Andrea Leong
andrealeong.bsky.social
Andrea Leong
@andrealeong.bsky.social
Microbiologist, optimist, percussionist.
Tree-hugging bleeding heart.
@weplanetaus.bsky.social president
Australia trains visitors from abroad in nuclear science techniques.

August 2026 will mark 20 years of operation of the OPAL reactor, the successor to the HIFAR reactor which operated from 1958 to 2007!
October 9, 2025 at 10:47 PM
ANSTO recently exported used fuel from the OPAL reactor to France, where the material will be reprocessed to extract more energy from it, providing clean electricity for society.

The last time they did this was 2018. Didn’t know about it? They must be doing their job well.
October 9, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Australia is a nuclear nation, with a globally-respected medical and industrial facility. ANSTO is right now sharing its new food provenance technology at the World Expo in Osaka!
www.ansto.gov.au/news/innovat...
October 9, 2025 at 10:47 PM
@australiannuclear.bsky.social conference kicking off! Can’t wait to read ‘Atomic Rise And Fall - The Australian Atomic Energy Commission’ by Clarence Hardy!

The book’s jacket notes that it includes a look at the unsuccessful attempt to build Australia’s first nuclear power station at Jervis Bay.
October 9, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Why has the EU Parliament banned the use of the words "burger" and "sausage" for foods made from plants? Seriously, can anyone tell me why?

Vegie burgers have been in the supermarkets, labelled as such, for decades. There was #NoConfusion then, or now.
October 9, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Now our lighting is almost entirely electric. Thanks to electricity, we’ve separated light from heat and pollution, 400,000 years after we started burning stuff on purpose.
September 18, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Street lights went through the same evolution, with electrification turning the laborious task of lamp-lighting into the flicking of a switch. Illuminated streets let us travel more safely at night.

Lighting shaped civilisation.
September 18, 2025 at 8:53 AM
But what of cities? Early in human history, the only way we could socialise after dark was to gather around a fire. Moving through technologies from wood to oil, gas and electricity must have profoundly influenced culture as we could safely light larger and larger indoor spaces.
September 18, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Beyond that brief mention of fire being inextricably linked with humanity, I would've loved an exploration of how lighting continued to shape civilisation. There was mention of individuals’ unequal access to lighting, with peasants using dull, quick-burning rush lights while the rich used oil lamps…
September 18, 2025 at 8:32 AM
The exhibit starts with a brief timeline of the domestication of fire, which let pre-humans control heat and light. Then we’re into pitch torches, candles, oil lamps and, eventually, electric light (the best one so far).
September 18, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Lumina Domestica (the Lamp Museum) in Bruges is impressive for its huge collection of lamps. The only downside is that there are so many lamps. I wanted more context and slightly fewer lamps.
September 18, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Humanity started burning coal because it let us achieve more — not because we wanted smoggy skies or to change the climate, but that’s what it does and here we are. Now we've started electrifying industry and I believe that will be the subject of museum displays in 2100. Things are getting better.
September 18, 2025 at 7:48 AM
When steam power was harnessed, this new technology was applied to looms and printing presses. Huge new machines were invented in both industries. Productivity soared as work was no longer drawn solely from the human body.

Of course, steam-powered means coal-powered.
September 18, 2025 at 7:48 AM
The museum also shares how local workers fought the new inequality that accompanied the rise of these factories—collectively demanding reasonable working hours, fair pay, an end to child labour, and universal suffrage.
September 18, 2025 at 7:48 AM
I recently visited the wonderful Museum of Industry in Ghent, Belgium, with its exhibitions on the history of the textiles and printing industries. The impressive collection shows how people across centuries solved increasingly complex problems with increasingly complex machinery.
September 18, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Sagar Tandon shared
@beyondinvesting.bsky.social’s mission to invest in humane, decarbonising, regenerative foods and materials.

Early bioengineers used selective breeding thousands of years ago to develop our foods. Now we get microbes to brew proteins for us and it’s actually hella natural.
August 30, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Anni Savikurki from the Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry notes three key benefits/opportunities of novel foods:

• resilience of supply

• furthering the circular economy

• international competitiveness with an aim of Finland being the *unambiguous* global leader!

#RebootFood
August 30, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Fantastic presentation from Emilia Nordlund of ‪@vtt.fi‬

The slides shown here outline the diversity of alternative proteins: animal cells without slaughter; plants, fungi and bacteria as factories.

Cellular agriculture is the electrification of food — saving land, water and emissions!
#RebootFood
August 30, 2025 at 9:10 AM
‪@marklynas.bsky.social‬ notes that much of the British Isles could be forest… but it’s used for grazing. Agriculture puts more species at risk of extinction than anything else. Can we spare land for biodiversity? Can we spare the oceans and leave krill for the ecosystems that depend on it?
August 30, 2025 at 9:10 AM
@weplanetint.bsky.social’s #RebootFood Festival is kicking off!

Opening remarks from Lauri Muranen, co-founder of @ekomodernismi.bsky.social: our movement's aim is to decouple living standards from environmental impact. Ecomodernism has enabled a YIMBY attitude!
August 30, 2025 at 9:10 AM
August 28, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Eye-opening session at #MadeAndGrown2025! Precision fermentation isn’t just for the familiar dairy products on our supermarket shelves…

All G Foods is using this technology to produce lactoferrin, a high-value protein found in milk at concentrations below 0.1%, and used in infant formula.
August 21, 2025 at 6:55 AM
The ‘Plants as Factories’ and ‘Re-designing Biology’ panels at #MadeAndGrown2025 offered insights… and hope!

Australia entered synthetic biology a little late, but is accelerating hard. We have the talent — the sector needs support and coordination to flourish.
August 21, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Hell yeah, Respect 1st peoples please (Missenden Rd, Camperdown)
June 20, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Hell yeah, MUSIC SCIENCE (Sydney St, Marrickville)
June 19, 2025 at 11:45 PM