Tag Archive for 'science'

Science Underground:Synroc

Published by Kerrie Dougherty 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

2007/62/6-1 'Synroc', ceramic / steel, made by Australian Nuclear Science Technology Organisation, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1984-2007

The disposal of nuclear waste has been a controversial issue for decades. Synroc is an innovative solution to dealing with the problem of the long term storage of nuclear wastes that contain radioactive isotopes with long half-lives. It was originally developed in 1978 by Australian geochemist Professor Ted Ringwood and his team at the Australian National University.

Synroc is an advanced ceramic made up of the same types of minerals that have held uranium and thorium naturally in the Earth’s crust for billions of years. Radioactive waste atoms displace some host atoms, and so are chemically bound into a mineral matrix similar to natural rock, held until their radioactivity levels have decayed away.

The original type of Synroc was 57% titanium dioxide (rutile, TiO2) with the minerals hollandite (BaAl2Ti6O16), zirconolite (CaZrTi2O7) and perovskite (CaTiO3). Nuclear waste materials are added to the mixed powdered minerals and the ceramic is formed by heat and high compression. The Synroc is then placed in steel canisters.

91/23 Artificial Rock, Models (4), Synroc Manufacture, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology, Australia, 1990. Collection Powerhouse Museum

The original type of Synroc was intended mainly for the storage of liquid high level wastes from the reprocessing of light water reactor fuel. However, many countries did not reprocess this type of fuel; those that did had already chosen borosilicate glass as the storage medium because it was the most technically mature technology. This made it difficult to market Synroc, even though it was demonstrated to have superior waste storage properties. Unlike borosilicate glass, which is amorphous, Synroc incorporates the radioactive waste into the crystal structure of its individual grains, reducing the possibility of the waste leaking out.

At the Australian government’s request, a Synroc study group was set up in 1989 to look at ways in which the product could be commercialised. This group was comprised of four Australian companies, BHP (now BHP Billiton), CRA (now Rio Tinto), Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) and Western Mining Corporation (now part of BHP Billiton), together with ANSTO (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) and the Australian National University. This group has further developed Synroc technology, resulting in a variety of ceramic and glass-ceramic Synroc formulations designed to cope with a diverse range of radioactive waste types, particularly those resulting from the construction of nuclear weapons.

91/22 Synthetic Rock, (4), Synroc Raw Materials, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Australia, 1990 Collection: Powerhouse Museum

In the late 90s the US Department of Energy selected Synroc for its plutonium immobilisation program, designed to lock up surplus plutonium from the US and Russian nuclear weapons programs. The immobilisation program was later dropped for political reasons. In 2005, the Synroc process was chosen for a multi-million dollar demonstration contract to eliminate five tonnes of plutonium-contaminated waste at British Nuclear Fuel’s Sellafield plant, on the northwest coast of England. Other projects aimed at cleaning up nuclear contamination are also considering the use of Synroc.

The museum has a number of Synroc samples in its collection, including samples of the original mineral components in powdered form, cutaway discs of Synroc material and complete simulated discs of material stacked in a waste container. Some of these samples can be seen on display in the Success and Innovation and Nuclear Matters exhibitions. One also features in Science Underground, curator-led tours of our basement store during Ultimo Science Festival, from 16-28 August 2011.

Oceans, data, and climate change: Sea Robots

Published by Erika Taylor 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Photography by Marinoc Kojdanovski, Powerhouse Museum.

Attention data nerds and science geeks, you will love this object.

This is what is known as an Argo float (I prefer the term sea robot), the picture doesn’t give you a sense of scale but the whole unit is about 6 feet tall. They are used to gather scientific data about the worlds oceans, and help in ongoing research about climate change.

To be exact there are 3000 of these floats drifting along in the worlds ocean currents measuring temperature and salinity in the upper 2000m of the ocean.

Image courtesy of Argo

They are dumped off ships into the ocean and using an internal programmable bladder system they delve down to be “parked” at pre set depth. At 10 day intervals they pop back up to the surface to transmit their data via satellite, then sink once again. They are designed to make about 150 of these cycles.

The best thing about the Argo collaboration is that all the data is available to anyone, in real time, from their website.

Image courtesy of Argo

The 3000 floats provide 100,000 temperature/salinity profiles and velocity measurements per year distributed over the global oceans.

The Argo float pictured above is currently on display in Ecologic: creating a sustainable future.

Real vs Fake: Museum objects

Published by Erika Taylor 12 Comments Tags: , , .

Photography by Geoff Friend, Powerhouse Museum

Whilst working on the new ‘Ecologic: creating a sustainable future’ exhibition, we were looking for objects to help us tell the story of climate change, and more specifically talk about the fossil record.

