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Science

This Month

Outgoing Chief Scientist Cathy Foley.

Chief scientist Cathy Foley despairs for an impatient society

The federal government’s top scientific adviser, whose term finishes at Christmas, says Australia needs to rethink its approach to research and innovation.

  • Tom McIlroy

Google announces quantum computing breakthrough. Should we be excited?

Google has built a quantum processor called “Willow” that can solve a problem in five minutes that regular supercomputers would take longer than the lifetime of the universe.

  • John Davidson
Australian girls are underperforming in maths which will limit their career options.

Alarm as girls fall further behind in maths

Ten-year-old Australian girls are having their life choices curtailed as they struggle to master even the most fundamental mathematics.

  • Julie Hare

November

David Elia is the chief executive of Hostplus. The superannuation giant has been a big backer of venture capital.

Hostplus’ $125m VC bet signals super’s resurgent interest in start-ups

Higher financing costs have made it a difficult period for new tech firms. But the last month has seen a resurgence in interest from retirement funds.

  • Paul Smith

Can’t picture things in your mind’s eye? You’re not alone

A tweet about visualising a red apple went viral in 2020 but my mind was just black. It changed my understanding of myself and the world around me.

  • Yolanda Redrup
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October

Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s hit 2023 film.

Was Oppenheimer a communist? The debate has exploded again

The evidence suggests to some that the father of the atom bomb joined Stalin’s party, others contend he was merely a sympathiser and a wavering one at that.

  • William J. Broad
AI “godfather” Geoffrey Hinton has won the Nobel Prize.

‘Godfather of AI’ wins Nobel Prize

The Nobel for Physics has gone to scientists John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton, who was widely credited as a pioneer of artificial intelligence.

  • Niklas Pollard and Johan Ahlander
Swinburne University’s Professor Matthew Bailes has been named Scientist of the Year.

The Aussie who helped discover how to weigh the universe

World renowned astrophysicist Professor Matthew Bailes has won the 2024 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science.

  • Julie Hare
American molecular biologist Gary Ruvkun received the news of his win at home in Massachusetts.

MicroRNA pioneers win Nobel Prize for medicine

US scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun discovered tiny pieces of genetic material that could help detect and treat disease.

  • Daniel Niemann, Maria Cheng and Mike Corder
Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle, a TV exercise show presenter deemed past it by her station boss (Dennis Quaid), in “The Substance”.

Like it or not, you’re already being cloned

We’re not all as photogenic as Demi Moore, but genetic data-doubles are becoming par for the course.

  • Simon Ings

July

Professor Jeremy O’Brien has now added $US500m of Illinois incentives to the $940m investment by the Federal and Qld governments into PsiQuantum.

PsiQuantum promises US a computer after $US500m investment

Three months after inking almost $1 billion worth of deals with the federal and Qld governments, the tech start-up has signed up to build another quantum computer in Chicago.

  • Paul Smith
Australian-born Silicon Valley-based investor Peter Barrett was on the board of Univeral Hydrogen.

Fortescue, Playground-backed hydrogen flight start-up collapses

Universal Hydrogen had attracted almost $150 million in funding, including from Aussie Peter Barrett’s Playground Global, but it wasn’t enough for it to take flight.

  • Yolanda Redrup

June

Andrew Dzurak, CEO & Founder of Diraq

Cashed-up Diraq says it can win the quantum computing race

It hasn’t got as much money as government-backed PsiQuantum, but the UNSW start-up says it makes up for that in qubit size, as it banks a big funding round.

  • John Davidson
China’s FAST (five-hundred-meter aperture spherical telescope) in the southwest China province of Guizhou.

How China became a scientific superpower

From plant biology to superconductor physics, the country is at the cutting edge.

  • The Economist
J. Doyne Farmer.

This physicist can prove that economics has it all wrong

J. Doyne Farmer, an American complex systems scientist says the world is more predictable than we think, and he can prove it.

  • Will Dunn
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May

Blackbird-backed deep tech start-up faces liquidation

The Supreme Court of Victoria has ordered food waste recycler Bardee be wound up for unpaid bills, but it has already sold a large part of its assets.

  • John Davidson
PsiQuantum’s Jeremy O’Brien (left) and Terry Rudolph in Brisbane.

UK’s bet on PsiQuantum is one-fiftieth the size of Australia’s

Leading British quantum computing specialists have expressed surprise at the Albanese government’s decision to invest nearly $1 billion in backing the start-up.

  • Hans van Leeuwen

Blue-sky thinkers block the sun to fight climate change

It might sound like science fiction, but a mix of scientists and venture capitalists are working on plans to block the sun to slow global warming.

  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan
PsiQuantum’s co-founders Jeremy O’Brien and Terry Rudolph are confident they will win bipartisan support in Australia.

PsiQuantum in talks for bipartisan support but Coalition not swayed

PsiQuantum is confident of winning over sceptical politicians by highlighting its backing from both major parties in the US, where it has defence contracts.

  • Tess Bennett
Science and Industry Minister Ed Husic has been frustrated by suggestions the decision-making process behind the big quantum investment was not thorough.

Answers emerge slowly to government’s $1b quantum questions

Questions are mounting over how PsiQuantum was backed when we have been told so often to marvel at local tech stars.

  • Paul Smith

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/science-61n