What's new

oceanography posts

Coral polyps just love the taste of plastic News

by David Shaw, 18 January 2018 | 0 comments

Photo of brown and white star like coral polyps clustered closely together.

Plastic waste in our oceans is a big problem for marine fauna. Not only can it look like food, it seems some animals have developed a taste for the material. And that’s a problem.

Continue reading Coral polyps just love the taste of plastic

Extreme weather News

by Andrew Wright, 1 May 2015 | 0 comments

Lightning above the sydney skyline

Written by Beth Askham How can we predict extreme weather events like the Sydney storm in Australia last week? The wild storm that hit Sydney was the result of a weather system called an east coast low.

Continue reading Extreme weather

Robots explore underwater volcano News

by David Shaw, 20 March 2015 | 0 comments

A piece of pumice covered in spnges and molluscs.

Written by Beth Askham When mysterious lumps of pumice stone washed up on beaches in Tasmania, Australia, Rebecca Carey knew that they must be coming from an underwater volcano. Rebecca is a Tasmanian volcanologist (someone who studies volcanos), and she had been tracking the travelling pumice for more than a year.

Continue reading Robots explore underwater volcano

Shhh, you’re hurting my head News

by David Shaw, 6 February 2015 | 2 comments

A whale surfacing to breathe.

Written by Beth Askham Researchers have found that whales hear low frequency sounds by amplifying them in their skull bones. Ocean sounds made by humans may be messing with their heads.

Continue reading Shhh, you’re hurting my head

Investigator of the ocean arrives News

by Andrew Wright, 12 September 2014 | 0 comments

Research vessel Investigator

Australia’s new Marine National Facility research vessel, Investigator, arrived on Tuesday to its home port of Hobart. The ship will soon take scientists and high-tech equipment to the watery parts of the world; to measure the weather, take samples from the sea floor and study marine life.

Continue reading Investigator of the ocean arrives

Recycling on the reef News

by Jasmine Fellows, 15 April 2014 | 0 comments

Tube sponges in water

Written by Michele Weber Coral reefs have much in common with rainforests: both are full of life, but are low in nutrients. How is that possible? As far as a coral reef goes, it’s because marine sponges produce waste that contains food that other reef animals can eat.

Continue reading Recycling on the reef

Categories:

Robotic futures News

by Pat, 10 May 2013 | 0 comments

Yellow submarine on a beach.

Robots have been a popular part of science fiction for years. While robots that can think and feel like humans are still just a fantasy, robotic systems are already having an impact on our lives. CSIRO runs one of the largest robotics research centres in the world, the Autonomous Systems Laboratory. Instead of trying to…

Continue reading Robotic futures

Can you think big and win? News

by Jasmine Fellows, 11 February 2013 | 0 comments

Two girls in red t-shirts.

Written by Beth Askham The winners of this year’s BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards have been announced! The award ceremony wrapped up an exciting four days where the finalists traveled to Melbourne for a science camp they will never forget.

Continue reading Can you think big and win?

Categories:

Best of 2012 News

by Pat, 21 December 2012 | 0 comments

3 radio telescope dishes.

As this year draws to a close, let’s have a look at some of the big stories in science for 2012. In July, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider announced they may have found evidence of the existence of the Higgs boson.

Continue reading Best of 2012

Categories:

The case of the phantom island News

by Pat, 30 November 2012 | 0 comments

A research team on board Australia’s Marine National Facility research vessel, Southern Surveyor, have made an unusual discovery: an island that isn’t there.

Continue reading The case of the phantom island