Today at ANSTO’s Discovery Centre at Lucas Heights, 14 of NSW’s future science leaders are participating in the NSW Fresh Science state final.

In total, 60 state finalists have been chosen competitively for their discovery and for the quality of their research.

Today, they will be trained in how to talk science to journalists, business and the public at a one day media and communication workshop.

And this evening, we’ll wrap up their training with a small networking reception where they’ll have one last challenge. Can they excite and inspire over a canapé?

The 2013 NSW state finalists are:

• Ummul Baneen, University of New South Wales
• Robin Beck, University of New South Wales
• Madleen Busse, University of Sydney
• Jessica Carilli, ANSTO
• Yee Lian Chew, University of Sydney
• Matthew Collins, University of Sydney
• Angela Crean, University of New South Wales
• Alex Donald, University of New South Wales
• Greta Frankham, Australian Museum
• Shayne McGregor, University of New South Wales
• Andrew Ong, University of New South Wales
• Anne Tiedemann, The George Institute for Global Health, The University of Sydney
• Chaofan Wu, University of New South Wales
• Jerry Zhou, The University of Sydney

The NSW state final is supported by ANSTO.

Today at Scienceworks, 15 of Victoria’s future science leaders were put to the test at the Victorian Fresh Science state final.

In total, 60 state finalists have been chosen competitively for their discovery and for the quality of their research.

Today, they will be trained in how to talk science to journalists, business and the public at a one day media and communication workshop.

We wrapped up the event with an evening reception where we challenged them to excite and inspire over a canapé.

The 2013 Victorian state finalists are:

• Sara Al-Musawi, Prince Henry’s Institute
• David Beale, CSIRO
• Alexe Bojovschi, RMIT University
• Anthony Chesman, CSIRO
• Alan Duffy, University of Melbourne
• Tu Le, CSIRO
• Laura Mackay, The University of Melbourne
• Rachel Mann, Department of Primary Industries Victoria / La Trobe University
• Hossein Mokhtarzadeh, The University of Melbourne
• Lucille Rankin, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
• Yaou Smets, La Trobe University
• Patricia Vietheer, Burnet Institute
• Jinfeng Wang, Institute of Frontier Materials, Deakin University
• Meng Wai Woo, Monash University
• Tamara Yawno, Monash Institute of Medical Research

Today, 7 of Queensland and the ACT’s brightest young scientists are in Brisbane participating in the Fresh Science state final.

The 60 state finalists have been chosen competitively for their discovery and for the quality of their research.

Today, they will be trained in how to talk science to journalists, business and the public at a one day media and communication workshop.

And tonight, they’ll join guests for a networking reception, and meet one final challenge – can they excite and inspire over a glass of wine?

The 7 Queensland state finalists participants are:

The Queensland state final is supported by The University of Queensland

Today, 11 of South Australia and Tasmania’s brightest young scientists are in Adelaide participating in the Fresh Science state final.

The 60 state finalists have been chosen competitively for their discovery and for the quality of their research.

Today, they will be trained in how to talk science to journalists, business and the public at a one day media and communication workshop.

And tonight, they’ll join guests for a networking reception, and meet one final challenge – can they excite and inspire over a glass of wine?

The 11 South Australian state finalists participants are:

• Dragana Calic, Defence Science and Technology Organisation
• Kylie Ellis, University of Adelaide
• Jonathan Hall, The University of Adelaide
• Elizabeth Harford-Wright, Adelaide Centre for Neuroscience Research
• Wai Khay Leong, The University of Adelaide
• Monalisa Padhee, University of South Australia
• Christian Reynolds, University of South Australia
• Krishna Venkidusamy, Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE)
• Sasha Wilson, Monash University
• Pat Mitchell, CSIRO
• Aliaa Shallan, University of Tasmania

The South Australian final is supported by the Inspiring Australia intiative.

Today, 12 of Western Australia’s brightest young scientists are in Perth participating in the Fresh Science state final.

The 60 state finalists have been chosen competitively for their discovery and for the quality of their research.

Today, they will be trained in how to talk science to journalists, business and the public at a one day media and communication workshop.

And tonight, they’ll join 40 or so guests for a networking reception, and meet one final challenge – can they excite and inspire over a glass of wine?

The 12 Western Australian state finalists are:

• Chris Abbiss, Edith Cowan University
• Janelle Braithwaite, University of Western Australia
• Belinda Brown, Edith Cowan University
• Kitty-Rose Foley, Telethon Institute for Child Health Research
• Veer Gupta, Edith Cowan University
• Michael (Dr K) Klunzinger, Murdoch University
• Gino Putrino, University of Western Australia
• Jess Robertson, CSIRO Earth Science and Resource Engineering
• Liza Roger, University of Western Australia/ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
• Natalie Strobel, Edith Cowan University
• Ruth Thornton, University of Western Australia
• Mandy Trueman, University of Western Australia

The Western Australia final is supported by Inspiring Australia; The University of Western Australia, Edith Cowan University and Murdoch University.

How might tooth stem cells help repair damaged brains? How do trees cope with thirst and starvation? Do whales need personal space? And is there an early blood test for Alzheimer’s?

