The National Science Writers Festival 2000 will be held in association with the Brisbane Writers Festival. The Festival will be held in Brisbane from October 19 to the 22.

The biotechnology company, BresaGen, will receive human embryonic stem (ES) cells from the University of Wisconsin, USA. The cells will be used in the company's Cell Therapy Program, conducted in the Department of Biochemistry at Adelaide University.

The Scientific Suppliers Association of Australia (SSAA) have changed its name to Science Industry Australia at its Annual General Meeting.

The first sequence of images taken of a 'near miss' space rock that zoomed past Earth this week were taken by an Australian remotely controlled telescope at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.

In international competition, the CSIRO's Cyberoos have finished 9th in the Simulation League of the 4th Robot World Cup (RoboCup) in Melbourne.

New figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that Australia's expenditure on Research and Development slumped 10% against GDP in the two-year period from 1996-97 to 1998-99. These were the worst results in an international comparison of 17 OECD countries.

Adelaide University engineers are using complex mathematical processing to remove the noise from heartbeats, an approach that promises benefits for some of the most serious health problems.

The Royal Society of NSW will hold a meeting entitled 'Dinner with the General Manager (GM)' on 4 October 2000 at 6:00 to 9:00pm at City Tattersalls Club, Sydney.

When Einstein died he left his papers to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Professor Hanoch Gutfreund, a fellow physicist and former President of that university, is probably the best qualified person to speak about Einstein.

Two Australian-designed weapons have joined the worldwide battle against city air pollution and the growing threat of lung disease.

International solar power researchers will accept the challenge of finding approaches to converting solar energy to electricity at the UNSW Third Generation Photovoltaics workshop to be held next month. The workshop will focus interest and intellect on this unexplored area.

A scientific instrument that promises to reveal the secrets of corrosion could cut the cost of fixing rusty cars or maintaining the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Space week will be held from October 4 through 10, 2000. Current Space Week projects include the opening/inauguration of the new heritage display in the Namadgi National Park, on the site of the former Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station, Lunar Observation Night at the Sydney Observatory on October 6 and The 'Lost in Space' children's exhibit at the Australian National Gallery (running from August 2000 to December and open during Space Week).

Researchers from the CSIRO Entomology told a National Science Briefing that introduced plants and animals are second only to habitat clearing as the greatest threat to Australia's biodiversity. Up to 70% of the weeds are introduced intentionally, for example as ornamental plants. There are about 1000 introduced weeds here now, and 300 of these have become established in the last 25 years.

The Museum of Human Disease at UNSW presents 'The Big Pox, Smallpox and No Pox'. This exhibition looks at three diseases with a long history: syphilis, smallpox and tuberculosis, showing how the prevalence of diseases can change.