Video playlets: 'Observation', 'Revolution' and 'A leap of faith'
These three short video plays (around 6 minutes each) feature Galileo Galilei in conversation with scientists from other times. In 'Observation' Caroline Herschel challenges Galileo's definition of an astronomer. In 'Revolution' Charles Darwin shocks Galileo with his ideas about our early ancestors. And 'A leap of faith' is a humorous encounter between Galileo and Isaac Newton as they discover the three forces of motion.
Supported by a National Science Week Grant.
Scripts of the playlets
'Observation' (pdf document)
'Revolution' (pdf document)
'Leap of faith' (pdf document)
Talk by writer/director, Alana Valentine
Alana Valentine's speech at the launch of the video playlets, 'Observation', 'Revolution' and 'Leap of faith' in August 2009.
Launch speech (pdf document)
40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing
Presented by Kerrie Dougherty,
Curator of Space Technology, Powerhouse Museum
VIDEO - TALK ABOUT PULSARS AT SYDNEY OBSERVATORY
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who discovered pulsars in 1967, and Dr George Hobbs, from the Australia Telescope National Facility, gave a talk about pulsars at Sydney Observatory on 9 December 2008.
Introduction by Dr Nick Lomb - 4 mins 14 secs
Talk by Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell - 25 mins 36 secs
Talk by Dr George Hobbs - 14 mins 37 secs
Audience questions answered by Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Dr George Hobbs - 24 mins
1. What creates the strong magnetic fields in pulsars?
2. Is there a model for the magnetic fields?
3. How do pulsars send out radio signals?
4. What sort of stars turn into pulsars?
5. What sort of gravitational waves are you likely to detect in pulsars?
6. What happens as magnetic fields stretching out from the pulsar reach the speed of light?
7. What happens to pulsars as they get older?
8. How many pulsars are there?
9. For pulsars rotating at 11 times per second, with relativity, would they still appear to rotate at that speed if you were on the pulsar?
10. And then you sent a paper to the science magazine 'Nature'....
11. Do we know that pulsars turn into black holes?
12. How large and how dense to neutron stars, or pulsars, get?
13. What is the difference between pulsars and quasars?
Close by Dr Nick Lomb - 1 min 14 secs