These are some of the questions our 2013 Fresh Science State Finalists are working on.

We’ve picked some of Australia’s brightest early-career scientists to participate in a one-day media and communication boot camp where they’ll learn how to talk science to journalists, business and the public. The course is based on Science in Public’s national media training program.

We’re wrapping up the finalists’ training with a small networking reception where we’ll give them one last challenge. Can they excite and inspire over a glass of wine?

The receptions are invite-only but contact AJ if you’re interested to attend: aj@scienceinpublic.com.au

This year the state-final courses will run in Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales. Details of each event are below.

Perth: Tuesday April 16, University of Western Australia’s University Club

Adelaide: Thursday 18 April, The Science Exchange

Brisbane: Tuesday 23 April, the University of Queensland’s St Lucia Campus

Melbourne: Tuesday 30 April, Scienceworks in Spotswood

Sydney: Thursday 2 May, ANSTO in Lucas Heights

The 2013 Fresh Science State Finals are supported by ANSTO, Science Works, Edith Cowan University, Murdoch University, the University of Western Australia and the University of Queensland.

Nominations for Fresh Science 2013 are now closed.

We look forward to reading about the work of the 2013 nominees and we’ll notify applicants of the results by email during the week starting Monday 25 March 2013.

Successful applicants will participate in the state finals which will be held around Australia in April and May. Final dates will be announced shortly.

Nominations for Fresh Science 2013 have been extended to Thursday 7 March 2013.

We’re looking for the best and brightest early-career researchers who have made a peer reviewed discovery and received little or no media attention.

Successful applicants will participate in the Fresh Science 2013 state finals, a one-day communication boot camp for early-career researchers where they will learn essential communication skills.

Applicants can be researching in any field of science – from medicine to mathematics, from environmental science to computer science.

Plus, the 12 top candidates from the state finals will then be flown to Melbourne in July for the Fresh Science national final.

Nominating is easy, the key information we need is:

• Nominee’s qualifications, including granting institution and year awarded.
• A 60 word project summary
• A 400 word project description
• Evidence of peer review supporting the quality of your science.

The whole process is online via SurveyMonkey, and the young researchers are expected to fill in their own application.

Nominations are now open and close 5pm, Thursday 7 March 2013.

Read the full selection criteria online here then apply online through Survey Monkey here.

The Fresh Science state finals consist of a one-day media boot camp for young scientists.

Fresh Science helps young researchers develop expertise in presenting their ideas clearly to a general audience and to the media.

Fresh Science also assists the media to identify and publish accurate stories about Australian science. It demonstrates that science in Australia is exciting, vibrant and successful. Fresh Science encourages and provides recognition for Australia’s best young scientists and engineers.

Please circulate this information to anyone who you think would fit the criteria.

Below is further information on how and why to nominate. You can read more at www.freshscience.org.au

Now in its 16th year, Fresh Science is supported by the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science, Research and Tertiary Education through the Inspiring Australia initiative, CSL Limited and Museum Victoria.

Fresh Science takes young researchers with no media experience and turns them into spokespeople for science.

More than 60 early-career researchers get a taste of life in the limelight, with a day of media training and a public event in their home state.

Then we throw the media spotlight on 12 of the best and brightest young scientists, putting them through a four-day media bootcamp in Melbourne.

Nominations are now open and close 5pm, Friday 1 March 2013.

Read on for more information, or jump straight to the nomination page.

We’re looking for:

• early-career researchers (from honours students to no more than five years post-PhD)
• a peer-reviewed discovery which has had little or no media coverage
• some ability to present ideas in everyday English
• from absolutely any field of science

State finalists will meet journalists and learn essential communication skills in a one day media training course, followed by a public event where they’ll get to practice their new skills.

Then, the 12 best candidates from the state finals will head to Melbourne for the Fresh Science national final – an intense four-day media boot camp, where they’ll present their work to the media, meet government and science leaders, explain their work over a beer with strangers and try to inspire a room full of schoolkids with their science.

Last year’s Fresh Science national finalists were featured in more than 400 news stories on TV and radio, in print and online. You can stories about past Fresh Scientists at: www.freshscience.org.au

Now in its 16th year, Fresh Science is supported by the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science, Research and Tertiary Education through the Inspiring Australia initiative, CSL Limited and Museum Victoria.

Ready to apply? Click through for details of how to nominate.

Termites and ants are stockpiling gold in their mounds, new CSIRO research has found.

Australia’s smallest and most numerous mining prospectors can show us where new gold deposits are.

Insects can carry gold from underground up into their mounds.

Dr Aaron Stewart and his CSIRO colleagues have shown that they also accumulate metals in their bodies.

In Australia—geologically the world’s oldest continent—new mineral resources are becoming increasingly difficult to find, because they tend to be overlain by layers of sand, gravel and soils.

But insects provide valuable clues to where these resources lie.

“What is really great about ants and termites is that we can use their work instead of spending vast amounts on expensive drilling,” says Aaron, a research scientist with CSIRO in Perth.

