Communications Technology

A group of Brisbane researchers are leading a new space race, as they help develop a special beer for intergalactic travellers.

Researchers at Queensland University of Technology’s microgravity “drop tower” are testing the first Australian space beer, which will cater to the soon-to-launch space tourism industry.

QUT’s research facility director, Ted Steinberg, said the microgravity tower simulated the low-gravity level present in space, allowing the companies behind the beer to determine how it would be affected by space travel.

“The tower is about 30 metres high and it gives us about two seconds of zero gravity,” Professor Steinberg said.

“Essentially they’re looking at the correct carbonation level so it can be consumed in zero gravity. They’re really trying to perfect the carbonation level and behaviour.

“If it was too carbonated it would not sit well, if it was not carbonated enough you wouldn’t get the flavour.”

Professor Steinberg said researchers achieved two seconds of zero gravity by loading the beer into a 400 kilogram metal capsule and pulling it to the top of the microgravity tower, before letting it freefall.

Professor Steinberg said the project was one of many projects underway at the research centre, with the microgravity tower contributing to the invention of new materials produced without the effects of gravity.

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Sydney schools insist they would never ask photographers to airbrush shots of students, in the wake of an outcry over a Melbourne teenager’s “bouffant” look in a digitally altered picture.

Students from Our Lady of Sion College in Box Hill discovered their school photos had been retouched to change hair styles and cover up earrings.

National School Photography, who took the photos, said the school’s daily co-ordinator, Julie Johannes, sent them an email asking for the changes to be made after the school received proofs.

The school principal, Karen Jebb, said the photography company advised that the changes wouldn’t be noticeable and the school did not double check the photos before they were handed to students.

Many Sydney schools said they would never consider asking for school photos to be digitally altered.

SCEGGS Darlinghurst head of school Jenny Allum said there would never be the need.

“SCEGGS girls always wear their uniforms so neatly that we’ve never had any cause to consider that matter,”.

Sydney Girls High School principal Andrea Connell agreed.

“No. I’ve never heard of anything so silly.”

Karen Gair, Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy College’s director of development and community relations, said the school had never thought of asking for changes.

“I can safely say that’s never happened, never even been considered.”

Ms Gair said the girls themselves make sure they look good for school photos, while teachers are on hand to see that students are neat and tidy.

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Cameras installed high in a tree in the US state of Iowa have made an internet sensation of a family of bald eagles, whose nest is streamed online day and night.

“Why viral, I’m not really sure,” Bob Anderson, director of the Raptor Resource Project, said of the success of the eagle webcam.

Mr Anderson had been transmitting live images of the nest, 24 metres high in Docorah, Iowa, mainly for schools and universities.

But this year, using a new site, UStream, the eagles are challenging the likes of troubled actor Charlie Sheen for internet popularity. There have been 11 million online views, the project’s website says.

About 150,000 viewers at a time check out the live action, captured by two cameras installed on branches 1.5 metres above the nest.

The male and female eagles have been together since the winter of 2007-08, the project’s website explained. They have successfully hatched and fledged eaglets each year since.

Interest spiked in late February when the mother laid three eggs, two of which have hatched. The third is expected to hatch any day now.

Most days viewers can see the wind pushing about the feathers of the eagles, as well as spot the remains of a muskrat, rabbit, crow and trout lying in the nest.

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