iRats are robots with ideas that they can communicate. They can make a date with each other to meet in a particular place - once they know where they both know where that particular place is.

A team at the University of Queensland's Information Technology and Engineering Department are developing these Lingodroids. 

National Science Week brought one of the researchers, Dr Dan Angus, to the Ekka to talk with Speculative Fiction writer, Charlotte Nash, about how science fiction inspires science.

Dr Dan, as he was dubbed by the event compere UQ science & communication student Carl Smith, explained how most of his work with computers and robots is inspired by nature so really nature inspires science fiction as well as science.

Bees and ants have secrets that he - and other researchers - try to learn to solve difficult organizational and navigation problems.  For instance, have you ever stopped to think how something you buy on the internet overseas arrives on your doorstep?

Dr Dan explains how the way bees pack their honey in a hive helps solve the dilemma of packing shipping containers - check out the video on our Does Sci-Fi Inspire Science Channel.

When you shop on the internet, your item may end up in a shipping container and that shipping container may be one of thousands loaded onto a ship. So what happens it the ship stops in Brisbane and your container is at the bottom of the pile and the ship's next port is Sydney? They would have to unload all the containers to get the Brisbane crate off and then load all the Sydney crates back up? 

"Because bees are good at organizing things like their honey we look for those kinds of solutions they make to inspire solutions here," Dr Dan said. 

But when it comes to programming a computer to schedule trains, like in Japan, scientists look to ants, he says. 

"Ants can actually find a shortcut through networks really, really well and we use this to inspire systems that can solve these kinds of transport problems," he said.

Dr Dan also explains the process of making idea maps in order to teach a robot how to communicate. Robots with ideas actually think for themselves but, he warns, it's a long way to go yet before they take over the world like in science fiction movies such as The Matrix or Terminator.

 

"The year 11 Biology students were very excited about National Science Week. Being a part of the activities brought a buzz to the school and lifted our cheese making activity (that was filmed) to a new level. Students are already asking about it for next year!" _ Sylvia Hicks | PAR - Biology, Science.                                                                                                       St Aidan's Anglican Girls' School

 

Jessica Armitage

Year 11 Biology class

St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School

Who would have thought that cheese making required massive amounts of hand sanitizer?

Bacteria - the right bacteria found in rennet and Penicillium candidum - makes milk into cheese.

But only if it's not contaminated by the bacteria found in our daily lives, on our hands, faces, desks - bacteria is everywhere! 

We learned this in a class about ... why milk goes off.... before we stared making cheese.

Cheese making was an extremely exciting experience. 

We were forced to leave the warmth of our jumpers and enter a world full of unattractive hairnets, aprons and hand sanitiser.

This provided a sterile environment that would prevent contamination.

Before beginning cheese making we had mainly been focussing in class on pathogenic bacteria that can cause disease.

It was therefore very interesting to see firsthand how some bacteria that have not been contaminated can actually have a positive impact in the food making process. I mean they turned milk into cheese!

The process of cheese making required patience and accuracy when following the procedures. 

First we had to pour milk into a container and place it into a water bath until it was 38^oC.

I drove my group insane because I was paranoid the water level would get so high that it would spill into the milk.

It was also difficult to get the milk at the right temperature so we were constantly added and taking hot water from the water bath.

We then added a liquid started and a sprinkle of Penicillium candidum. Once it had ripened, rennet was added and then stirred.

After forty minutes, it was set and the curd was cut into 2cm cubes. I was in charge of the cutting even though I was apparently terrible at it.

It was like cutting jelly, quite amazingly super. 

After it had rested we all began to gently rock our baby cheeses back and forth. It was quite cute. I was really excited when I got to stir with a massive spoon and watched with fascination as the cubes swam around the container.  They were then placed into their maturing containers. 

I was quick to volunteer a couple of days later when it came time to turn the cheese which we did using an excessive amount of hand sanitiser.

With the blue vein cheese, I got to poke lots of holes in it to allow for mould to grow inwards. The cheese also had to be turned to make sure the mould growth was evenly spread.

Once the cheeses were ready to be wrapped they actually looked amazing.

Try to imagine a perfectly round cheese covered in what looked like beautiful white snow. Oh, my gosh, it was super.  We then wrapped the cheese as tightly as possible with silver paper and they were ready to go.

Overall this cheese making experience was so much fun.

I absolutely loved all the processes and then the beautiful product at the end. 

Click here to download:

Camembert_Recipe.pdf (98 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

Camembert_Recipe.pdf (98 KB)

Hey, I’m Cameron Sunderland, a Year 12 student at Kingaroy State High School.

