We Australians excel at remembering and celebrating our sporting heroes, from cricketers to particularly successful race horses, but are not so good at celebrating the great people who helped build our civilization, particularly when those builders are Australian. Today, I want to celebrate the birthday of a revolutionary Australian engineer, A. G. M. Michell. … Continue reading Great Australians — Anthony Michell
Author: drgozz
Unless you live under a rock, the announcement in February of this year of the detection of Gravitational Waves by LIGO cannot have escaped your attention. Scientists around the world celebrated the achievement, and public curiosity about what all the scientists were yelling about was high enough that the world’s media ran the story for … Continue reading What the Detection of Gravitational Waves Means
We Australians excel at remembering and celebrating our sporting heroes, from cricketers to particularly successful race horses, but are not so good at celebrating the great people who helped build our civilization, particularly when those builders are Australian. Today, I want to celebrate the birthday of a brilliant Australian scientist, Ruby Payne-Scott. Southern Star … Continue reading Great Australians — Ruby Payne-Scott
Stop telling me to "get a real job": PhDs drive economic growth, as well as the progress of human knowledge As a PhD student, questions I am often asked very shortly after “What do you do for a living?” include “What’s the point of that?” and “So when are you going to get a real … Continue reading The Value of a PhD
Why we should build a swimming pool on the Moon We choose to build a pool on the Moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard. A recent special issue of the New Space journal reported on the reasons and methods for constructing a permanently inhabited lunar colony, and that it could be … Continue reading Floating in the Sea of Tranquility
A lesson in innovation from the Wright Brothers The Australian government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda webpage asserts: “Innovation is at the heart of a strong economy — from IT to healthcare, defence and transport—it keeps us competitive, at the cutting edge, creates jobs and maintains our high standard of living.” This recent article from … Continue reading The Wright Stuff
I have a confession to make: I am one of those nut-job engineers who advocates for the return of airships as a means of travel. Wait! Before you roll your eyes and commit me to an asylum, hear me out. Comfort What prompted me to have a whinge write a post about this is my … Continue reading Bring Back Airships
Australia needs a space program. As 2015 drew to a close, Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull unveiled the government’s Innovation Statement with a plan to invest $1.1 billion to drive an Australian “ideas boom”. Before this announcement, the government had already commenced its Review of the Space Activities Act 1998 stating that Australia is in a transition … Continue reading Space for Innovation
David Gozzard 