In this edition:
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News From the Dean |
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Western Sydney Science Shows Highlights Indigenous Student Leaders |
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Opportunities |
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Events |
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Snippets | |
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Science News Archive | |
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News from the Dean |
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Dear Colleagues, News came through this past week of successes in the latest MQRDG funding round. ELS staff to get the nod were Melanie Bishop, Michael Gillings, Peter Karuso, Adam Stow and Jim Kohen. Congratulations all five. On another positive note, I am pleased to be able to announce the appointment of Professor Suzanne Benn to take up the position of Professor in Education in Sustainability and Director of ARIES (the Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability). Suzanne is the replacement for Daniella Tilbury, the founding Director of ARIES, who resigned last year to take up a Chair in the United Kingdom . Suzanne is coming to Macquarie from a position at UTS and will commence later in the year. Further on the staffing front, but in this case the departure lounge, Mark Taylor will be leaving us (for two years at least) on August 8 to become a Commissioner of the NSW Land and Environment Court. This is very high level recognition of Mark's reputation in environmental science and resource management and I extend the Division's congratulations to him on such a prestigious appointment. Till next week, Kevin
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_________________________________________________________ Western Sydney Science Shows – Highlights Indigenous Student Leaders
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Throughout last week, around 30 Indigenous High School students from years 7-12, demonstrated and explained the science behind a range of science activities to their peers, junior students and families. The activities included making slime with glue and borax; recognising the smells of household items through chemicals; revealing hidden messages with tumeric; making betadine messages disappear with vitamin C; seeing the expanding power of gas; culturing bacteria from participants’ hands and looking at a range of microbes; and handling enormous stick insects. The Indigenous student demonstrators were from St Dominic’s College in Western Sydney. They received training on Monday July 28 by our own university students (undergraduates and postgraduates) and staff from Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences. They then demonstrated these activities as science shows over three days (Tuesday July 29, Wednesday July 30 and Thursday July 31) to all the year 7 and 8 students in their school (~450 students), and to their families. The week culminated in the students coming to the university on Friday August 1 to participate in computer workshops, including a virtual reality activity, with the Department of Computing, an information session with the Warawara – Department of Indigenous Studies and with a lunch and certificate presentation session with the Dean of the Faculty of Science, Professor Stephen Thurgate. The event was organised by the Indigenous Science Education Program (ISEP) team. Along with the wonderful High School students, who showed great enthusiasm and maturity in their role as demonstrators, the ISEP team would also like to thank our volunteers: Jitendra Gaikwad, Elizabeth Hardiman, Thamarasee Jeewandara, Unnikrishnan Kuzhiumparambil, Teresa Malewski, Elsa Mardones, Ridhwan Mariot, Joanne Packer, Benita Ramkorun, Jason Smith, Genna Walker, Ping Yin.
Year 8 Jarrah Thompson, year 8 St Dominic’s College student demonstrates the expanding power of dry ice. Many thanks to Joanne Jamie, Co-Director of the Indigenous Science Education Program, for this report. |
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_________________________________________________________ Opportunities |
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_________________________________________________________ Call for Abstracts: Detection and attribution of Climate Change "Detection and attribution: State of play in 2009" There is a major session with the theme of Detection and attribution: State of play in 2009 during the upcoming Copenhagen science congress on Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions, which will be held from 10-12 March, 2009 (see http://climatecongress.ku.dk/). This session falls under the broader theme of Exploring the Risks: Understanding Climate Change. Please consider submitting a paper or poster, for now all that is needed is an abstract. The session summary is as follows: Global warming is "unequivocal" and "has likely had a discernible influence at the global scale" (IPCC AR4, 2007). However, the detection and attribution story was then incomplete due to 'Key Uncertainties' listed by IPCC as including: (i) notable lack of geographic balance in data on observed changes {WGI SPM; WGII 1.3, SPM}; (ii) changes in extreme events {WGI 3.8, SPM}; and (iii) effects of climate changes on human and natural systems.