Fun fact I learned today: #Australia is one of the few countries that has achieved #genderparity on #banknotes - a woman appears on one side of every banknote in circulation 💵 The only other two major nations who have achieved this are #Denmark and #Sweden!
$5 - Queen Elizabeth II
$10 - Mary Gilmore
$20 - Mary Reibey
$50 - Edith Cowan
$100 - Nellie Melba
Don’t know some of them? I didn’t either, time for some reading!
While we’re busy working away on season 3 and other exciting things, catch-up on our season 2 episodes with fabulous expert guests!
What was your favourite episode? Let us know below 🩷
#Sci_Burst is an #AustralianPodcast about #popularculture and #STEM. We are a #scicomm project, which means this podcast is meant for you no matter your level of expertise. You can find us on all your fav podcast platforms: https://linktr.ee/sci_burst
Interesting stuff from the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership (#GIWL) this week on the glass cliff phenomenon, women and the Australian 2025 Federal Election 🗳️
#auspol #australia #election2025 #glasscliff #politics #WomenAndLeadership
https://giwl.anu.edu.au/files/2025-04/Glass%20cliff%20gender%20election_Report.pdf
A bit of what we’re working on at the moment 😊
“The Overland Telegraph Line was an organising principle for other infrastructures including the railway, roads, micro-wave, radio towers and even the NBN (National Broadband Network)” and thus “a system which has deeply impacted the ways in which Australian identity is and continues to be articulated.”
#telegraphy #cybernetics #archaeology #strangwayssprings #innovation #technology #australianhistory #history
https://cybernetics.anu.edu.au/news/2025/04/02/telegraphy-and-technology/
Like many researchers, cyberneticians seek to better understand our world, looking for and at evidence of the past, present and future to build these understandings. Recently researchers from the School of Cybernetics have published their findings of the tools and technologies found at Strangways Springs/Pangki Warruna, the site of a repeater station along the Overland Telegraph Line. Map of Australia's telegraph lines. The Overland Telegraph Line which ran from Darwin to Adelaide and connected Australia to the global telegraph network is shown in orange. Image Credit: Bell, Richards, Meares, Traw, Paterson in collaboration with John Firth, 2024. Telegraphy in Australia, particularly that of the Overland Telegraph Line, is a pretty big deal in our technological and societal history. This ‘electric chain’ of telegraphy was our first digital system, and it has shaped all following digital systems including our computer data banks, mobile phone technologies, and the internet. As for shaping our societal history, once completed the Overland Telegraph line eliminated the ‘tyranny of distance’ from our communication system – overseas messages went from taking months to deliver by boat to mere minutes of electric delivery via the telegraph system. So, though telegraphy currently seems largely irrelevant and invisible, there is much we can learn now about our current (and future) technologies and societies through studying our telegraphic past. The first of these two papers argues that Australian telegraph systems, particularly the Overland Telegraph Line, offer unique research potential to marry industrial archaeology and cybernetics. Industrial archeology is a field that is critically interested in the industrial era as the source for many many aspects of our current modern world – including climate change, globalisation, social legacies of colonisations, colonialism and empire, and also a shift in the way humans and societies engage with technology. Landscape analysis described in this paper reveals that Strangways Springs, a telegraph repeater station in the South Australian colony, can be described as a site of cross-cultural action in the colonial world. The Overland Telegraph Line was an organising principle for other infrastructures including the railway, electricity roads, micro-wave, radio towers and even the NBN (National Broadband Network). This research ultimately reveals the interdependencies of technological, ecological and human systems that were necessary to support the system that is the Overland Telegraph Line, a system which has deeply impacted the ways in which Australian identity is and continues to be articulated. Strangways Springs Telegraph Repeater Station, mid-1880s. Image Credit: “Strangways Springs Station” Courtesy of the State Library of South Australia: B 11945. In their second paper our cyberneticians look deeper at one specific ‘node’ in this telegraphy system and explore the technologies of Strangways Springs. Strangways Springs existed for the purpose of technology, that is, it was established to support the repeating of messages along the telegraph