I’ve been conducting an investigation on the local Stuart River system of the South Burnett region in cooperation with Mr. Rod Cheetham from the local DPI & F.

This study was conducted to test the local migration patterns, numbers and seasonal variation of small fish and the macro-invertebrates (big water bugs) of the river system.

It was conducted over a two and a half year period from the 16th of August 2008 till the 12th of February 2011. 

This long period of time is something that has not been done on this section of river system due to the insufficient numbers of fisheries staff (and the fact that it is far too bloody boring for any scientist, even if they were to be paid double the salary of poor, old Mr Cheetham, so they decided to find some poor young enthusiastic Year Nine science student to do the tiring job ... HA-HA-HA!

My study is thought to be highly important to the fisheries staff as it gives them ideas on the finer movements of small invertebrates in the river system and as they say ‘where there are a little fish there will always be a big one’ meaning that this will also give an indication of where the predatory fish will be. 

I also found supporting evidence that fresh water prawns migrate in a hurry during the night hours and during flow events.

During the 2011 floods I was off on a science intervention called NYSF and I missed much of the action that took place in Kingaroy, from accounts from my family and friend it was a pretty stressful time and the evidence of the destruction is still evident at the river where there is debris still in the very tops of four to five-metre trees where the floods covered them and left debris in their canopy. (Watch for the flood debris in the video)

At that time, there was no option to access the river sites because of the extreme height and power of the river, this was unfortunate as this was a major part of my investigation and in hind site I should have utilised my resources (the DPI) far more efficiently. 

For me this was my first real step into the science world and I absolutely love what I’ve been doing with the DPI & F and this study helped seal my ambition to peruse a career in science. 

My love of helping and making a difference of in this world has lead me away from field science and toward a career in Biomedical science.

This study has been such an influence on my life that I don’t know where I would be today if it weren’t for the support that Mr Cheetham gave me in the early days of this study and I am so grateful to him and all that I achieve in this life is because of his belief in me.

This study was full of inaccuracies and things that could be improved but it was my starting point and I am grateful to the naive boy that decided to take on such a mammoth task that to any other person would sound crazy and boring.  I loved it and it was the best thing I ever did. 

If anyone was to be given a similar chance and who has a love of science, I say take it you will never know where it might take you.

I would like to also make a mention my dad who consistently took me down to the river each a month to retrieve my data, and Mr Langton and Mr Cheetham for the trust and belief in me; and the fact, that even though you didn’t think that I would complete it, thanks for the support (and yes I know that).   

Daintree possum may be Australia's polar bear.

Here James Cook University climate scientist Professor  Steve Turton  talks about the disappearance of upland habitat which is the home of the Lemuroid Ringtail Possum.

Scientists dubbed the "white-form" of this species "Australia's polar bear" a few years ago when it almost disappeared thanks to a heatwave. 

Read an old news report about scientists fears in 2008  

This possum - Professor Turton shows the white-form of the lemuroid ringtail possum in this video - lives in the highest, coolest regions of Queensland's Daintree Rainforest near Cairns. 

But it is an endangered species because its cool habitat is in danger of disappearing if the oceans continue warming. 

In the dry season, this little guy survives by licking the water off leaves which precipitates from "cloud forests".

But if these cloud forests disappear the Daintree's lifecycle will change. 

Cloud forests or mists form over the oceans normally in the dry season and condense onto the forest canopy as they drift inland. 

This important water source keeps many plants and animals alive in this area - not just the possums.

On a technical tour of the Daintree for scientists attending the CSIRO's Greenhouse 2011 Forum in April, Professor Turton explained how the Daintree is actually the remains of a Gondwanaland rainforest which covered most of what eventually dried out and became the arid Australian continent. So it is quite possible for this little bit of Australian rainforest to disappear.

The Great Barrier Reef is what is the remains of a massive, ancient reef.

Tectonic movements of the Earth's crust pushed against each other and forced parts of the reef upwards to form this region's high, cool climes which now face extinction through climate change.

As the climate warms, the rainforest ecology will change again, perhaps taking with it the lemuroid ringtail possum and plants that do not grow anywhere else in the world but here.

Professor Turton mentioned that some plants here have survived since the times of Gondwanaland. See the dispersal of Gondwanaland in this animation.

Explore Gondwanaland and the concept of Continental Drift with this Exploratorium Flash animation.

Wentworth Intermediate School teacher Deborah Tewhey has shared teaching resources on a great website called Forces of Nature that includes Tectonics and Pangaea or Gondwanaland.

Read this information sheet on the Lemuroid Ringtail Possum.

_ Lisa Yallamas  ( Contribute to the Community Climate Gauge )