“After 150 years of exploration, the easiest deposits near the surface have been discovered. We need new ways of finding gold.”

“Most of Australia is covered by a layer of earth that hides buried minerals. But signs of a resource are often close to the surface. In some places we have shown that termites and ants can bridge that gap by bringing up evidence from five metres down.”

“Our new research shows that it is not only the really big termite mounds like the ones found in northern Australia that can be useful. Small termite and ant mounds that occur all over the country can do the job.”

At thousands of dollars a hole, the traditional exploration method of drilling grids of holes is very expensive. “Exploration companies are very keen to find ways of reducing costs,” Aaron says.

“By helping to narrow down the area that needs to be drilled we can reduce the cost of finding new deposits.”

Several exploration companies are already working with CSIRO to develop and refine the method.

Aaron’s research was published in the journal Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis in November and has also appeared in PLoS ONE.

His most recent paper is online at http://geea.geoscienceworld.org/content/12/4/327.full.pdf+html

The PLoS ONE paper is online here: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0027578#cor1

For interviews: 

• Dr Aaron Stewart, aaron.stewart@csiro.au
• Georgina Howden-Chitty,  Science in Public, 03 03 9078 5398, georgina@scienceinpublic.com.au
• Niall Byrne, Science in Public, 0417 131 977, niall@scienceinpublic.com.au

Aaron Stewart collecting insects and mound material samples for analysis from an ant mound North of Kalgoorlie, WA. Credit: Nathan Reid.

A mound of the termite Tumulitermes tumuli. This nest sits over a gold deposit and has high concentrations of gold within. Credit: Aaron Stewart, CSIRO/Fresh Science.

Aaron Stewart with a red ant colony in Northern Finland.

The termite Tumulitermes tumuli, taken under a microscope. Credit: Aaron Stewart, CSIRO/Fresh Science.

Aaron Stewart. Credit: Mark Coulson, Fresh Science.

Aaron presenting at Science at the Pub. Credit: Thami Croeser, Fresh Science.

A mound formed by the ant Rhytidoponera mayri near Kalgoorlie in WA. Credit: Aaron Stewart, CSIRO/Fresh Science.

Cooking minerals in huge mixing tanks can turn them to jelly, and an Adelaide researcher has found out why. The work could save the industry millions of dollars a year in lost production and cleaning costs.

Sticky gel-like materials form during the liquid processing of mineral ores, when clays present in the deposits release elements such as silicon and aluminium into the liquid under particular conditions of temperature and acidity. That’s what Dr Ataollah Nosrati, a research associate at the Ian Wark Research Institute (The Wark) of the University of South Australia has found.

To extract valuable metals, some of world’s largest mineral deposits are mined and processed as concentrated slurries. This generally occurs in mixing tanks at high temperatures under aggressive acidic or alkaline conditions. Zinc silicate ores, for instance, are typically cooked at between 50 °C and 80 °C under very acidic conditions for a couple of hours.

But occasionally, the breakdown of the attached silicon compounds results in everything thickening into a gel. This kind of thing can also happen with other ores containing reactive clays or silicates.

“If we can prevent or mitigate this,” Ataollah says, “it would lead to a higher recovery rate of valuable metals, lower operating costs, and a dramatic increase in throughput with a greatly reduced number of plant shutdowns. The decreased need for cleaning the mixing tanks would also increase safety.”

“Ataollah identified and established plausible mechanisms responsible for gelation,” said Prof Jonas Addai-Mensah, Associate Director (Minerals) at The Wark. “He also proposed possible mitigation strategies in actual mineral plants for this costly and intractable issue.”

Due to their high solubility at elevated temperatures under acidic conditions, the clay-based minerals release significant amounts of gel-forming elements into the processing solution, Ataollah found. Reactions among these elements can have a significant impact on the particle interactions and flow behaviour in the solution, and that is what leads to gelling.

The research findings pave the way for enhancing our ability to process complex, low-grade ores of copper, gold, nickel and cobalt which contain silicates and aluminosilicate clays.

Ataollah Nosrati is one of 12 early-career scientists unveiling their research to the public for the first time thanks to Fresh Science, a national program sponsored by the Australian Government.
The research project is co-funded by the Australian Research Council and industry, and is led by Professor Jonas Addai-Mensah.

There is more information about Ataollah online here: http://w3.unisa.edu.au/iwri/staffpages/ataollahnosrati.asp

For interviews:

• Ataollah Nosrati, ataollah.nosrati@unisa.edu.au
• Niall Byrne, 0417 131 977, niall@scienceinpublic.com.au

University of South Australia contact:

• Rosanna Galvin, rosanna.galvin@unisa.edu.au

Ataollah performing measurements on mineral slurries in the lab.

Ataollah in the lab at UniSA.

/caption]

Ataollah presenting his work at Science at the Pub in Melbourne. Credit: Thami Croeser, Fresh Science.

Ataollah in the lab at UniSA.

Ataollah Nosrati. Credit: Mark Coulson, Fresh Science.

Ataollah Nosrati. Credit: Mark Coulson, Fresh Science.

Ataollah Nosrati. Credit: Mark Coulson, Fresh Science.