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Sci-fi facts & fiction. Restoration through bird song. Beer. Dark matter road tour. Roving scientists bar.

National Science Week in Tasmania

Scientists, experts and event organisers are available for interview before and throughout the ‘week’.

Here are Tasmanian highlights from the national festival that reaches more than 3 million people through 2,500+ events. National Science Week will run 15 to 23 August 2026.

Direct contact details for each event listed below and online.

Contact national publicist Tanya Ha for contacts and tips: [email protected] or 0404 083 863.

Highlights for Tasmania:

• Solar boats, feral cats, science songs, an augmented reality sandbox, and more at Festival of Bright Ideas – Hobart
• Beaker Street is back:

psychedelic medicine, social media addiction, nature, nurture, and a roving scientists bar – Hobart

• Gourmet mushrooms

grown in an abandoned railway tunnel – Mount Rumney

• Sci-fi meets sci-fact – Hobart
• Walk and talk on Country

Traditional knowledge and modern science – Ridgeway

• Where’s wedgie?

Help wanted to spot wedge-tailed eagles – Flinders Island

• Asteroids, exoplanets, slime moulds, and bright young things – Ulverstone
• Experimenting with beer – Hobart
• Scientist puts sex-ed on stage 

in The Clitoral Chronicles –Hobart

• Dark matter on the move – touring Tasmania
• Can birdsong bring a broken landscape back to life? – Ross
• Flower power: what is Australia’s most amazing wildflower?
• TODAY: Launch event: 10am at Princes Wharf

More on these below including contact details for interview.

Or find more stories in your area at ScienceWeek.net.au/events.

Visit the Media Centre for all media releases and images.

Tasmanian launch – Friday 14 August:

Minister at Princes Wharf

with wildlife, drones and Deadly Science

National Science Week kicks off with things that whiz, bang, fly, crawl, swim and maybe even explode at the Festival of Bright Ideas schools day.

Launch event with:

• The Hon Felix Ellis MP, Minister for Innovation, Science and the Digital Economy
• Dr Adele Wilson, Chair of Tasmania’s National Science Week Coordinating Committee
• Dr Alfonsina Arriaga Jimenez, entomologist (insect scientist) and Senior Curator Natural Sciences at Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery in Launceston
• (MC) Dr Tiana Pirtle, ecologist, science communicator and Inspiring Tasmania Manager.

When: 10am on Friday 14 August 2026

Where: South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide

Media enquiries: Tiana Pirtle, [email protected] or 0456 826 322.

Solar boats, feral cats, science songs, an augmented reality sandbox, and more at Festival of Bright Ideas – Hobart

• Hear quirky science songs from roving musician Nate Eggins (a.k.a. Conspiracy of One) and his guitar.
• Meet Young Tassie Scientists exploring topics from blood to black holes, plant friends, and growing crystals.
• See Hobart from above via drones.
• Tap into 50,000 years of the Palawa traditional knowledge, Deadly Science, and First Nations engineering in action.
• Build new landscapes in an augmented reality sandbox.
• Become an eco-detective and investigate how invasive species like deer and feral cats impact local wildlife.
• Try curious climate challenges and meet Antarctic scientists.
• Play with mini solar-powered cars and boats.
• Connect with makers and tinkerers from Hobart Hackerspace.

These are just some of the speakers, activities and displays at Princes Wharf 1 on Hobart’s waterfront for the 2026 Festival of Bright Ideas. This much-loved hands-on science festival brings together researchers, inventors, educators and STEM organisations for a day of interactive discovery.

Schools Day: Friday 14 August.

Saturday 15 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/festival-of-bright-ideas-6/hobart

Media enquiries: Tiana Pirtle, [email protected] or 0456 826 322.

Sex-ed on stage, psychedelic medicine, social media addiction, nature, nurture, and a roving scientists bar – Hobart

Beaker Street Festival is back. Pull up a seat where microscopes sit on bar tables, scientists take centre stage and boundary-pushing conversations – from sex to psychedelics to slime moulds – 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.

“For ten years, Beaker Street has created events and spaces where science becomes the catalyst for great conversations, new ideas and shared experiences,” says Founder and Creative Director Dr Margo Adler. “This year’s theme, The Second Act, is about reinvention. It’s about taking stock of who we are, what we value, and how we stay connected to each other in a world increasingly designed to pull us apart.”

