Adventure Ausrama Blog

South Australia is going to test driverless cars for use on roads in that state. This is premature. We have the hacking problems of "normal" vehicles to deal with, let along allowing potentially dangerous ones loose in Australia. There is also the important question of who is responsible if there is a collision involving a driverless car. This is way too soon. The South Australian experiment will be the first in the southern hemisphere. Legislation is to be passed in state parliament on Thursday. It will allow testing on road with cars being driven by people. It is obvious that if there is an accident the insurance company of a normal vehicle will not pay out. It is common knowledge that insurance companies keep taking annual premiums when they know a legal problem exists which takes liability away from them - note the payouts refused in recent floods. Wanting to be the first state to adopt new technology is stupid when such cars will be driving illegally with

Scientists have always said that Australia is the safest country on earth in regard to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.  Now we find that this is totally wrong.  A massive volcanic chain has been discovered stretching from Hillsborough in central Queensland in a straight line down to Cosgrove in Victoria, then into the sea. The Australian continent has moved right over the top of the chain leaving volcanoes under the sea in Bass Strait.  Yellowstone in North America is only a third as long as the new Australian hot spot.  It is unusual because it is not located on a tectonic plate boundary.  This type of volcanic chain was not thought to exist. A weakness above a mantle plume has allowed volcanoes to break through to the surface.  The mantle is 3,000 kilometers below.  The Cosgrove hot spot could become active especially in the south where it is younger.  This could happen as the Australian tectonic plate is the fastest moving on the planet. Active volcanoes normally ex

Though South American animals have been named little is known about many of them. Scientists fell into the trap of taking frogs for granted. They got more than they bargained for.  Aparasphenodon brunoi and Corythomantis greeningi are the first venomous frogs to be identified. The dart frogs have bony spines on their faces that they jab into potential predators. Like snakes, the frogs inject a toxin into the body of threats. This is odd really, because the frogs have evolved this defence while having no natural enemies. The target of a frog was Edmund Brodie, a biologist, who suffered intense, radiating pain lasting for over five hours. He was lucky: a gram of this venom can kill 300,000 mice or 80 people. It would take many frogs, though, to make this much toxin. The attack on the scientist was a glancing blow by C. greeningi , which is not as potent as A. brunoi . The team was not going to test out A. brunoi , however. Another thing was learned by the biologist :

Australia continues to make great strides in new developments thus helping the world move forward. For such a small country in population terms it is in the big league. CSIRO as always is at the forefront, leading the research team. Recently in Western Australia the SKA Pathfinder radio telescope (ASKAP) took a photo of the sky with much improved clarity and over a larger area than ever before. It is much faster as well. Professor Brian Boyle said a new era for astronomy has arrived. ASKAP is part of the International Square Kilometer Array (SKA) with South Africa. Scientists are so impressed they are touring Europe explaining their results. The aperture-synthesis telescope is the first of its type to be used. CSIRO's phased array has perfected the system. Performance is much better than current telescopes. Photos are created from radio waves. A massive area of 10 square degrees is covered, which is 50 times bigger than the a full moon. The "snap" is j

There is a lot of research on climate change. However, countries are doing very little to reduce pollution. They are not reacting at all to the clear data pointing to damage caused to the planet by humans. In the Antarctic the latest evidence shows some movement in the ice "plug" holding massive amounts of ice back from the ocean. If this plug fails, ice will slide into the sea raising the planet's water level by many meters, permanently. Cities on the coast around the world will be flooded. It was thought that only the western side of the Antarctic was in danger of raising sea level. It now appears that the eastern side where the plug is situated is also at risk. The weather in the US has been extremely erratic over the last ten years. The cost to the nation is in the billions of dollars. Insurance companies will react as they have done in Australia. Premiums have more than doubled in recent years. Some areas of Australia cannot get insurance cover a

The state of the weather is a problem on Earth with predictions not always being correct. In space, however, there is a more serious weather problem. Solar storms can kill. Detectors at the South Pole measure neutrons. When the level reaches a certain point astronauts on the International Space Station shelter in a shielded capsule. Advances have been made in predicting solar storms which can destroy satellites. Unfortunately, little can be done to protect them, but the safety of astronauts is paramount. Storms move at different speeds. The faster the speed the more energy in particles, which makes them more intense and dangerous. Ironically, because there are more low-energy particles in a solar storm they do most overall damage. The early arrival of these low-energy particles does forewarn the onslaught of the high-energy neutrons. The number of solar flares gives an indication of future activity, though this is only a possibility at best. Neutron sensors at th