Technorati tags: Science, Education, Community, Radio, Canberra, Australia
Monday, 23 October 2006
Friday, 20 October 2006
ANU Bee guru wins Prime Minister's award for Science
OK, I admit a little bias here because it involves one of my PhD supervisors, but I think it's worth a mention. Professor Mandyam Srinivasan, a world expert on honeybees and pioneer of a field of robotics that takes its inspiration from insect vision, was awarded the Prime Minister's award for science on Monday night during a ceremony at Parliament House.
Professor Srinivasan's work has contributed significantly to our knowledge of how insects solve complex navigation problems with such apparent ease, despite possessing a brain the size of a pin head. He has concentrated mostly on the vision system of the honeybee, which is known to be highly specialised to the tasks it performs. Perhaps the most significant lessons learnt from this work are that you can achieve a lot with a small amount of computing power, which is why robotics researchers are so keen on insects. Srinivasan was one of the first to implement insect-inspired navigation strategies on robots equipped with cameras. This is now a well established field of robotics research, and has helped bring robotics research forward many years, after a long time spent getting seemingly no where.
Professor Srinivasan's work has contributed significantly to our knowledge of how insects solve complex navigation problems with such apparent ease, despite possessing a brain the size of a pin head. He has concentrated mostly on the vision system of the honeybee, which is known to be highly specialised to the tasks it performs. Perhaps the most significant lessons learnt from this work are that you can achieve a lot with a small amount of computing power, which is why robotics researchers are so keen on insects. Srinivasan was one of the first to implement insect-inspired navigation strategies on robots equipped with cameras. This is now a well established field of robotics research, and has helped bring robotics research forward many years, after a long time spent getting seemingly no where.
Technorati tags: Science, Education, Community, Radio, Canberra, Australia
Wednesday, 11 October 2006
Science careers, as mentioned in 13 August show
On the 13 August show, Rebecca, Jacinta and I had a bit of a chat about science careers, and mentioned a panel discussion being hosted by Robyn Williams as part of the Australian Science Festival.
The audio of that discussion is now available from the Science Show web site and featured:
The audio of that discussion is now available from the Science Show web site and featured:
- James Bradfield Moody (CSIRO Land and Water and ABC TV's The New Inventors)
- Jenny Graves (Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University)
- Barry Marshall (University of Western Australia and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2005)
- Penny Sackett (Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics Mt Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories, Australian National University)
Technorati tags: Science, Education, Community, Radio, Canberra, Australia
Tuesday, 10 October 2006
New Audio Available
A couple of (mostly) complete shows are now available:
Fuzzy Logic 13 August 2006 (a tad fuzzy in parts)
Fuzzy Logic 24 September 2006
Fuzzy Logic 13 August 2006 (a tad fuzzy in parts)
Fuzzy Logic 24 September 2006
Technorati tags: Science, Education, Community, Radio, Podcast, Canberra, Australia
Wednesday, 27 September 2006
Podcasting Fuzzy Logic
Fuzzy Logic is now podcasting via Odeo! Our first offering is Tim's interview with Amanda George from the Centre for Mental Health Research at ANU about Ecstasy. This interview was recorded in March 2006.
More (including whole shows) coming soon.
More (including whole shows) coming soon.
[Technorati tags: Science, Education, Community, Radio, Canberra, Australia]
Fuzzy Logic Producer’s report for 23 September
Producer: Janine
Contributors: Dean, Kate and Jeevan
Today’s show was somewhat dominated by Dean’s hangover. He was determined to check out if some of the accepted hangover cures actually work – but more on that later.
The show started normally enough with our newsy bits:
• a new supernova has broken all the rules, scientists are confused
• sunless tanning
• Indonesian blrd flu toll hits 50
• Doubts over the efficacy of the morning after pill (for social reasons, not medical ones)
Then, in true Fuzzy style, we started talking about sex:
• the world’s first penis transplant has taken place, but was removed two weeks later after his wife freaked out
• crickets face the dilemma of calling for a mate, but becoming prey for a parasite if they do (shag and die, in other words)
• adult male prairie dogs are being taken by predators because they’re so preoccupied with sex (again, shag and die)
• hope for a new IVF technique
• and we couldn’t help but wonder what the first female space tourist was doing while she was up there…
We talked about hangovers – what they are medically, how they happen and why you feel so bloody awful when you’ve got one. Dean was testing the fatty-morning-after-breakfast cure, as well as a sports drink to try and rehydrate whilst replacing lost electrolytes. By the end of the show, he reported feeling “much better” but I can’t help but wonder if that had more to do with his scintillating company than anything he ate or drank.
The science contained with reports of spinach in the US being contaminated with E. coli and killing people; I had serious food poisoning last week from I don’t know what, so I had HUGE amounts of sympathy for anyone affected. The spinach story tied in with a recent ruling by the Queensland DPI that processed effluent can be used on food crops.
A huge storm cloud study in the Northern Territory will have big impacts by improving weather forecasting. And the Bureau of Meteorology calendar goes on sale this week.
Getting towards the end of the show, we hit what I like to call our science slam (headlines to fit in the stuff we didn’t have time to talk about in detail):
• development of a new intestinal robot
• discovery of a 3.3 million year-old juvenile Australopithecus skeleton (dubbed Lucy’s baby)
• Guidance being provided for people buying groceries online
• Naturally dead embryos yielding stem cells
• The Australian Medical Association backing calls for adding labels to alcohol warning that it causes cancer
• A new ring has been discovered around Saturn
Contributors: Dean, Kate and Jeevan
Today’s show was somewhat dominated by Dean’s hangover. He was determined to check out if some of the accepted hangover cures actually work – but more on that later.
The show started normally enough with our newsy bits:
• a new supernova has broken all the rules, scientists are confused
• sunless tanning
• Indonesian blrd flu toll hits 50
• Doubts over the efficacy of the morning after pill (for social reasons, not medical ones)
Then, in true Fuzzy style, we started talking about sex:
• the world’s first penis transplant has taken place, but was removed two weeks later after his wife freaked out
• crickets face the dilemma of calling for a mate, but becoming prey for a parasite if they do (shag and die, in other words)
• adult male prairie dogs are being taken by predators because they’re so preoccupied with sex (again, shag and die)
• hope for a new IVF technique
• and we couldn’t help but wonder what the first female space tourist was doing while she was up there…
We talked about hangovers – what they are medically, how they happen and why you feel so bloody awful when you’ve got one. Dean was testing the fatty-morning-after-breakfast cure, as well as a sports drink to try and rehydrate whilst replacing lost electrolytes. By the end of the show, he reported feeling “much better” but I can’t help but wonder if that had more to do with his scintillating company than anything he ate or drank.
The science contained with reports of spinach in the US being contaminated with E. coli and killing people; I had serious food poisoning last week from I don’t know what, so I had HUGE amounts of sympathy for anyone affected. The spinach story tied in with a recent ruling by the Queensland DPI that processed effluent can be used on food crops.
A huge storm cloud study in the Northern Territory will have big impacts by improving weather forecasting. And the Bureau of Meteorology calendar goes on sale this week.
Getting towards the end of the show, we hit what I like to call our science slam (headlines to fit in the stuff we didn’t have time to talk about in detail):
• development of a new intestinal robot
• discovery of a 3.3 million year-old juvenile Australopithecus skeleton (dubbed Lucy’s baby)
• Guidance being provided for people buying groceries online
• Naturally dead embryos yielding stem cells
• The Australian Medical Association backing calls for adding labels to alcohol warning that it causes cancer
• A new ring has been discovered around Saturn
Technorati tags: Science, Education, Community, Radio, Canberra, Australia
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
