Posts tagged as:

physics

A planet going the wrong way

7 June 2011

By travelling backwards it’s pushing knowledge forwards All planets move around their stars in the same direction as the star spins—at least that’s what we thought. But now Australian National University astronomer Dr Daniel Bayliss and his colleagues have found that some planets break the mould.

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Ultrasound puts water back in the Murray Darling…

12 July 2010

You may not be able to squeeze blood out of a stone but—by applying the right amount of ultrasound during processing—Jianhua (Jason) Du and colleagues from the University of South Australia have been able to squeeze a considerable amount of fresh water from mining waste.

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How do black holes eat?

8 June 2010

Using galaxies as cosmic telescopes to reveal the diets of the black holes at the heart of every galaxy. Anglo-Australian Observatory Astronomer David Floyd has been able to observe matter falling into a super-massive black hole – one of the Universe’s brightest objects.

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Not enough carbon to light the early Universe

21 June 2009

An international team of astronomers has discovered the oldest and most distant carbon in the Universe, but there’s not enough of it to support standard theories of how the Universe lit up, a member from Swinburne University of Technology has calculated. In the early Universe a dark pervasive fog of neutral hydrogen gas lurked everywhere. [...]

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Silicon back in the race for quantum computers

6 August 2008

The odds that a futuristic quantum computer will be built of silicon have received a boost, thanks to new technology recently invented by researchers in the Centre for Quantum Computer Technology (CQCT).

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Turning on the atom laser

12 July 2008

The first practical atom laser is a step closer today thanks to Australian researchers.

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Australian orchids’ sneaky sex tricks: floral arms race seduces insects

20 August 2007

Australian orchids are engaged in an arms race, using sensory overload to seduce male insects.

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Little ripples, big swirl

16 August 2007

How mini-earthquakes and tornados could one day be saving lives Monash University engineer Leslie Yeo is using tiny earthquakes and tornados to assist the detection of biohazards and germ warfare. He and collaborator James Friend at the Micro/Nanophysics Research Laboratory hope to integrate their technology into an inexpensive, credit-card-sized sensor within five to ten years.

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Fats trigger immune defence

14 August 2007

Synchrotron light delivers Nature paper for young scientist Natalie Borg and colleagues from Monash and Melbourne universities have shown for the first time how the body’s immune defence system can be triggered by fats, sugars and other biological compounds, not just by proteins. The research, published recently in Nature, opens the way to potential new [...]

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Sound solution for soil pollution

21 August 2006

The cleaning power of sound waves on the back of a truck A young researcher in Sydney is cleaning up contaminated soil by blasting it with ultrasound. Andrea Sosa Pintos from CSIRO Industrial Physics has shown that toxic and carcinogenic pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), can be decomposed quickly, [...]

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Surfing in Alice Springs

16 August 2006

(before NT and SA collided two billion years ago) TWO BILLION years ago, the Australia we know today existed only in pieces. Northern, western and central Australia all belonged to different continents.

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Taking the Bull Out of the China Shop

14 August 2006

Research by a Perth forensic scientist is helping to stem the flood of forgeries entering the international antiques market. A Perth forensic scientist is employing lasers to help trace pottery back to the kiln site of its production, thus exposing ceramic forgeries, a multi-million dollar criminal business. Emma Bartle from the Centre for Forensic Science [...]

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More to droplets than meets the eye

8 August 2006

Salads, shampoos and mining to benefit from theoretical research into droplets How much effort does it take to understand the behaviour of oil droplets? A multi-disciplinary team of six researchers from the University of Melbourne has spent the best part of two years, and used $300,000 of equipment to crack the problem.

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Smart bomb for cancer therapy

31 August 2005

A new system for directing radiation to target cells has been developed in Melbourne. The new targeting system has the potential to specifically destroy cancer cells with minimal damage to healthy tissues. The new targeting concept, for which an international patent is pending, uses a special class of radioactive atoms for which the radiation damage [...]

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Wings that sing

17 August 2005

Sound could stop light planes from stalling Sound can be used to control the flow of air over an aircraft’s wing greatly boosting its lift, according to a Sydney aerospace engineer who is working on applying this idea to a new generation of light aircraft. Ian Salmon has developed a technique whereby a wing is [...]

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Aussies plan for Mars weather forecasts

31 August 2004

Seeing Mars in a different light  A team of Australian astronomers are developing a way of forecasting the weather on Mars – without putting their toes in space and have created beautiful images of our neighbouring planet.  Their discoveries will help us determine if Mars was a kinder place for life in the past. And [...]

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