Living forever; viral animal videos; future food on Mars or the Outback; birders and bug catchers

The national festival that reaches more than 3 million people through over 2,000 events is back from 9 to 17 August.

Dozens of Science Week stories around South Australia

• Meet the science-comedy duo behind Zoodle TV’s viral animal videos - TONIGHT
• Do you want to live forever?
• Meet quantum experts and dark matter hunters
• How spinning electrons can make tech smaller and faster
• Weaving connections with traditional textiles and a First Nations artist
• Bird spotters and bug catchers wanted – Renmark
• Grow, test and imagine the future of food in space 
•  Female fossil rockers take palaeontology and pop on tour
• Is it easier to grow food on Mars than in the Outback? – Oodnadatta, Andamooka, Copley
• Vote for Australia’s most underrated animals

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, [email protected] or 0404 083 863; or Shelley Thomas, [email protected] or 0416 377 444.

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

Media centre here. Images for media here.

SA launch event 6pm tonight at the Museum, with award winners announced

National Science Week kicks off with the presentation of South Australia’s Citizen Science Award, the Unsung Hero Science Communication Award, and the 2025 Young Tall Poppy Science Awards.

Launch event with:

• Hon Blair Boyer MP, Minister for Education
• Vaccine researcher Helen Marshall, 2023 South Australian Scientist of the Year

Where: South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide

Media enquiries: Elise Boultby, [email protected] or 08 8273 9107.

How to deal with wild, uninvited house guests – Gawler

Spiders in cars, possums in the roof, snakes in walls, koalas drinking from swimming pools or a kangaroo banging on your door.

Urban ecologist Professor Chris Daniels and comedian Eddie Bannon reveal why a host of wildlife take up residence in Aussie neighbourhoods. The duo decodes surprising, funny and complex animal behaviours captured in viral videos on social media.

They are presenting the science-comedy show in Gawler with social enterprise Zoodle TV which donates all profits to wildlife charities in support of animal conservation and research.

Friday 8 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/zoodle-on-the-road-hidden-animal-housemates/gawler/

Media enquiries: Gerd Winter, [email protected] or 049005230151.

Professor Chris Daniels and Eddie Bannon are available for media interviews.

Do you want to live forever? – Adelaide

But what will it take to keep your body going forever and would you really want to?

Hear what neuroscience and health experts have to say during the FOREVER exhibition at University of South Australia’s Museum of Discovery (MOD). Panellists include:

• University of South Australia’s Professor Grant Tomkinson, who focuses on the link between physical fitness and health.
• The University of Adelaide’s Associate Professor Lyndsey Collins-Praino, who leads the Cognition, Ageing and Neurodegenerative Disease Laboratory.

Thursday 14 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/q-do-you-want-to-live-forever/adelaide/

Media enquiries: Melissa Keogh, [email protected] or 0403 659 154.

Quantum Year goes off-road – touring Australia’s cities and regions

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.

Communities will also get the chance to trial the Dark Matter Hunter computer game, play with 3D quark puzzles, a muon detector, gravity well, diamond earring-based magnetic field sensor, and quantum computing chips.

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.

Adelaide events:
Sunday 10 August: Pub night: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/pub-trivia-with-a-twist-of-science-2/north-adelaide/

Monday 11 August: Our Invisible Universe STEM educators’ professional development: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/our-invisible-univat-the-australian-space-discovery-centre/adelaide/

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

Multiple experts involved with different legs of the tour are available for media interviews, including dark matter enlightener Jackie Bondell and particle physicist Ben McAllister.

How spinning electrons can make tech smaller and faster – Adelaide

Meet physicist Dr Sol Jacobsen who uses spinning electrons to build the tech of the future.

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.

Monday 11 August: Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/2025-marie-curie-lectures-your-quantum-future-with-dr-sol-h-jacobsen-2/adelaide/

Media enquiries: Karen Siu, The Australian Institute of Physics, 0478 260 533, [email protected].

Dr Sol H Jacobsen (www.sites.google.com/view/soljacobsen) is available for media interviews.

Weaving connections with traditional textiles – Adelaide

First Nations artist Sonya Rankin will share Traditional Knowledge of textiles through a weaving workshop. Sonya will lead and assist participants in creating ‘random weave’ pieces, providing a tactile and immersive experience about making meaning through cultural objects. Sonya is a Ngarringdjeri, Ngadjuri, Narungga & Wirangu woman and founder of Lakun Mara, meaning ‘Weaving Hand’ in Ngarrindjeri language.

