By Ravi Naidu, University of Newcastle They stop your food from sticking to the pan. They prevent stains in clothes and carpets. They help firefighting foam to extinguish fires. But the very thing that makes “forever chemicals” so useful also makes them dangerous. Forever chemicals – the catchier name for the class of chemicals known…
By Hussein Dia, Swinburne University of Technology Four years ago, then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison famously claimed electric vehicles (EVs) would end the weekend. “It’s not going to tow your trailer. It’s not going to tow your boat. It’s not going to get you out to your favourite camping spot,” he said. His comments drew on…
By John Blaxland, Australian National University The United States’ shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina over the weekend points to international security affairs being on a knife edge. It follows a surge in crises and tensions over the past few years, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prompting the…
Advanced manufacturing had a high representation among the latest round of projects supported through the Australian Research Council Linkage program. Funds totalling $40 million for 81 new projects were announced under the program on Tuesday. By “Science and Research Priorities” areas, 20 Advanced Manufacturing projects were awarded funding (out of 49 considered), more than any…
By Flavio Macau, Edith Cowan University Potatoes are among Australia’s favourite vegetables. However, we are facing a shortage of processed potatoes, especially of frozen chips. Coles introduced a two-item limit for shoppers seeking frozen potato products. Fish and chip businesses are under pressure and some are outraged McDonald’s is launching a new potato product in…
University of NSW Sydney researchers have developed a new way to grow nanoscale materials, opening up the possibility for cheaper and more sustainable fuel cells. Their paper in Science Advances details a way to create “interconnected hierarchical structures in 3D at the nanoscale”, the university said in a statement on Wednesday. These structures were described…
By Bruce Mountain, Victoria University Sun Cable – considered to be the world’s biggest renewable energy export project – announced last week it had entered voluntary administration following “the absence of alignment” with shareholders. Sun Cable is expected to cost over A$30 billion. It proposes to build an enormous, 12,000 hectare solar farm in the…
To conclude the second week of Australia’s place in the semiconductor world, we speak to Emeritus Professor Bob Clark about some policy proposals for establishing semiconductor production here, and why this strange era demands we rethink our hands-off approach to the market. By Brent Balinski. Do we display a lack of ambition in what we…
Today in or ongoing editorial series, Australia’s place in the semiconductor world, Dr Venkata Gutta considers why we need a domestic semiconductor industry, what other countries have done to develop theirs, what we can learn, and some proposals. Millibeam is a mmWave fabless semiconductor company based in Sydney, Australia and we develop high-performance integrated circuits and…
By Anya Phelan, The University of Queensland This week the federal government joined an international agreement to recycle or reuse 100% of plastic waste by 2040, putting an end to plastic pollution. But major obstacles stand in the way. The most recent is the collapse of Australia’s largest soft plastic recycling program, REDcycle. The program…