We searched for real fossils to put on display, and could have easily arranged some 100 million year old fossils to put behind glass in the exhibition. But no one can touch them behind the glass.

I frequently witness visitors to our museum, especially children, touching anything they can, buttons will be pushed, levers pulled, knobs turned, even if not designed to be touched.

We solved out fossil dilemma by getting casts of fossils (thanks Australian Museum!) and putting them on open display, freely touchable by visitors.

Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski, Powerhouse Museum.

I am curious as to what you think.

Would you rather.. be able see real objects that are safely locked away from your grasp….or to be able to touch replicas/fakes?

Double Darwin: 3D scanning and rapid prototyping robot

Published by Erika Taylor 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Photography by Janson Hews

As a Museum of Science and Design we celebrate human ingenuity and are interested in providing people with the opportunity to explore exciting and emerging technologies. As part of the Ultimo Science Festival, we brought together 3D laser scanning, Robotics and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) for our Face to Face installation. The robot has been used in the Museum to scan visitors’ faces and model them out of Styrofoam.

Photography by Sotha Bourn

However, we couldn’t resist scanning one of our collection objects and picked this porcelain bust of Charles Darwin for the experiment. Afterall, two Darwins are bound to be better than one!

Photography by Janson Hews

Darwin was scanned using FastSCAN, a lightweight laser scanner. The process is similar to spray painting and is done by sweeping the hand-held laser over a 3D surface. A fan of laser light is projected onto the object’s surface while a camera, also attached to the scanner, works out the cross-sectional depth to form a 3D model. The 3D model is then imported into a CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) package that generates the tool paths that the robot uses to machine the model.

The MR20 Series Robot then machines Darwin out of Styrofoam.

Photography by Janson Hews

Photography by Janson Hews

Photography by Janson Hews

Photography by Janson Hews

Double Darwin will be on display all this week. Any suggestions for what we do with the Darwin doppelganger after that?

Science Underground – Angelo Tornaghi: instrument maker and entrepreneur

Published by Geoff Barker 1 Comment Tags: , , .

Angelo Tornaghi, Australian Men of Mark, 1889

Angelo Tornaghi arrived in Sydney in 1855 and for the next fifty years played a highly visible role in Sydney’s scientific community. By May 1864, he was running a highly respected business importing and making scientific instruments from his shop at 312 George Street. Just two months later his instruments were praised by the Royal Society of New South Wales as being equal to those of European manufacture. His standing as an instrument maker was also enhanced by a number of new designs, including an accurate and light circumferentor for quick surveying in the field.

Things should have gone smoothly, but it appears that the highly competitive and speculative nature of post gold-rush Sydney encouraged Tornaghi to take risks. By August 1866 his business had been crippled by a massive debt of around 5000 pounds and as a result he was forced to sell all his stock. This included clocks, watches, jewellery, electroplated ware, regulators, counters, glass cases and astronomical, mathematical, optical and surveying instruments.

To overcome his immediate difficulties, it seems Tornaghi decided to focus on doing contract work alongside a new business making paving tiles. It was from this period on that his name becomes associated with the installing and maintenance of some of New South Wales’ more important clocks.

In November 1867 he completed the installation of the Morpeth Town Clock in the local court house and in 1874 the new Sydney GPO opened with three large wall clocks whose components were all made in Tornaghi’s workshop.

In 1878 he was elected as alderman for Hunters Hill and in the following year he was elected Mayor. By the time Tornaghi died in 1906, he was not only a well-respected figure in Sydney, but had been acknowledged by his country of birth, who awarded him the Cross of Italy in recognition of his services to the Italian community in Sydney.

Science Underground – … the most powerful and perfect spectroscope of its time

Published by Geoff Barker 1 Comment Tags: , , , .
Spectroscope Powerhouse Museum H9957

Spectroscope, made by Adam Hilger, 1876, Powerhouse Museum, H9974

This spectroscope was made by the Adam Hilger of 192 Tottenham Court Road, London. It is also one of the earliest spectroscopes Hilger made as Henry Chamberlin Russell, Government Astronomer at the Sydney Observatory, ordered it in 1875; the same year Hilger opened his business.

After being tested it arrived in Sydney in 1876 and Russell appears to have been very happy with the workmanship. In his 1876 Government Report he described it as being the “most powerful and perfect one in the world at the time of its manufacture”. It was certainly well used as Russell connected it to the Observatory’s Merz 7.25-inch telescope to make spectral measurements. In 1878 it was also taken to the Blue Mountains to enable Russell to conduct tests to find out whether the performance of the observatory’s astronomical equipment was improved in the mountain air.

