Episodes
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Professor Brian Schmidt - Nobel Prize for Physics Press Conference
The Australian National University is celebrating the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Physics to Professor Brian Schmidt. Announced in Stockholm, Sweden overnight, the award is shared with two US scientists – Professor Adam Riess from Johns Hopkins University and Professor Saul Perlmutter from…
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Tales of stars and stellar systems - Helmut Jerjen
Mt Stromlo Centenary Celebrations - Tales Of Stars and Stellar SystemsAstronomy has arguably the single largest impact on the development of science, human society and culture over the past 10,000 years. On our journey through space and time we will explore the glorious life of our sun, learn how...
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Space science and Climate change
As part of Mt Stromlo’s centenary celebrations for 2011, this lecture series provides an opportunity to hear from experts in space science technology. In order to understand fully the causes of climate change we must understand the complex interactions that control our environment on a global...
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Global Climate Change: Perspectives from the Past
People are constantly asking how today's climate compares with detailed climate records from tens of thousands of years ago to tens of millions of years ago. To the best of our knowledge, we have to search back 55 million years to find a time interval where the rate temperature changes were...
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Climate Change 2010: Where do we go from here?
Over the past few months, the climate change challenge has taken some odd twists and turns. The COP15 meeting in Copenhagen was widely condemned in the press as a failure; the Australian Government has been unable to get its emission trading scheme through the Senate; Europe and North America…
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Post Copenhagen: Where do we go now?
What really went on at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference? Was it a fiasco or a positive step forward? Those are some of the questions that were addressed by a panel of experts at The Australian National University. The panel discussion - Post Copenhagen: Where do we go now? - will brought...
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The global energy challenge
A stable and sustainable energy supply is one of the major issues of this Century. World-energy demand is expected to increase by about 70% in the coming 20 years, while the production of petroleum - our main source of energy - is likely to peak in this period. The combination of rising demand…
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Thirsty Work
Rod Quantock says, "If climate change doesn't scare you, then you don't get the science." Fortunately Quantock does, and when he gives you his take on the physics, chemistry, biology, geology, palaeontology, cosmology and meteorology of climate science you'll get it too. And then... you'll be...
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Strucure and Randomness in the Prime Numbers
"God may not play dice with the universe, but something strange is going on with the prime numbers" - Paul Erdos The prime numbers are a fascinating blend of both structure and randomness. It is widely believed that beyond the ‘obvious' structures in the primes, they otherwise behave as if they...
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Black Holes and Galaxies
Evidence has been accumulating for several decades that many galaxies harbor central mass concentrations that may be in the form of black holes with masses between a few million to a few billion time the mass of the Sun. Professor Reinhard Genzel discussed measurements over the last two decades,...
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Powering the Planet: The Challenge for Science in the 21st Century
The supply of secure, clean, sustainable energy is arguably the most important scientific and technical challenge facing humanity in the 21st century. Rising living standards of a growing world population will cause global energy consumption to increase dramatically over the next half century....
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Origin of the Elements of Life
Human beings are, by nature, curious about their beginnings. Often, such questions of "how we came to be" are confined to the origins of modern society, or the development of human beings as a species. In this lecture, Professor Timothy Beers will endeavour to take the discussion all the way back...
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The New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt
New Horizons is the first scientific investigation to obtain a close look at Pluto and its moon Charon. Scientists hope to find answers to basic questions about the surface properties, geology, interior makeup and atmospheres on these bodies, the last in our solar system to be visited by a...
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Physics Students Uncovered
As part of National Science Week, the ANU College of Science recently pitted 5 Physics PhD students against each other in a competition to showcase their presentation skills, passion and ability to communicate their phd topic.
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Messages from the Past: The Warm Earth We Know
As a pioneer in paleoceanography who has contributed to three generations of scientific ocean drilling programs, Ted Moore questions whether lessons learned from Earth's past will help us better appreciate the extensive changes that could be brought on by higher global temperatures, rising sea...
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The Dark Side of the Universe
Professor Silk discusses how our understanding of cosmology has evolved in recent years from the old Big Bang cosmology of the Einstein era. Observations have shown us that the universe is mostly dark. This is one of the greatest mysteries in the cosmos. Not only is the observed night sky dark…
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Debunking ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’
Leading expert scientists from ANU and Stanford University presented critiques of the ABC televised program from the previous evening entitled 'The Great Global Warming Swindle'. The forum was then opened for general discussion and questions.
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Geological Perspectives on Climate Change
Throughout Earth’s history, mass extinctions of species were closely related to physical and chemical changes in the atmosphere and the oceans. These variations were controlled by heat from the sun, the distribution of oceans and continents, the extent of ice sheets; volcanic eruptions and…
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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: The First Months
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) was launched in 2005 to search for evidence that water persisted on the surface of Mars for a long period of time. While other Mars missions have shown that water flowed across the surface in Mars' history, it remains a mystery whether liquid water existed...
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The Brightest Explosions in the Universe
The Earth is hit each day by the bright flash of gamma rays lasting from a fraction of a second to several minutes. These bursts originate in distant galaxies as stars collapse and form black holes. The most distant bursts yet observed are from stellar explosions that occurred over 13 billion…
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It Ain’t Necessarily So … Bro
Dr Karl explodes our most common ‘mythconceptions’, including whether the daddy long legs is really the most venomous spider in the world and whether a frog will really sit in a pot of gently warming water, and unknowingly boil itself to death. Are virgin births possible? Would cockroaches…
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The Beginning of Earth History
Earth formed over 4.5 billion years ago with its initial condition greatly affected by the trauma of giant impacts. In this lecture, Professor David Stevenson discusses how this trauma affects the similarities and differences between Earth and Moon, the core, possible initial layering of the…
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An Architecture for International Cooperation on Climate Change
The Fifth Annual Sir Leslie Melville Lecture was presented by Professor Warwick J McKibbin. Sir Leslie Melville’s legacy includes the design and establishment of new institutions for dealing with global macroeconomic interdependence. Today the world is grappling with a far more complex set of...
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Meet the Author: David Suzuki
In this last lecture tour of Australia, acclaimed environmentalist and scientist Dr David Suzuki tells the story of his passion for the planet – a passion that for several decades he has brought to the world through his research, his writings, his broadcasting, and above all his life story.
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Submarine Volcanoes of the Western Pacific
The way the sea floor is mapped has been revolutionised in the last decade by high resolution, multi-beam sonar systems, with follow-ups by manned and remotely-operated submersibles. Using these techniques, research groups from Australia, Germany, New Zealand and the USA are discovering much more...
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Sailing into the Final Frontier: The Giant Magellan Telescope
In the centuries-old quest to refine human understanding of the universe in which we live, the tools we use to throw light at the dim frontiers of knowledge are evolving rapidly. Australian astronomers, engineers, and technologists have just embarked an international partnership to design and…
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Fusion Energy & The ITER Project: The Next Step to a Sustainable Future
Fusion energy powers the sun and the stars, but it is yet to be tapped by man. Countries representing over half the world’s population plan to construct and operate a large experimental device, ITER (Latin for ‘the way’), to demonstrate the feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful purposes. In...
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These are recordings of ANU public lectures and special events that are categorised by physical science
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