Andrea Leong

@andrealeong.bsky.social

189 Followers 107 Following

Microbiologist, optimist, percussionist. Tree-hugging bleeding heart. @weplanetaus.bsky.social president

A paragraph from the ABC article: “In the past six years, less than 500 residential dwellings have been approved to be built there, in contrast to more than 5,200 student rooms during the same period.”
Conference slide showing Australia’s current nuclear reactor facility at Lucas Heights. Statistics are shown: workforce of 1,400; 5,000 guest refreshers per year; 17,000 (school) students visiting per year; 11,500 doses of nuclear medicine per week; and >55% of the global supply of NTD (doped) Silicon.
A small display cabinet (lit with electric downlights) showing various late 20th-century electric light bulbs, mostly if not all fluorescent bulbs of different shapes.
Small display cabinet showing a specific type of small oil lamp, with written information: The Carcel lamp The Carcel lamp works with a clockwork mechanism. The frequent repairs on these lamps were carried out by watchmakers who marked the date of the repair work inside the cover at the bottom of the lamp. It was a kind of lamp maintenance log. Example: according to the engraved dates [on this lamp], [it was] more than 21 years in use and at least 4 repairs: Le 13 déc 1856 Le 10 octobre 1868 (omgekeerd / à l'envers / upsidedown) Germain 1 oct 1871 Germain 7 nov 1877
A museum display cabinet with dozens of candlesticks and dozens of small clay oil lamps and dozens of small oil lamps that individuals would have used for lighting in past centuries.
A text display with two sections: "Man becomes man by fire" and "How long has man been able to make fire?" TEXT IS AS FOLLOWS: Man becomes man by fire The knowledge of producing and controlling fire to be able to use it is exclusive to man and can therefore serve to define him. No animal has ever used fire nor produced it. The production and the possession of fire are therefore exclusively human. As soon as it was domesticated, about 400.000 years ago, fire was used in three different ways: for heating, lighting and defence against wild animals. But it is not only the technology which is important, psychological factors played a major role too. A whole mythology was born around light as opposed to darkness and around the struggle between good and evil, which transposed itself into all religions. How long has man been able to make fire? The use of fire in all its diverse forms is so deeply integrated with our daily lives that it is difficult to conceive of prehistoric peoples who did not have it. Because man, before mastering the art of making fire, first learned to work stone. The most ancient carved stone tools discovered in east Africa, are now known to date back more than 2.5 million years. There was no sign that these Australopithecs had been able to produce fire. A million years later in the same regions, sites associated with homo habilis or homo erectus produced a few traces of combustion: fragments of burnt earth or heated stones. But these disparate traces could also come from natural fire (lightning, volcanic eruption etc.). Only the presence of real hearths or at least the association on one site of cinders, bones and burned stones could be considered as proof. The most ancient European hearths date from 400,000 years ago. As of this period, there is lots of evidence of the regular use of fire.
A small display cabinet labelled "Elektriciteit / Electricité / Electricity" containing a few early electric lamps of various designs.
An extensive display of small lighting appliances filling a small room: hanging lanterns, oil lamps made of clay and metal, and candlesticks — some of them ornately patterned or in the shape of animals.
Photo of a lace weaving machine, with a wooden frame, about one metre wide, one metre deep and two metres tall. At the top of the machine, a paper tape with holes punched in it is being fed into the machine, programming the loom to weave a particular lace pattern.
Photo of a massive historical cotton loom about five or six metres wide. There are at least 100 spindles of cotton standing up along the front of the machine, feeding thread into over a dozen bolts of cloth as they were woven.
Photo of the author walking through a museum exhibition of old wooden printing presses.
Graffiti on a short telecommunications pillar: “Respect 1st peoples please” with an Aboriginal flag
Photo of stage for the talk ‘Beyond Cars: Decarbonizing Public Transport & Micromobility’. Guests: Sarah Aubrey of Electrify This, Stephen Sizer of Transport for NSW, Gino Casha of Segway-Ninebot ANZ, Ben Sterrey of Ben Buckler Boards, and host: Dan Caesar
Photo of the stage and speakers at session: “Batteries, BS & Beyond”. Fireside chat with guest Dagogo Altraide of Coldfusion, and host Robert Llewellyn.
Photo of the stage at the Everything Electric Show, with speakers Laurissa Mirabelli of Polestar, Dr Josephine Vaughan of the University of Newcastle, Dan Caesar of Fully Charged, Bjorn Antonsson of Candela APAC, and host Sarah Aubrey of Electrify This.