Wednesday 13 August. Event details. www.scienceweek.net.au/event/weaving-connections-forever-exhibition-tour-and-weaving-workshop/adelaide/    

Media enquiries: Melissa Keogh, [email protected] or 0403 659 154.

Bird spotters and bug catchers wanted – Renmark

Renmark Irrigation Trust is seeking citizen scientists to help document birds and bugs making a comeback to restored Murray River floodplains.

Participants will look for native woodland and wetland birds (Sunday 10 August) and learn how to collect, identify and preserve insects for Renmark’s first floodplain invertebrate record (Saturday 16 August).

Sunday 10 August and Saturday 16 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/birds-and-bugs-wetlands-wonders-of-renmarks-restored-floodplains/renmark/

Media enquiries: Freya Harrihill, [email protected] or 0404 344 003.

Renmark Irrigation Trust ecologist Freya Harrihill, who will lead the activities, is available for media interviews.

Space farmers and cooks wanted – national online, via Adelaide

It’s Day 530 on the moon base and you’re eating packaged slop again… until a delivery of nutrient-enhanced microgreens arrives from Earth. Your mission is to sustainably grow and harvest edible plants in an extreme environment. But first you need to learn the basics of plant biology, food chemistry and farming approaches that minimise water, energy and resource use.

The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space is supersizing its mission to develop out-of-this-world future foods by enlisting public participation in ‘Grow 4 Launch’ experiments. 

Participants will receive a microgreens kit complete with seeds, hydroponics gear and test tools, alongside guidance on how to alter plant sensory traits (colour, taste, smell and texture) and investigate conditions that help sustainable growth.

The project also invites participants to submit recipes, results and ideas for a Spacefood Cookbook which will also feature contributions from astronauts, nutritionists and chefs.

Online competition. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/grow-4-launch-grow-test-imagine-the-future-of-food-in-space/

Media enquiries: Lieke Van Der Hulst, [email protected] or 0449 846 067.

Plants for Space researchers available for interview.

Is it easier to grow food on Mars than in the South Australian Outback? – Oodnadatta, Andamooka and Copley

That’s the curious question behind Science in the Outback Pub events organised by the Outback Communities Authority in partnership with the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space.

Achieving food security is a key challenge for remote communities and disproportionately impacts First Nations Australians. Events will be held in Oodnadatta, Andamooka and Copley, where communities have demonstrated an interest in and capacity for independent food production, including controlled growing environments, community gardens, solar and desalination facilities.

Plants for Space scientists will share insights on future food missions, in Space and on Earth, and explore how their research, technologies and processes could benefit Outback communities.

Multiple dates and locations.

Media enquiries: Grayson Cooke, [email protected] or 0415 428 906 and Lieke Van Der Hulst, [email protected] or 0449 846 067.

Female fossil rockers on tour – Oaklands Park and Angle Park

Aussie girl-geek band The Ammonites is taking a palaeo-musical show across South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

The trio – Danni, Morgan and Blair, who graduated from Dinosaur University – are the alter-egos of performers Bridget Tran, Kate Neville and Montana Vincent. With the help of renowned singing palaeontologist Professor Flint, their show explores Australia’s prehistoric past, while shining a light on challenges facing women in science and inspiring girls to follow their lead and dream big!

Professor Flint will also bring a ‘show and tell’ table of Australian fossils on tour. Plus, audiences will get the chance to dive into a 580 million-year-old inland sea, thanks to the University of South Australia’s 360 VR reconstruction of the ancient Ediacaran seafloor.

Saturday 23 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/the-ammonites-rock/oaklands-park/

Saturday 30 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/the-ammonites-rock/angle-park/

Media enquiries: Michael Mills, [email protected] or 0411 287 381.

What is Australia’s most underrated animal? – online

Do weird and wonderful Aussie creatures get the attention they deserve? For Science Week 2025, ABC Science wants Australians to cast their vote for Australia’s most underrated animal.

Not the usual cuddly crowd-pleasers, but the ugly, the annoying and the lesser-known critters that are often over-looked, under-conserved and underrated.

“We are trying to do the impossible here and rate what may be unrateable, vote on what may be un-findable, but most of all, find out as much as we can about animals which live their entire lives outside the spotlight of popular consciousness,” says Dr Ann Jones from ABC Radio National podcast What the Duck?!

The shortlist (those found in South Australia indicated with bold text):

Palm cockatoo

Dugong

Short-fin eel

Great desert skink

Ghost bat

Rakali (native water rat)

Marsupial mole

Turtle frogs

Giant cuttlefish

Velvet worm