Monday 22 July 2013

Yeah Science - 12/06/2013 - Holographic Optical Trapping

On the 12th of June, we trotted haughtily once more into blooming fields of science.

Our fourth speaker was Evan Tanner, delivering a truly fascinating talk about the world of holographic optical trapping. This technique involves the use of light to trap microscopic objects, including live bacteria, and then using this to manipulate these objects in real time. Put simply: the use of holograms to wreak havoc on tiny things.

Click here to watch the video on youtube, or cast your gaze to the embedded video below:



Evan Tanner is a researcher who has worked previously for Arryx Inc as a research and development manager, and studied at Stanford University in California. He has had his work published here and here.

Click here to read more about optical tweezers on Wikipedia.

Monday 15 July 2013

Yeah Science - 12/06/2013 - Are you tired, or just drunk?

On the 12th of June, we gleefully dipped our collective toes back into the gurgling river of science.

Our third speaker was Samuel Duncan, speaking on the effects of sleep deprivation on performance. Sam presents in his talk an experiment in which he is the subject - and he performs a psychomotor vigilance test before our very eyes.

The results are fascinating, so click here to view the vid on youtube, or cast your vile jellies to the embedded vid below:


Click here to view the psychomotor vigilance performance study Sam references in his talk, and click here to view the UNSW fatigue and alcohol study.

Samuel Duncan works in logistics planning and transport, and has been tracking his personal sleep data for longer than a normal person would willingly admit.

More Yeah Science, coming soon....

Monday 8 July 2013

Yeah Science 12/06/2013 - Neuroplasticity

On the 12th of June, we flung ourselves happily back into the glorious maelstrom of science.

Our second speaker was Jo Dudney, talking about the varied wonders of neurplasticity. From the sex-obsessed Hank to the stroke-addled Bill, Jo explains that we're not stuck with the neural pathways we're born with, and that certain professions can lead to significant changes in the structure of our brains.

Click here to watch the video on youtube, or cast your eyes to the video below



Jo completed a masters of psychology at UNSW and a Doctorate of Clinical Psychology at the University of Sydney. For more information on neuroplasticity, try here, here or here.

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Yeah Science 12/06/2013 - Rubber Duckies at the End of the Ocean

On the 12 of June, The Yeah Sessions dove for a third time into the wonderful word of science.

Our first speaker for the night was Erik Van Sebille, physical oceanographer at UNSW, talking about the eerily beautiful story of thousands of rubber duckies (aka 'friendly floaties') sent across the world on the churning currents of the ocean, and tying the this into the tricky problems we encounter when considering the impact of garbage, pollution and plastics on ocean life.

Click here to watch the video on youtube, or, cast your gaze below (unfortunately, a technical hitch meant there's no video of the first half of the talk, but we did get audio!)



Erik is an accomplished oceanographer - he's an ARC research fellow at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South wales, an Associate Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, and recipient of a 2013 Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) by the Australian Research Council on "Inter-ocean exchange around Australia and its relation to regional and global climate".

You can also watch an interview with Erik on UNSWtv here.


His website is chockers with a bunch of great interactive tools, some of which he mentioned in his talk - be sure to check out Adrift.org.au, where you can simulate the impact of garbage flows, using your very own rubbery ducky!


Get in touch with Erik via Twitter, or through the contact details on his website, here, or read more about the UNSW Climate Research Centre here.