air pressure. 

Tuesday 12 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/cdu-tafe-presents-building-your-own-weather-station/palmerston-city/

Media enquiries: [email protected] or 0403 009 337.

Psychology is a Freud - Brunswick, VIC

Is psychology a science, art, pseudoscience or potato? Or an ink blot of your parents fighting?

Sci Fight Science Comedy Debate brings together scientists and comedians ‘to debate serious issues in a ridiculous manner’ on the topic: Psychology is a Freud.

The showdown, hosted by Sci Fight co-founder/comedian/science communicator Atlanta Colley, features comedians Jude Perl and Martin Dunlop; magician and doctor Vyom Sharma; psychologist Kathryn Kallady; neuroscientist Elyas Arvell; and writer/editor Elizabeth Flux.

Tuesday 12 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/sci-fight-science-comedy-debate-psychology-is-a-freud-5/brunswick

Media enquiries: Alanta Colley, [email protected] or 0478 143 905. 

Comedian and science communicator Alanta Colley, who co-founded Sci Fight in 2017, is available for media interviews: https://www.alantacolley.com/

Planetarium show and cultural yarning explore Australia-wide stories of Indigenous science, Songlines and stars – Wollongong, NSW

Tour Australia through a First Nations cultural lens. Talk to Indigenous scientists and hear stories that shape Songlines and Sky Country in a planetarium show at University of Wollongong’s Science Space. 

The cultural yarn will be led by Dr Crystal Arnold, a Gundungurra woman and academic based in the University of Wollongong’s School of Social Sciences, and Peter Hewitt, a Jerrinja Yuin man and academic in Aboriginal Education. They will share the stories of Gurawul (whale) and Buru (kangaroo) that inform connectedness to Country.

The event forms part of ‘Science on the South Coast’ which aims to demonstrate accessibility of science careers in rural communities, increase participation of Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse groups, and better engage audiences with visual/hearing impairment through sensory science interactions. 

Tuesday 12 August: Indigenous Science, Songlines and Stars: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/indigenous-science-songlines-and-stars-planetarium-shows-and-presentations-in-the-uow-science-space/wollongong/

Media enquiries: Theresa Larkin, [email protected] or 0406 572 148.