After a morning walk across campus and discovery of a new coffee shop, we all perked up upon learning that we would be hearing from speakers from our major teaching area – biology. We had a series of talks from professors and PhD students from the ANU Research School of Biology. This was headed by Professor Stefan Broer, who discussed research in the area of insulin, transporter proteins and diabetes control. We also heard about drug resistance from Professor Richard Callaghan, spleen regeneration from Jonothan Tran, and herpes simplex virus proteins from Christina Salmon. This was an excellent array of current research within the field of biomedical science.

After a quick morning tea, Professor KC Wong from the School of Aerospace Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering gave us a fascinating talk on how we can inspire students to take tertiary pathways in STEM.

 

We were then welcomed back on the bus by our friendly driver Ian and we headed to the National Arboretum for lunch. The Arboretum was absolutely beautiful and it was great to hear about the continued work to replant trees and create future sustainable flora and fauna habitats after the bush fires caused devastation in 2003.

In an exciting twist, we headed to the deep space tracking station at Tidbinbilla (with photo IDs in hand) to take part in a special program. After being issued official passes (which included the NASA logo!) we were escorted to the control room, to drive “the dish” radio telescope at the Parkes Observatory in central New South Wales. This was one of the day’s highlights, and we were all excited to see and hear the frequencies collected from a range of Pulsars in far outer space.

Finally, we ended the day with dinner, a lecture and a tour of The Mt. Stromlo Observatory. A huge thanks to Dr Brad Tucker for the extensive hospitality and mind-blowing lecture on astronomy, supernovas, black holes, and the end of the universe. We also got to see the extent of the fire damage on the telescopes, the renewed life at Mt. Stromlo, and Professor Brian Schmidt’s Nobel Prize.

It was sad to leave the Observatory, and as the week begins to draw to a close, we are relishing the last of our time as a group. Tomorrow will be bittersweet, but jam-packed full of fun. We would like to thank the ASTA/Step Up Program for the opportunity to attend the NSTSS and participate in these amazing experiences. Keep up to date on Twitter and Facebook.

Until soon,

Gabby, Gemma and Mel