© Vanessa Hill 2011
Think there’s junk lying around your office? There’s plenty of space junk at NASA. The difference: you probably couldn’t auction off your office junk on ebay. Today was the first of our two day NASA Tweetup to see the GRAIL … Continue reading
© Vanessa Hill 2010
It’s harvest time in North Queensland- sugar cane harvest that is. For months of the dry season, cane fires reign and smoke fills our skies. Celebrating the harvest, a bright red full moon rises above Townsville.
© Vanessa Hill 2011
The Townsville Show warrants a public holiday, ferris wheel, and flashing neon lights. Really, what more could you want?
© Vanessa Hill 2011
Exploring the Great Barrier Reef, on North Hastings Reef in Queensland’s Coral Sea. Another perfect day diving!
© Vanessa Hill 2010
The features of Uluru are illuminated by a full moon. The Southern Cross is saying hello, too.
© Vanessa Hill 2010
Today I arrived at Uluru (Ayers Rock) with all of my possessions packed into the back of a Wicked Camper. It was a graceful entry, having left Sydney 3 weeks earlier and travelling 3,798 kilometres through the Australian landscape. In August, I … Continue reading
© 2012 Vanessa. All rights reserved.
After recently acquiring Adobe Creative Suite on my MacBook, this is the latest of my experiments in Photoshop. I’m studying a Master of Science Communication at ANU, where this session I need to produce a small science communication artifact. My … Continue reading
© 2012 Vanessa. All rights reserved.
Canine population control can be a humiliating reality for our four-legged friends. My 10 month old Labradoodle, Luna, was subject to the undignified process of having her reproductive organs removed. As a concerned and bemused dog owner, I fitted her ‘Elizabethan … Continue reading
© 2012 Vanessa. All rights reserved.
Late last year, I submitted a video application to attend the 2012 International Aeronautical Congress. This 15 seconds of fame was recorded in the hope of joining the young plenary to flex my words on sociable science. Someone liked it. … Continue reading
© 2012 Vanessa. All rights reserved.
In 2012 I brought in the New Year underwater. In the first week of January I did a PADI Underwater Digital Photography course in Gili Trawangan, Indonesia. The course is a specialty course that brings my a step closer to … Continue reading
© Martin Ollman 2011
Behind every professional tweetup, there is a communicator who is a news junkie. As tweetup plans progress, their addiction spawns late nights of trawling through twitter profiles and reading over articles on Mashable. They claim to ‘digg’ social media. Really, … Continue reading
© Vanessa Hill 2011
Last week I was fortunate enough to travel to Papua New Guinea on an astronomy and geology outreach tour. The majority of my work was on Lihir Island, New Ireland and I also traveled to Rabaul and Kokopo in East … Continue reading
© 2011 Vanessa. All rights reserved.
Happy Halloween! You know you spend too much time working when you think a pumpkin has similarities to Mars. It’s the second time I’ve ever carved a pumpkin, so this year I dedicated my jack-o-lantern to the next Mars rover, … Continue reading
© Vanessa Hill 2011
How cute are these little entomologists? This week I’m working on Palm Island, North Queensland bringing the world of science to indigenous kids. The excitement has been manic! Today the were intrigued by the life of Insects; but theres more … Continue reading
© Vanessa Hill 2011
Last Monday I had a pleasant surprise when a chrysalis hatched on my desk. Some people have paperweights. A colleague had given me the chrysalis a few months earlier and it was pushed behind many other distractions. What emerged was Australia’s … Continue reading
© Vanessa Hill 2011
Science makes the world go round: but not if today’s MONSTERS had any say! Straying from my usual science content, today I ran a Stop-Motion workshop on How to Make a Monster, where kids used claymation to animate their short … Continue reading
© 2011 . All rights reserved.
It’s sad, but true: tweets do end. After four or five weeks, Twitter makes room for more tweets by deleting your hard earned 140 characters. Since NASA Tweetups hold awesome memories, I’ve archived the 4 days of GRAIL. Enjoy in … Continue reading
© Vanessa Hill 2011
10 Sept. 2011, 9:08:52 am: On the GRAIL mission’s sixth launch window (and my last launch opportunity before I head home) Delta II launched! The launch experience was amazing, and the perfect culmination to our busy and fun-filled NASA Tweetup. My first launch … Continue reading