A few weeks ago I finally wrapped up my first semester research project with a presentation to the Plasma Research Lab faculty, which went surprisingly well. Now with yet another fusion related project or two lined up for this semester which has just started, I felt that it's worth taking a moment … [Read more...]
Turning up the Heat – AusPol and Climate Policy
With an election just around the corner, I thought it would be timely to discuss some issues related to climate science policy, including the CSIRO job cuts, Great Barrier Reef bleaching and climate adaptation. In February this year CSIRO announced they would be cutting 350 jobs across their … [Read more...]
First Semester at ANU
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...]
A Reflection on STEM Education
(I wrote this blog post over a period of three days; from moving out of home to settling in at ANU) So earlier this week I gave a talk at my high school to the new Year 10 cohort about "Science and the Importance of Being Curious". Talking about science, curiosity and STEM (science, technology, … [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...]
The Science Fiction and Philosophy of Video Games
Recently, I've been playing two new and very popular video games; Fallout 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. Both are decisively science-fiction, but are very different games; the former being a modern day equivalent of Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game (RPG) set in post-apocalyptic Boston, and … [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...]