It has been a little bit quiet here on the Fizzics blog over the last few weeks, but it has been because we have been out and about celebrating National Science Week and having lots of fun with science in Sydney and beyond. We had an absolutely jam-packed National Science Week – visiting many schools, and presenting at numerous events around the city, including Science in the City at the Australian Museum. The Science Ignite launch of National Science Week gave us some close encounters with dinosaurs in Martin Place.

Winny the juvenile Muttaburrasaurus from the Australian Museum is my personal favourite, but a clever augmented reality smartphone app let us find other (but far less tangible) dinosaurs around the city.

G-Man the Echidna from the Taronga Zoomobile also won us over with the cutest spikes in town.

The dinosaur encounters continued when a few of us checked out Jurassic Lounge at the Australian Museum – the Museum open after dark with performances, music and other activities. You can read my review of the event here.

Ben and Justine went on a country tour to Adaminaby – where it was much, much colder than in Sydney, and Justine made a fishy friend.

We put our brains to the test at ANSTO’s Fact or Fiction event, where the audience participated in a quiz on the real science in science fiction films followed by a run down on the science by a scientist from ANSTO. Ben was even leading in points at one stage of the competition, before being over taken at the very end (his downfall was telekinesis – he still doesn’t agree with the given answer!). We also had a close encounter with Darth Vader.

We went out to Orange and Narrabri for Science in the Bush with the Australian Museum. While in Narrabri, Justine and I were fortunate enough to be taken on a tour of the CSIRO Australian Compact Radio Telescope Array. It really is an amazing facility!

I think that’s enough excitement for now, but if you’ve seen us somewhere and have some great photos we’d love it if you could share them with us!