{WGII 1.3}. This session is timely because since the production of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report there have been remarkable leaps in observations, analyses and interpretation in all aspects of these missing pieces of the climate change jigsaw. This scientific conference in March, in Copenhagen , will lead up to the COP-15 in Copenhagen in late 2009. The main aim of the Copenhagen science congress is to provide a synthesis of existing and emerging scientific knowledge necessary in order to make intelligent societal decisions concerning application of mitigation and adaptation strategies in response to climate change. The congress aims to identify and synthesize the science, technology and policy advances required in order to ensure sustainability of global communities in the current and coming decades. The findings of the congress will be organized to supplement to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The congress will also provide a summary of existing scientific knowledge two years after the last IPCC report. The intention is to also try and ensure that contributions, where suitable, are published in a possible special journal. Abstracts describing original research into topics relevant to the themes being treated at the Congress are invited. GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS are available on the conference website (http://climatecongress.ku.dk/). Abstracts can only be submitted on-line, and must be submitted no later than 1 September 2008. _________________________________________________________ Help decide who wins one of Australia’s top science prizes by voting in the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes People’s Choice Award. The Eureka Prizes People’s Choice Award gives everyone a say is who wins a Eureka Prize – Australia’s premier science award. The voting website www.australianmuseum.net.au/eureka/go/vote is equipped with personal profiles, videos and a special “Q&A” section to ask questions of the scientists. The six finalists to chose between are:
Profiles of these finalists will be aired on ABC’s Catalyst on Thursday 14 August at 8pm. The People’s Choice Award goes to the scientist who receives the most online votes during the voting period. All voters are in the running to win great prizes including the chance to have a part of their DNA sequenced, printed and framed ready to hang on their wall. Other prizes include software, book vouchers and just for teachers - $500 worth of ABC books and videos. Voting closes Sunday 17 August. Winners of all the Eureka Prizes, including the People’s Choice Award winner, will be announced at an award dinner on Tuesday 19 August.
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Events |
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_________________________________________________________Biological Sciences Seminar this Wednesday: "THE DIFFERENTIAL CONTROL OF SYMPATHETIC NERVE ACTIVITY" Dr. Simon McMullan, Macquarie University Summary: Our laboratory is interested in neurological substrates that underlie the ABC of life; airways, breathing, and circulation. Our work has examined the anatomy, cytochemistry and behaviour of networks of neurons in the ventrolateral medulla, an area of the brainstem that controls all cardiorespiratory activity. Although this area occupies only a few cubic millimetres of brain, pathological changes to the way this area behaves underlies a plethora of severely disabling diseases, from hypertension and heart failure to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).In this talk I will describe some of our recent investigations into the differential control of sympathetic nerve activity. In particular, I will consider data regarding the integration of somatic inputs and interactions between the kidney and the sympathetic nervous system. Wednesday 6th August, 1:00pm, Building E8A room 290 (Biology tearoom) _________________________________________________________ Sydney Mechanics School of Arts Talk: "Shaping Future Scientists" Jim Scott, Science Teachers Association of NSW and Sandra Fernandez, CSIRO Student Research Scheme examine why innovations in science receive very little media attention compared with sport and finance and how this affects the choices parents and students make about science as a serious career option. _________________________________________________________ Jonathon Glover Talk: "Uprootedness, Narratives and National Conflict"
_________________________________________________________ Edmund Rice Centre Talk: "Climate Change in the Pacific"
Time: 6:00pm-8:00pm Aug 07 Cost: Free _________________________________________________________ ELS Seminar Series Departments in ELS host seminars covering a wide range of topics associated with ongoing research projects and other areas of interest. The seminars are delivered by academics, research staff, and students from within the Division, as well as guest speakers from other institutions and industry. Details of times, dates, locations and topics of seminars to be held over the next few weeks are listed here. _________________________________________________________
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SnippetsGlass behaviour nearer explanation Internet in New Zealand explored Olives protected from frost Scared kids might develop anxiety Chook trading routes uncertain Formation of bird species questioned New prostate cancer treatment Insights into a childhood disease |
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