An Energy Infused Universe

How do you tackle not only the questions students are afraid to ask, but the ones teachers are afraid to answer? Can you teach climate resilience, make science fun, and smash the system all before the buses come? It's worth a shot.

Tom Lang is a Melbourne based science communicator, comedian, and boardgame designer. A lifelong tinkerer and generalist, he specialises in breaking down complicated concepts into digestible pieces, and linking them together in surprising ways. He also plays a mean game of Codenames.

Obesity rates are skyrocketing and COVID lockdowns have not helped. Our love of fatty foods means metabolic tissues in our bodies are storing toxic fats which are detrimental to our health. This research has found a possible new way to treat these health consequences by reducing a toxic fat in our guts.

Dr. Sarah Turpin-Nolan completed her PhD in 2010 and is currently spending half her time as a metabolic researcher at Monash University and the other half at CSL where she is learning how to prepare academic research projects for better drug development success.

When our Sun runs out of fuel to shine, it will expand and throw off its outer layers in a process that will turn it into a planetary nebula. I use telescopes to take snapshots of this process happening to other stars to learn about the Sun's fate.

Originally from Melbourne, Taïssa Danilovich did her PhD in Sweden, completing it in 2016. After spending some time as a postdoc in Belgium, she recently returned to Australia and now works at Monash University as a Research Fellow.