The spectroscope is an instrument which is attached to a telescope to spread light from the lens into lines of spectral wavelengths. This light is passed through a slit, and collimator, and then through a prism, or prisms, to disperse it into different wavelengths.

In 1859 Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff worked out how to measure the spectrums cast by the spectroscope and began using it to identify the chemical constitution of substances in the atmosphere. Initially experiments focussed on the earth’s atmosphere but by 1860 a number of astronomers had begun to pioneer the use of spectroscopes for measuring the chemical composition of bodies in space.

One of the most significant events occurred in 1864 when William Huggins and W. A. Miller published their paper on stellar spectra. This identified elements from stars which were the same as those on earth and made it clear other planets, like the sun, had atmospheres as well.

References
Todd, David, P., Stars and Telescopes, Sampson Low, Marston, and Co., 1900
Chaldecott, J., ‘Printed Ephemera of Some Nineteenth Century Instrument Makers’, in Blondel, C., Parot, F., Turner, A., Williams, M., (eds), Studies in the History of Scientific Instruments, Rogers Turner Books, London, 1989
McConnell, A., Instrument Makers to the World; a History of Cooke, Troughton and Simms, William Sessions, York, England, 1992
Knight, E., H., (ed), ‘Knight’s American Mechanical Dictionary’, Vol III, J.B. Ford and Company, New York, 1874, p.2259
King, H., C., The History of the Telescope, Dover Publications, New York, 1955

Ultimo Science Festival

Published by Erika Taylor 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Photography by Sotha Bourn, © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

Today marks the start of Ultimo Science Festival! For the next two weeks we are going to be bringing some great science stories on the blog.

So stay tuned in as our science, technology and industry curators bring you stories about our collection, the Museum, and what happens behind the scenes.

The Powerhouse Museum celebrates Ada Lovelace Day

Published by Matthew Connell 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
File:Ada Lovelace.jpg

Ada Lovelace, 19th century British mathematician (1836). Painting by Margaret Carpenter (1793-1872).

We are delighted to be participating in Ada Lovelace Day, an international day of blogging on 24 March 2010 to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science.

Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, is an intriguing figure. Mary Somerville, one of the very few recognised women mathematicians and scientists of the day, took the 17 year old Ada to London to introduce her to society. Through Mary, Ada met Charles Babbage, a scholar and inventor whose expertise included mathematics, astronomy, meteorology, ophthalmoscopy and linguistics, who showed Ada his working model of the Difference Engine.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Babbge had designed the Difference Engine to eradicate errors in the calculation of mathematical tables. Calculations of this sort were used to produce charts – such as used in shipping. To this date, errors in mathematical tables resulted in accidents and death – such as in accidents at sea due to mistakes in charts. So there was great practical potential to developing the Difference Engine.

Babbage was impressed to note that Ada understood its complicated operation. From that meeting a 19 year friendship and partnership began.

In 1995 the Powerhouse Museum acquired its specimen piece of Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine No1 (pictured above). Included in the auction lot were 2 letters addressed to Charles from Ada Lovelace.

Later when the acquisition brought us in to contact with Charles’ descendants in Australia we acquired from them, among other items, a small envelope addressed to Babbage containing the calling card of Countess Lovelace.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Hand written on the back is the mysterious and tantalising “Very Interesting”. We are delighted to have these items in the Museum’s collection, evidence of Charles’ and Ada’s association.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

From today’s perspective the culmination of this partnership is the much repeated writing of the ‘first computer programme’ by Ada in her description of Babbage’s Analytical Engine. The paper, written in 1843, is a translation from the French of a paper on the Analytical Engine written by Italian engineer (and later Italian Prime Minister) Luigi Menabrea. Menabrea had reported a lecture by Babbage on his Analytical Engine in Turin. But Ada’s paper included extensive notes of her own and incorporated a table or plan which shows how to set up the Analytical Engine to generate the numbers of the Bernoulli series. It is this table (a copy pictured below) which is commonly held to be the program.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Now it’s questionable that this work constitutes a program. It is also likely that Babbage provided much of this material to Ada, but she still had remarkable understanding of a technology which had no precedent. She also saw possibilities for its application that go beyond Babbage’s conception. She was a remarkable person who contributed to our understanding of the world and who we are.

The first Ada Lovelace Day took place on 24 March 2009. The aim then was for 1000 people to blog about women in science and technology; almost 2000 people took part. This year the organisers hope for 3072 people to blog about women in science and technology. At lunchtime on 23 March 2010 (the day before Ada Lovelace Day), there are pledges for just over half of the 3072 hoped for. If you are interested in encouraging the involvement of women in science and technology, you may wish to pledge to blog on here and help this enterprise in support of women in science and technology.