It's been a while since my last blog (4 months!), which is indicative of either a science student's first year workload, my laziness, or most likely both. I thought it'd be nice to get back into the writing vibe though, and talk a bit about what my overall first semester of uni has been … [Read more...]
3 Big Recent Breakthroughs in Fusion
(See my previous post about fusion if you have no idea what nuclear fusion is) From a whole new stellarator reactor - the Wendelstein 7-X at the Max Planck Institute, to visualizing energy flows and two new kinds of plasma turbulence discovered which explain heat loss...It's been a busy few … [Read more...]
Meet Australia’s New Chief Scientist
Earlier this week, Prof. Ian Chubb stepped down and welcomed in Australia's new Chief Scientist: Dr Alan Finkel. Dr Finkel received his PhD. from Monash University in electrical engineering in 1981, and since then did post-doctoral research in neuroscience at Australian National University. … [Read more...]
Power of the Stars
Nuclear fusion is awesome. It's about time I did a blog post on fusion - I'll jump straight into it. Nuclear fusion is the reaction in which two smaller atoms fuse together and make one bigger atom. The best example of this process is right above our heads (or below your feet, depending on the … [Read more...]
The Italian Ghost Particle
So about a week ago, the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald for the discovery of neutrino oscillations which showed that neutrinos have mass. It turns out that this is a pretty big deal for particle physics (hence, why they won the Nobel Prize), and it also … [Read more...]
Crash Course in Atom Splitting
So last term in Physics we covered Nuclear Physics, which my friends would know is something I'm somewhat kinda really interested in. Nukes are pretty cool, the ones that generate electricity, I mean. When anyone talks about nuclear technology or uranium, people immediately begin thinking about the … [Read more...]
Pre-RSI Thoughts
As I write this I have about 14 days to go till I leave for Boston. I still haven't bought my clothes and formal attire yet and my visa only just arrived, so it's all a bit rushed. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm excited and of course the obvious answer is "yes, definitely", but the honest answer is … [Read more...]