line. It is perhaps both a surprise and not to discover through reading this research the number of emerging technologies that sprang from this ‘strange’ place. The telegraph wires that ran through Strangways Springs carried not just electricity but information. It is fitting then that it was the son of early computer pioneer Charles Babbage who identified the site for Strangways Springs during early surveying for potential telegraph station sites. This paper highlights how telegraphy and agricultural innovations shaped Australia through trade, economy, technology systems, societal systems, and so much more. “this paper traces the evolution of Strangways from a pastoral property to telegraph station and then railway stop, as well as the technologies that were designed, deployed, and decommissioned there.“ As much as we would love to dive in deeper to all that these research papers uncover, we must leave some things for you to read yourself. Despite all the technologies and innovations, all the change brought by this little town, Strangways Springs is now all but forgotten. These days the Strangway Springs telegraph station resembles a pile of stones, the evidence of its past as a technological hub only appears when you look deeper for those cybernetic connections. Strangways Springs station remains 2023. Image Credit: Andrew Meares. This research is a fascinating deep dive into what telegraphy can teach us about technology, particularly when we take a systems perspective. Explore the research: Wool, Wires and Water: Technological Transitions at Strangways Springs (2025) One complete system? Telegraphy, cybernetics and industrial archaeology (2024) Meet the researchers: Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell Professor Andrew Meares Dr Alistair Paterson Isabel Richards Distingushed Professor Brendan Traw
Well this just makes my #scicomm heart very happy 😍 it’s about time!!
#OpenAccess #humanities #cambridge #publishing #peerreview
https://humanities.org.au/power-of-the-humanities/public-humanities-fast-tracked-research/
Authoritative, intelligent, responsible, serious—if you were asked to describe the general figure of a scientist, you would probably use adjectives like these. However, “funny” would likely not be the first word that comes to mind. Scientists, in fact, rarely adopt a humorous tone when communicating with the public, perhaps out of fear of appearing less credible. Yet, a new study published in the Journal of Science Communication (JCOM) suggests exactly the opposite: the use of humor—in this study, specifically in the context of artificial intelligence—can enhance both the likability of scientists and the perceived reliability of the scientific information they convey.
An incredible person has started a movement to tell the stories of #US #scientists and #science experts who have been dismissed because of the #trump #madness over there at the moment
If you know scientists who have lost funding or jobs because of *certain decisions*, you should contact them! They are also looking for #volunteers ❤️❤️
#scicomm #stem #illustration #art #sciart #illustrators #terminated #federalscience #sciencematters #standupforscience
We are organizing an illustrated series of portraits and stories of dismissed federal scientists and other scientific experts whose work is being affected by federal budget cuts and mass firings. We are working with amazing science illustrators to create these features to communicate the careers and the important scientific research of federally employed and funded scientists. How to get involved: - If you are an illustrator / artist willing to volunteer, reach out or sign up on this sheet: https://lnkd.in/gXK4mfeC. Or email paigebjarreau@gmail.com - If you are a scientist or any other type of science expert recently terminated or affected by the current administration's actions, and are willing to be featured, reach out or fill out this form! https://lnkd.in/gbq7cmG6 - If you are willing to sponsor a science artist to do this, reach out! If you want to help fund an artist on this project, everything given to Paige Jarreau's “buy me a coffee” page will go to this! https://lnkd.in/gm-9KQtR We will be posting these stories via the @ScientistSelfies Instagram account, this LinkedIn page, and our Facebook page. #sciart #scicomm #art #illustrators #scientists #terminated #federalscience #firedfeds #sciencematters #standupforscience
It’s my brother and his partner’s anniversary… and she wrote him a song as a gift 🥹❤️
He better not F this one up lol
It’s also the second single she’s ever released so kinda a big deal for her!
If you wanna support a #local #Canberra #artist, you can listen here or on your favourite streaming platform: https://open.spotify.com/album/1fiOxqGlz9fAiFeqjHWQHE
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