Topic: Pulsars
Speaker: Dr Ramesh Baht
Venue: We meet at the Princes Hill Community Centre,
rear 270 MacPherson Street,
Nth. Carlton
Time: 7.30 pm Donation: $5 – $10
Speaker: Dr Phil Hendry from CSIRO
Topic: Extremophile life
Venue: We meet at the Princes Hill Community Centre,
rear 270 MacPherson Street,
North. Carlton
Time: 7.30 pm Donation: $5 – $10
Speaker: Dr Stephen Kent
Topic: HIV/AIDS research and vaccines
Venue: We meet at the Princes Hill Community Centre,
rear 270 MacPherson Street,
Nth. Carlton
MAP
Time: 7.30 pm Donation: $5 – $10
Communicating Climate Science in a politicised environment
Speaker: Imogen Jubb,
Imogen is the communications officer for the Australian Climate Change Science Program.
Venue: We meet at the Princes Hill Community Centre,
rear 270 MacPherson Street,
Nth. Carlton
MAP
Time: 7.30 pm Donation: $5 – $10
The life and work of William and Lawrence Bragg, Australia’s Nobel Prize winning physicists.
Speaker: Dr John Jenkin
Dr Jenkin was a physicist who moved to the history and philosophy of science at LaTrobe University.
Monday 7th December 2009
Dr Chris Blake
Swinburne University
TOPIC: Understanding the contents of the Universe and the current puzzles concerning dark matter and dark energy.
Monday 9th November 2009
Prof. Geoff Taylor
Dept. of Physics
University of Melbourne
TOPIC: The Large Hadron Collider
Monday 5th October 2009
Dr Megan Farrelly
Research Fellow
National Urban Water Governance Program
TOPIC: Water Resources
Monday 7th September 2009
Dr Matt Owers
TOPIC: Galaxies and Galactic Clusters
Monday 3rd August 2009
Dr Lindus Conlan
TOPIC: Biomimicry
Monday 6th July 2009
Emma Burrows
Florey Neuroscience Institutes
University of Melbourne
TOPIC: Interaction of genes and environment in psychiatric illness
Monday 1st June 2009
Janette Gogler
Assistant DON Nursing Informatics at the Austin Hospital
TOPIC: Health Informatics
Monday 4th May 2009
Steven Kennedy
Principal Geothermal Operations Advisor
Petroleum & Geothermal Regulation Branch
Department of Primary Industries
TOPIC : Geothermal Energy – technical background and current developments
Monday 6th April 2009
Dr Ian J. McNiven
Reader, Programme for Australian Indigenous Archaeology
School of Geography & Environmental Science
Monash University
TOPIC:
“Indigenous Australia – the world’s oldest culture? Archaeological discoveries on 50,000 years of cultural change”
Monday 2nd March 2009
Dr James Bradley, History and Philosophy of Science, Melbourne University
TOPIC: Darwinism
Monday 2nd February 2009
Professor John Lattanzio
Centre for Stellar and Planetary Astrophysics
School of Mathematical Sciences
Monash University
TOPIC: Life in the Universe
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Friday 22 FEBRUARY 2008
Professor Derek Russell
Agriculture, Health and Environment Group, Natural Resources Institute,
University of Greenwich,UK
Adjunct Professor, CESAR, Department of Genetics
‘GM cabbage for the 3rd World – the End of the Hungry Caterpillar?’
Derek Russell has been working on insecticide use reduction in the developing world for many years and in various ways. His current big project is as leader of a consortium developing and commercialising transgenic cabbage and cauliflower which are resistant to the caterpillar pests which cause such huge yield reduction and are responsible for such massive insecticide spray and residue problems, especially in the developing world. He has developed the plants and they are currently under testing in India. Of course ‘GM crops and the third world’ raises all sorts of ethical and economic issues and dilemmas, which he will be willing to discuss.
Friday 28 MARCH 2008
Rae Moran, DNRE
Australia’s Water Resources – we are now experiencing severe drought, and predictions are for this to get worse with global warming. How should we manage our resources?
Monday 7th APRIL 2008
Dr Andrew Melatos
Einstein’s Astronomy:
Latest News on the Search for Gravitational Waves
Monday 12th MAY 2008
Lawrence Cavedon, RMIT
Artificial Intelligence.
This talk will take a tour through a range of topics related to
Artificial Intelligence: the philosophical underpinnings, the early
history, the major achievements, important research initiatives, an
outline of some of the techniques developed, and current developments.
Bio Sketch
Dr. Lawrence Cavedon is a Senior Researcher at NICTA (National ICT
Australia) and a Senior Lecturer at RMIT University. He has performed
research in AI and Cognitive Science for almost 20 years, in academia
and industry, in Australia, the UK and the USA.
Monday 2nd JUNE 2008
Ary Hoffman
re-scheduled
Monday 14th JULY 2008
Linden Gillbank
The History of Australian Plants
Linden will present something historical – on a beautiful aspect of the history of science.
She is a historian of botany, with a passionate interest in plants, especially Australian plants – their beauty, their names, their ecology and their uses.
She has prepared (for a course on the history of nature) a power point presentation on the history of the naming of Australian plants, using beautiful botanical art to tell the story.
Monday 4th AUGUST 2008
Prof. Geoff McFadden PhD FAA
ARC Federation Fellow, Howard Hughes International Scholar
Botany School, University of Melbourne 3010, Australia
The origins and evolution of life on Earth.
