Transcript
[Music plays and an image appears of a Prime Minister’s Prize for Science medallion above text: Professor Matthew Bailes, BSC (HONS) PHD FAA]
[Images move through to show various medium and close views of Professor Matthew Bailes talking to the camera]
Professor Matthew Bailes: When we first saw the fast radio burst, my colleague started laughing because it just seemed too good to be true. It was ridiculously bright and absolutely perfect.
[Music plays as images move through to show blossoming tree branches, a wide view of Matthew walking towards the camera, and then a close view of Matthew smiling]
[Images move through to show various views of Matthew talking to the camera, various Swinburne University signs on a building, and then the building windows outside, and text appears: Professor Matthew Bailes]
My name is Matthew Bailes. I'm the director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, sometimes called OzGrav, and that's headquartered here at Swinburne University of Technology.
[Image changes to show Matthew talking to the camera, and then image changes to show a timelapse of the Parkes Radio Telescope from night to the morning, and text appears: Murriyang, CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope, Credit – CSIRO]
Fast radio bursts were first discovered at the Parkes radio telescope back in 2007.
[Image changes to show a laptop screen with the radio telescope’s data, and then image changes to show Matthew’s hand operating the laptop]
I was very fortunate to be part of the discovery team.
[Images move through to show Mathew thinking, various views of Mathew talking to the camera, a vibrant star, and then outer space showing a fast radio burst moving across the sky]
They only last for about a millisecond, but they're coming from billions of light years away, and they're about a trillion times more luminous than any radio burst we've ever seen from our galaxy.
[Images move through to show medium and close views of Matthew talking to the camera]
Entangled in the fast radio burst signal is a measure of how many electrons there are in the universe, and we can use that to determine how much normal matter in the universe weighs.
[Images move through to show data cables plugged into a supercomputer, a sign board, a large sign featuring OzStar Supercomputing, and then Matthew talking to the camera]
I'm currently the Director of something called OzGrav, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, that detects a brand new type of radiation called gravitational waves.
[Images move through to show views of Matthew and colleagues looking at a laptop, Matthew talking to the camera, and Matthew and colleagues walking past the supercomputer]
OzGrav is very thirsty for knowledge and this new way of looking at the universe, where we can use ripples in space time to study how black holes and neutron stars merge. OzGrav is making ripples internationally.
[Image changes to show Matthew talking to the camera]
I've had people come into my office from overseas saying, how did you do this and how can we do this back in our own country?
[Images move through to show Matthew talking to the female colleague, Matthew explaining something, and then a raised hand]
The team is doing something right. I really get the greatest joy out of nurturing the next scientists and engineers.
[Images move through to show Matthew teaching students, a female student talking, Matthew talking to the camera, and then Matthew teaching students again]
I love going to schools and giving talks and also having kids come in to the lab, seeing them gaze in wonder at what we know about the universe.
[Images move through to show two female students smiling, a medium view of Matthew talking to the camera, and then a close view of Matthew talking to the camera]
To receive the Prime Minister's Prize for Science is an amazing honour. There's so many of us pushing against the frontiers of knowledge that every now and then one of us hits the jackpot.
[Image changes to show Matthew folding his arms and smiling at the camera]
And so I see this really as a prize for the entire astronomical sector.
[Music plays and the image changes to show the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science medallion, with the Australian Government Coat of Arms in the bottom right corner, and text appears: 2024 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science, Celebrating 25 years]
