Two Winners: Different Kinds Of Stars

• October 12th, 2011
• Posted by EUEditor

In a busy week for Australian achievers, the singer, song-writer and actor Kylie Minogue received a high honour from a British university, and the ANU astrophysicist Brian Schmidt shared the Nobel Prize for Physics.

GOOD ONE KYLIE MINOGUE

Kylie Minogue, 43, received an Honorary Doctorate in Health Science from the Anglia Ruskin University at Chelmsford in England (6.10.11).

It recognised her work as a recovered breast cancer sufferer in support of anti-cancer campaigns; acclaimed for acting by example, to save thousands of women from the terrible affliction.

Her latest concert tour was the stage extravaganza, “Aphrodite” (picture).

BIG BANG AND A FIZZLE

Distinguished Professor Brian Schmidt from the Mount Stromlo Observatory was awarded this year’s Nobel prize for Physics (5.10.11), together with the Americans Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess.

The three were responsible for the 1998 discovery that contrary to expectations of the time, the exploding universe was not “slowing down” but accelerating.

Their concentration on certain exploding stars demonstrated that unknown phenomena were contradicting the normal effects of gravitational forces – consistent with a theory mooted by Albert Einstein about the inversion of gravity.

The American-born Prof. Schmidt, 44, at the Australian National University in Canberra, is an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow.

He  said his conclusions on the state of the stars indicated that “the universe will never end; it will just kind-of fizzle out.”

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which decides the prizes each year, last made its award for Physics, to Australians, in 1915 – to the father and son, Lawrence and William Bragg, for their work on x-ray crystallography.

By 2008 ten Australian citizens had received the Nobel Prize, mostly in the field of science and related medical research, including the discoverer of penicillin, Howard Florey, 1945; Patrick White’s prize for Literature was in 1973. (Several other Nobel laureates were associated with Australia through their work or other connections).

Reference

DFAT, Canberra, “Australia’s Nobel Prize winners”. http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/nobel_prize_winners.html, (12.10.11).

Vienna Ma, Xinhua, Beijing, “Australian Nobel prize laureate Schmidt hailed by experts”, 5.10.11. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2011-10/05/c_131175130.htm, (12.10.11).

Sky News, London, “Kylie Minogue Is Awarded Honorary Doctorate”, 6.10.11.http://news.sky.com/home/showbiz-news/article/16083680, (12.10.11).

Pictures

Sky News, Wikipedia

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