Highlights include:

• Debate: Social media should be banned for Over-16s too! Hosted by ABC’s Natasha Mitchell, with astrophysicist Kirsten Banks, economist Saul Eslake, content creator Meredith Castles, and Tim Nugent, who has a doctorate in mobile human computer interaction and urban informatics.
• Mushrooms and MDMA: how psychedelics reshaping mental health care, with Dr Paul Liknaitzky, head of Monash University’s Clinical Psychedelics Lab.
• Murder on Beaker Street – The science of true crime.
• Enchanted Slime Mould Forest exhibition and talks from slime mould expert Sarah Lloyd.
• Dr Karl live on stage in Hobart and Burnie.
• Have a drink with one of dozens of roving scientists at the Hope and Anchor pub.

Thursday 6 August to Monday 17 August.

Multiple dates and locations.

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

Visit the Beaker Street media hub.

Gourmet mushrooms, grown in an abandoned railway tunnel – Mount Rumney

An abandoned Tasmanian railway tunnel is now a thriving hub for growing gourmet mushrooms on a commercial scale. Tunnel Hill Mushrooms founder Dean Smith and Tim Murch from West Tamar Fungi walk visitors through the process, which starts in a lab and finishes underground.

Participants learn to harvest and prepare mushrooms, mix their own straw mushroom logs to grow fresh mushrooms at home, and sample the results – grilled up on a one-of-a-kind Train BBQ. Part of the Beaker Street Festival.

Saturday 15 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/mushroom-workshop-at-tunnel-hill-2/mount-rumney

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

Dean Smith is available for media interviews.

Black holes and robots: where sci-fi meets sci-fact – Hobart

From black holes in Interstellar to a robot cleaning up a deserted Earth in Wall-E, science fiction has long inspired real research. ‘That’s What I Call Science’ brings science and art together at From Fact to Fiction, screening a science fiction film followed by a panel of STEM experts.

The panel will unpack the science behind the film and connect it to their own research taking place in Lutruwita/Tasmania.

Sunday 16 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/from-fact-to-fiction-2/hobart

Media enquiries: Olly Dove, [email protected]

Olly Dove available for media interviews.

A walk where ancient knowledge meets modern science – Ridgeway

Take a guided walk through the Waterworks reserve in the foothills of Kunanyi with Pakana activist and cultural practitioner Cody Gangell-Smith and wild-food forager Westerly Isbaih, exploring how modern science is beginning to echo what First Nations people practising their culture have always known.

Connecting to Country is a gentle, slow walk about place-based traditional ecological knowledge and reawakening a reciprocal relationship with the land through the senses.

Part of the Beaker Street Festival.

Sunday 16 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/connecting-to-country-a-practice-for-everyone/ridgeway

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

Wanted: people who can spot a wedge-tailed eagle – Whitemark

NatureTrackers runs three annual citizen science surveys – CallTrackers, Claws on the Line and Where? Where? Wedgie! – tracking bats, bitterns, burrowing crayfish and Tasmania’s threatened wedge-tailed eagles.

They are rigorously designed, they run every year, and they need volunteers. Drop into the Whitemark library to find out how to take part in tracking the changing conservation status of threatened species.

Wednesday 19 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/naturetracking-across-the-furneaux-islands-3-citizen-science-projects-national-science-week-team-sent-email-to-inbox

Media enquiries: Clare Hawkins, NatureTrackers, [email protected] or 0400 889 336.

Asteroids, exoplanets, ceramics, and slime moulds – Ulverstone

• Ask Hive Principal Astronomer Dr Martin George about planets, exoplanets, constellations and other celestial wonders. Get his expert guide to stargazing.
• See Sarah Lloyd OAM's extraordinary slime moulds photography.
• Meet Young Tassie Scientists.

These are three highlights happening in and around Hive during a three-week feast of science, art, and culture in North West Tasmania.

The program explores ecosystems, agriculture, and astronomy through events ranging from stargazing and school science sessions to family expos, exhibitions, and science‑in‑social‑spaces. Other highlights include science pub quizzes at Penguin Beer Co in Penguin and The Pier in Ulverstone, and Aboriginal environmental managers sharing First Nations ecology and regeneration.

Saturday 8 August to Wednesday 26 August: Multiple events and locations.

Media enquiries: Sarah Beckett, [email protected] or 0427 909 801.

Experimenting with beer – Hobart

1 recipe. 4 beers.

Four Tasmanian brewers serve up an identical recipe for beer, resulting in vastly different sensory traits.

ExBEERimental Science showcases how small variations in brewing techniques impact our experience of downing a cold one.

Hear about the science and taste the difference with beer-loving scientists Kelsey Picard and Matthew Fielding.

Audience members can join the live event in Hobart at Shambles Brewery.

Friday 21 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/exbeerimental-science-2026/hobart

More information about www.beerablescience.com.

Media enquiries: Matthew Fielding, [email protected] or 0417 167 618.

