Royal Society of NSW News & Events

​Wednesday17th February​The Four Societies Lecture. Hosted by Australian Nuclear Association, Nuclear Panel of Engineers Australia, Australian Institute of Energy and The Royal Society of NSW 1178th Ordinary General MeetingAn Industry Update on Global Nuclear Power and the Opportunities for Australia Dr Selena Ng, Areva NC, Australia Venue: Enginee...

"Belief in science" Professor John White CMG FAA FRS, Australian National University Friday 26 November 2010 at 5.30 pmLecture Theatre 1, Merewether Building, University of Sydney The achievements of science in the last 400 years have been of great benefit to humanity and are appreciated widely. Less well understood is how personal attributes of aw...

"Powering the US grid from solar and wind" Dr David Mills, co-founder of Ausra, Inc. Wednesday 3 November 2010 at 7 pmConference Room 1, Darlington Centre, University of Sydney Solar and wind are our two largest energy resources and are well distributed globally. In these respects, they are ideal to re-power humanity with little climate or politica...

"Is the climate right for nuclear power?" Dr Ziggy Switkowski, Chair of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization Wednesday 6 October 2010 at 7 pmConference Room 1, Darlington Centre, University of Sydney The world is experiencing a strong warming trend believed to be driven by greenhouse gas emissions associated with the burning o...

"Long-term changes in solar activity – including the current Grand Minimum" Ken McCracken, Jellore Technologies and Senior Research Associate, University of Maryland Wednesday 1 September 2010 at 7 pmConference Room 1, Darlington Centre, University of Sydney The sunspot record since Galileo's time, and the cosmogenic nuclides 10Be (in ice cores) an...

"The dynamic brain: modeling sleep, wake, and activity in the working brain" Professor Peter Robinson, University of Sydney Wednesday 4 August 2010 at 7 pmConference Room 1, Darlington Centre, University of Sydney The brain's activity varies around the clock in response to stimuli, light inputs, and the buildup and clearance of sleep-promoting chem...

"Pluto and the uber-nerds"Fred Watson, Anglo-Australian Observatory at Coonabarabran Wednesday 7 July 2010 at 7 pmConference Room 1, Darlington Centre, University of Sydney When is a planet not a planet? When it's a dwarf-planet, perhaps? So what's the difference? In 2006, astronomy's governing body, the International Astronomical Union, wrestled w...

"Science for gentlemen - the Royal Society of New South Wales in the nineteenth century" Peter J. Tyler, Historian for the Royal Society of New South Wales Wednesday 2 June 2010 at 7 pmConference Room 1, Darlington Centre, University of Sydney Scientific activity in New South Wales began when James Cook and Joseph Banks voyaged along the eastern co...

"The weird world of nanoscale gold" Mike Cortie, Director of the Institute for Nanoscale Technology, University of Technology, Sydney Wednesday 5 May 2010 at 7 pmConference Room 1, Darlington Centre, University of Sydney The field of `nanotechnology' has captured the imaginations of many. There are many new journals dedicated to the subject and the...