SCIENCE WEEK IN BRISBANE

The Queensland Division concentrated their National Science Week activities to Brainwaves - the Science Festival for Brisbane (Thursday May 10^th to Sunday May 13^th). The highlight of GSAQ activities was the Friday Night Science Riot where Professor Richard Arculus, Australian National University, presented a public lecture on global change to a crowd of 1500 people prior to a Maths presentation by Quantum's Adam Spencer.

 The talk was titled, "Greenhouse or Icehouse? Explosive ideas in history". Is humanity responsible for global warming ... or is the planet heating itself?

Professor Arculus revealed how this planet has changed over time - unlocking for the audience the Earth's interior and how it influences the global climate and the biosphere. Throughout this planet's history, the only constant has been change - even evolution is evolving.

Richard signs autographs after the Friday Night Science Riot

The talk was billed as Explosive moments in Earth Science - a reference to the role volcanoes have played in the climate story. Professor Arculus was well-qualified to lead this discussion having visited many of the world's currently active volcanoes. From the Andes to the Caribbean - stopping off at Japan, Russia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands along the way - he has collected samples for his research into magmas.

Professor Arculus also gave two talks earlier in the day at the Queensland Museum titled, Earth on Fire. In between these two sessions he guided a Geohazards Forum panel discussion with experts on earthquakes and volcanoes including Prof. David Gust (QUT), Dr Gary Huftile (QUT) and Dion Weatherley (QUAKES - UQ) - an event that illustrated why the Earth Sciences matter in our community.

Apart from Prof. Arculus's activities the division also hosted a "geology" stand at the Piazza, over all 4 days of the Science festival, providing the public with information on the geology of Queensland, introducing them to our extensive series of Rock and Landscape notes, identifying rocks and generally making friends! A big thank you to all of our volunteers; Bill Perkins, John Siemon, Chris Armit, Paul Blake, Friedrich von Gnielinski, Ben Cohen, Matthew Ng, Nathan Mahony, Kaia Little, Ian Miles, Dave Horton, Ian Withnall and Darren Walker. Chris Towsey kindly donated mineral and fossil specimens to successfully entice the crowds to our stand, while Warwick Willmott, apart from putting together many of our Rock and Landscapes notes, also got together a range of GSAQ publications for distribution. Thanks also to Laurie Hutton for organising and presenting our student medals.

Friedrich von Gnielinski demonstrates how you obtain drill core to his daughter Natascha and son Jonathan.

Crowds at the GSAQ Stand during Science Week are attended to by Chris Armit and Bill Perkins

The GSA Stand and some of our volunteers, from left: Ian Miles, Ian Withnall, Sue Keay, Nathan Mahony, Friedrich von Gnielinski

Our hard working volunteers, Kaia Little, Ian Miles and Matthew Ng show off some rocks.

There were a range of Earth Science related activities held during Brainwaves organised by the Department of Natural Resources and Mines and the Queensland University of Technology. These included talks by Rod Gould, DME, "Economic Geology: the Hunt for Buried Treasure", Dr Noel Meyers, QUT, "Life on Mars", David Horton, DME, "Queensland Opals: Their origin, locations and geology", Stewart Bell/Colin Hester, DME, "The use of science in preventing and controlling mine fires", Assoc. Prof David Gust, QUT, "Mars isn't just a Planet - It's a Place" and Dr Noel Meyers & Dr Gregg Webb, QUT, "Rocks that Grow, Carnivorous Skippy and Trees of Antarctica".

All up it was a great week for Earth Sciences in Brisbane and hopefully our experience during the Brisbane Science Festival will help us plan some more activities during Earth Science Week in October.

Sue Keay - Chair GSAQ

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