Scientist puts sex-ed on stage in The Clitoral Chronicles – Ulverstone & Hobart

The Clitoral Chronicles lifts the hood on the most misunderstood organ in biology: the clitoris!

The clitoris has been overlooked, under-appreciated and literally written out of history for centuries, but now Dr Tiana Pirtle, who has a PhD in reproductive ecology and physiology, is putting it centre-stage. She is joined by props and performers wearing sparkly clitoris and penis costumes.

Blending comedy, physical theatre, outrageous anatomical costumes and wild true stories from the animal kingdom, the show flips outdated ideas about sex, gender and science on their head — and puts female and LGBTQIA+ perspectives centre stage.

Dr Pirtle’s previous show ‘Vaginal Vignettes’ shared the stories of the multi-chambered vaginas and temporary passages, elongated clitorises, pseudo-penises, vaginas that can sort sperm, and armoured vaginal openings that put female animals in the driver’s seat of reproduction and evolution.

Read a UTas article about her work. Hear her on the Science Vs episode ‘When vaginas attack!’.

Friday 21 August and Saturday 22 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/the-clitoral-chronicles-4/hobart/

Media enquiries: Tiana Pirtle, [email protected] or 0456 826 322.

Dark matter on the move – touring Tasmania

Meet dark matter hunters and quantum experts at museums, pubs and schools in the Apple Isle this year. 

The National Quantum & Dark Matter Road Trip is heading south after several Science Weeks across the mainland.

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.

Multiple dates and locations.

Including QVMAG’s Big Day of Science: Saturday 22 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/big-day-of-science-2026-free-quantum-dark-matter-family-workshop

Media enquiries: Anita Vecchies, The National Quantum & Dark Matter Road Trip, [email protected]

Playing birdsong to bring a broken landscape back to life? – Ross

Step inside a world-first experiment in ecological renewal at The Quoin, a living laboratory where scientists play short sound snippets from healthy ecosystems into disturbed areas to speed the return of animals, microbes and plant life.

This first public tour visits acoustic-restoration research sites across the property, with researchers discussing the conservation and restoration work underway, plus opportunities for guided birding and nature photography.

Saturday 29 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/sounds-of-renewal-acoustic-restoration-in-action/ross

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

What do you think is Australia’s most amazing wildflower? – online

ABC Science wants Australians to discover our hidden “flower power”, the kind you find in botanical gardens rather than hippie communes.

With the help of experts, ABC Science has selected ten flowering plants from across the country.

Not just another banksia or waratah, but blooms from the unsung understorey that also do something unbelievable. These ten wildflowers are more than just a pretty face; each one hides a surprising superpower. The public will decide which is the most amazing.

Voting to decide Australia’s most amazing wildflower will start just before National Science Week in August, with the winning bloom announced on Friday August 21 in a live broadcast on Radio National.

The shortlist:

• Bladderwort (Utricularia) – Traps and digests insects inside tiny floating “bladders”
• Star flower (Calytrix) – Changes colour like a ‘traffic-light’ to direct pollinators
• Flannel flower (Actinotus) – Blooms from bushfire ashes like a floral phoenix
• Flying duck orchid (Caleana) – Traps insects for pollination and looks like a duck!
• Mulla mulla (Ptilotus) – Thrives, and flowers, in tough, hot arid environments
• Murnong/yam daisy (Microseris) – Provided a significant year-round nutritious food for Indigenous people 
• Richea scoparia – Survives extreme cold and feeds snow skinks
• Creamy candle (Stackhousia) – Looks like a candle and emits a sweet fragrance at night
• Triggerplant (Stylidium) – Hits insects with pollen using a catapult-like trigger
• Underground orchid (Rhizanthella) – Lives underground and looks like a tiny demogorgan.

Wednesday 5 August – Friday 21 August. To find out more and vote, go to www.abc.net.au/wildflowers.

For interviews with Dr Ann Jones, contact Rob Caulley, ABC Publicity, [email protected].

About National Science Week

National Science Week is Australia’s annual opportunity to meet scientists, discuss hot topics, do science and celebrate its contribution to our lives. Science drives economic and social change – from safe and nutritious food to reducing cancer deaths; from smart phones to AI; from under Antarctica’s ice floes to distant planets.

First held in 1997, National Science Week has become one of Australia’s largest festivals. Last year about 3 million people participated in more than 2,500 registered events and activities. 

National Science Week 2026 runs from Saturday 15 to Sunday 23 August. Event details can be found at www.scienceweek.net.au.

National Science Week is proudly supported by the Australian Government, alongside key partners Questacon, CSIRO, the Australian Science Teachers Association, and ABC Science.