science blogging – Australian Science

Best of Australian Science: January 2013

Danica Radovanovic — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:01:48 +0000

It’s the time of the month when it’s good to look back and be reminded of all of January’s wonderful science and technology stories. The beginning of the year is a time for new beginnings and regenerations, and a time to wrap things up and recapitulate an exciting month. I hope you’ll enjoy these stories. If you are interested in science blogging and contributing to Australian Science – contact us and check out the Editor’s note.

2013: The Year to Come by Charles Ebikeme

In 2013 expect the comet Ison to garner some column inches towards the back end of the year. In early 2013 October it will pass very near Mars and possibly be visible to rovers and orbiting spacecraft. The newly discovered comet could develop a spectacular tail, becoming as bright as the full Moon as it passes by our Sun. The comet is currently falling toward the Sun from between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. There is a chance it won’t survive this encounter. Whatever survives will then pass nearest the Earth in late 2013 December. Read more>>

The Higgs: An Unexpected Boson by Markus Hammonds

Physicists are interesting folk, and I’m sure some would be fascinated if this turned out to be something new. Fabiola Gianotti, director of the ATLAS experiment at CERN has appeared noticeably excited before by the prospect of new and unknown physics being discovered. However, the other thing about physicists is that by their nature, they need to be highly skeptical, particularly when it comes to their own work. Adam Falkowski, a Paris-based particle physicist, states what most researchers are probably thinking on his blog Résonaances – that the result is most likely due to a “a systematic problem

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The Highlights of 2012

Danica Radovanovic — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 23:56:50 +0000

As 2012 draws to a close and the new year begins, now is a good time to wrap things up and recapitulate the year just passed. It’s been an exciting year with plenty of interesting happenings in science, technology, and education. Despite the fact that we aren’t especially keen on top 10 lists (because all of our authors are fantastic and inspirational), here are a few of the highlights from the past year. We hope you enjoy them!

Mr Boson, I presume…? / A Brand New Boson

The news that CERN had detected a signature matching the much sought after Higgs boson was the biggest news this year in physics. While physicists at the LHC still aren’t 100% certain what they’ve found, one thing is for certain – they’ve definitely discovered something never before seen, and it definitely seems to match what’s expected for the Higgs boson. Now it’s up to the theorists to work out if this will confirm existing theories, or if it will require brand new physics to be devised to explain it!

“It’s a bit like spotting a familiar face from afar,

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Best of Science blogging – September 2012

Danica Radovanovic — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 03:15:23 +0000

Lot of events happening this September and I’m looking forward to share with you some wonderful articles and interesting posts, interviews for you to read. We have weekly science blogging picks with the guest editor each week, now it’s almost a tradition called #ScienceSunday, you can search for it on Google Plus as well. We are coming out soon with the new design for the Australian Science and some new interesting initiatives.

Contact us if you’d like to join our team of science and tech bloggers and authors – please read the Editor’s note, also if you’re interested in Weekly Science Picks scroll down the article to find about it more. The Australian Science recap of the September 2012:

Lighting the Imagination in Science by Kelly Burnes

Let’s think about the role of imagination in science. The process of imagination is on display everywhere in an early childhood classroom. But by the time they reach middle school, students seem to burn out and tire of science. Where is the imagination? What is driving the curiosity?

Got Science? Australian Science on Display at Mitchelton State School is part two of the previous article by Kelly, an interview with Mitchelton State School staff :

McIntyre indicated that in addition to exposing children to science, it’s also essential “to develop the attributes of curiosity that are necessary to the investigations around science.

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The Best of Science blogging – August 2012

Danica Radovanovic — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 08:17:47 +0000

The month of August was busy: we had Curiosity landing on Mars, events and interviews with scientists who are directly involved with the Mars Science Laboratory, multimedia that followed up the major event, new bloggers joining us – say Hi to Alan and David. If you are interested in science blogging, and contributing to Australian Science, please read the Editor’s note.

Then the news broke that Neil Armstrong died, so we decided to publish a rare and unique speech that he delivered in Sydney on 24 August 2011. Beside the major events, check out the articles on alternative energy, environment, virology, pharmaceutical policy, ecology and democracy, science of prediction, modelling, and few calls for participation at the various conferences and events. The recap and the top ten articles of the month are here:

Top ten posts:

Interview with lead Mars Curiosity rover driver Matt Heverly and Where to land Mars Curiosity for the best science? Interview with Marion Anderson, who helped choose the landing site by Alan Kerlin

Last week I interviewed Matt about this important role, about driving rovers in general, and about the science work that he’ll be helping with. When Matt came online, he’d quite literally been in the “Mars Yard

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