The most exciting week of the year for science students is undoubtedly National Science Week. For those who are unfamiliar, National Science Week is the week when the country celebrates all things science-y! Since ANU is located in the capital city of Australia, the activities located on and off campus are not to be missed.

The more official activities that happened included a Questacon’s SciNight. Normally Questacon is dominated by kids but that evening there were only adults roaming the galleries. Maturity levels however did not have an age restriction. The SciNight also included some science talks and laser tag!

On campus there was a science show conducted by Dr Graham Walker. His show was located in the middle of union court. Using vast amounts of liquid nitrogen he made a cloud that we could touch, fired a teddy bear out of a cannon and sent a small rocket flying over a student’s head! Anyone who was even remotely interested in explosions loved it.

And then of course there was Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Renowned astrophysicist and science communicator Dr Tyson is one of several “scientist celebrities” and is absolutely brilliant. On the final evening of science week he gave a talk that went down like a house on fire. It included explanations on the theory of gravity, why Pluto got demoted to being a dwarf planet and various science jokes such as…

A photon checks into a hotel.

"Do you have any luggage?"

"No, I'm travelling light."

Ba Dum Tsss!

So yeah. National Science Week is pretty great. There are of course other weeks and days for various things that are also celebrated on campus. But as far as I know science week is the only one to include liquid nitrogen ice cream (the food staple of the chemistry department).  

Till next week!

Mollie-Cule