UNSW Sydney biosensing engineers have developed technology to make portable RAT test strips just as accurate as PCR tests carried out in a laboratory. While lab-based PCR tests take two days to show the COVID-19 virus, the test strips offer rapid, on-the-spot disease detection. Senior researcher Professor Ewa Goldys, with UNSW’s Graduate School of Biomedical…
National Innovation Policy Forum to be held in Canberra next week The National Innovation Policy Forum and 2023 Ralph Slatyer Address on Science and Society will be held on Monday, November 27. The forum at the Great Hall at Parliament House, Canberra, is hosted by Cooperative Research Australia, and brings together Australian innovation leaders from businesses…
Funding totalling $26 million has been announced through ARC Linkage Projects 2023 Round 1 across 50 projects, including for next-generation microchip manufacture, anodes for next-generation lithium batteries, and addressing superalloy microstructure defects. The Linkage Projects scheme backs projects that “initiate or develop long term strategic research alliance” and provides funding of between $50,000 and $300,000…
University of NSW Sydney researchers have developed a cost-effective way to make ammonia which could soon be used on farms, according to the university. Building on previous research, currently used under licence by startup PlasmaLeap Technologies, the team’s method improves on the high temperatures, high pressure, and extensive infrastructure required by the dominant Haber-Bosch industrial…
A new synthetic hydrogel developed by researchers at UNSW Sydney has a number of claimed benefits, with the team eager to explore its commercial potential as a substitute for animal-derived products. In a statement from the university, hydrogels are described as a family of substances that provide tissue such as seaweed and cartilage with their…
Sydney quantum computing hardware manufacturer Silicon Quantum Computing’s (SQC) Michelle Simmons was named last night as the winner of the 2023 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science. Professor Simmons (pictured) was recognised for creating the new field of atomic electronics which are ‘powering the transition from the digital to the quantum age’. Simmons, who has already…
UNSW students in Sydney are to build a nuclear fusion capable machine – a tokamak – as part of a programme designed to engage undergraduate and postgraduate students in ambitious, long-term, multidisciplinary challenges. Led by UNSW academic and nuclear engineering expert Dr Patrick Burr, the tokamak is a doughnut-shaped vacuum chamber with powerful magnets to…
Industrial technology company Silex Systems has been awarded defence funding support for its development of technology to produce zero spin silicon (ZS-Si) needed to manufacture quantum computing chips. The company has been awarded $5.1 million funding from the Defence Trailblazer for the Concept to Sovereign Capability Program. The Trailblazer is a partnership between the University…