Monday 18th AUGUST 2008 SCIENCE WEEK SPECIAL MEETING
Peter Green, who has previously spoken to us about the Big Bang and the history of the universe up until the emergence of life on Earth, will continue the story and talk about:
The history and evolution of animals
Monday 1st SEPTEMBER 2008
Rick Bailey, Australian Bureau of Meteorology
Australia’s Tsunami Warning System -
Monday 6th OCTOBER 2008
Dr Michelle Critchley
Manager, Delivery and Sensing Development
Nanotechnology Victoria Ltd
Nanotechnology
Monday 10th November
Tom Biegler
Hydrogen and Fuel Cells – some inconvenient truths.
Dr Tom Biegler FTSE has had an involvement in two waves of global fuel cell activity separated by over 30 years, first as a research scientist when he joined CSIRO in the mid-1960s to work on methanol and platinum electrochemistry and later, after serving as Chief of CSIRO Division of Mineral Products, as a consultant for parties involved in fuel cell development. In semi-retirement, he continues to speak and write on energy matters
For a summary of Dr Biegler’s talk, click here.
Monday 1st December
Ary Hoffman
Using the concept of “environmental stress” Ary will talk about whether animals will be able to adapt to climate change.
16 FEBRUARY
Chief Science Officer, Museum Victoria
Tetrapod evolution
Dr John Long from the Museum of Victoria will be talking about exciting new fossil finds in China and Australia which shed light on the evolution of four-legged animals from their acquatic ancestors.
“The transition from fishes to tetrapods was one of the most dramatic events in the evolution of vertebrates, but many pivotal fossils are incomplete, resulting in gaps in our understanding of how animals came to inhabit the land – but this find helps us fill in the gaps,” Head of Sciences at Museum Victoria Dr John Long said.
Related links: Fish Fossil Find and Gogo fish article
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16 MARCH
Stem Cell Research
Professor of Stem Cell Science
Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories
Related links: Heart Cells and Latest research on stem cells
The key recommendation of the Lockhart Report is that: Human somatic cell nuclear transfer should be permitted, under licence, to create and use human embryo clones for research, training and clinical application, including the production of human embryonic stem cells, as long as the activity satisfies all the criteria outlined in the amended Act and these embryos are not implanted into the body of a woman or allowed to develop for more than 14 days.
See also news items on this topic.
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20 APRIL
Physics Dept. Melbourne University
Nuclear Power
Related links: Nuclear Power Basics How Nuclear Power Works Wikipedia entry for nuclear power
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19 MAY
Dr Andrew Prentice
Reader, School of Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Monash University
A Mathematician’s Journey to the Beginning of the Solar System
Related links: article about this topic
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15 JUNE
Cancelled
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20 JULY
Dr Ben Kefford
Research Fellow
School of Applied Sciences
RMIT
Environmental Research in Antarctica
Related links: Safeguarding Sea Life in Antarctica
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17 AUGUST
Jason Major
Manager
Gene Technology Information Service
Genetically modified organisms and gene technology
Related links: GMO (Wikipedia), Monsanto
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21 SEPTEMBER
CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship
Australia’s energy future.
CSIRO report on energy futures released.
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Action Performed by Date and Time Comment Publish Kaye Hargreaves 2006-12-11 05:32 No comments.
After two years of research and debate, the CSIRO’s report was released in December 2006. The report primarily examines the issue of addressing climate change since this was identified early on in the process by the EFF as the most pressing concern for the Australian energy sector
Related links: http://www.csiro.au/csiro/content/standard/ps2k2.html
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19 OCTOBER
Dr Lindy Lumsden
The Conservation of Insectivorous Bats
Related link: from the ABC’s program Catalyst
Bats – the missing link in insect control Lindy Lumsden’s research over the last 25 years has revealed the rich diversity of insectivorous bats across rural Victoria. |
Dr Lindy Lumsden |
Lindy travels across rural Victoria demonstrating to farmers that they, and the environment, benefit from bat conservation. She has published extensively in the scientific literature, gives 20 to 30 talks a year to community groups, and is president of the Australasian Bat Society.
Now she is working to measure the potential of bats in integrated pest control. She hopes to show that conservation measures to protect bats will also help farmers fight insect pests and reduce dependence on chemicals.
And there is still much to learn about bats. We don’t even know how long they live. Lindy’s closest bat friend – George – has already been with her for 15 years.
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16 NOVEMBER
Dr Malcolm Dobbin
Chief Medical Advisor on drug and alcohol addiction
Department of Community Services
Drug Addiction and Treatment
Related links: About heroin The science and ethics of treatment for addiction The Science of Marijuana
Friday February 17, 2006 :
The Universe and the Big Bang
 |
Peter Green, a regular participant at the Science Cafe, will speak about his writing of the ‘History of the universe, from the Big Bang to civilisation’.
It is, he says, an attempt to put together what happened The first of the three, ‘The Big Bang and the formation of the Universe’ an MS Word document is available now |
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FRI MAR 2006 Mars – the next frontier (session cancelled)
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Friday April 21
Iconic moments in the history of science
Dr John Waller
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Friday May 19
Nanotechnology
Terry Turney, Director,
CSIRO Nanotechnology Centre
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Fri June 16
Climate change
Paul Holper, Executive
Officer, CSIRO CLIMATE
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Friday August 18
Human origins
Dr Nikki Stern
Related links: Neanderthal DNA study
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FRI 15 SEPT 2006
Measuring quality of life
Associate Professor Graeme Hawthorne
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FRI 20 OCT 2006
Evolution, sexual selection and co-operative behaviour.
Dr Chris Boland.
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Friday November 17
Animal intelligence/animal minds
Howard Sankey will be talking about studies of the language ability of chimpanzees, and the philosophical issues arising from this – for example arguments that language is required for having a mind.
Associate Professor Howard Sankey
Related link: Animal Minds
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