To enable robots to comprehend high-level human instructions and perform complex tasks, a key challenge lies in achieving comprehensive scene understanding: interpreting and interacting with the 3D environment in a meaningful way. This requires a smart map that fuses accurate geometric structure with rich, human-understandable semantics. To address this, we introduce the 3D Queryable Scene Representation (3D QSR), a novel framework built on multimedia data that unifies three complementary 3D representations: (1) 3D-consistent novel view rendering and segmentation from panoptic reconstruction, (2) precise geometry from 3D point clouds, and (3) structured, scalable organization via 3D scene graphs. Built on an object-centric design, the framework integrates with large vision-language models to enable semantic queryability by linking multimodal object embeddings, and supporting object-level retrieval of geometric, visual, and semantic information. The retrieved data are then loaded into a robotic task planner for downstream execution. We evaluate our approach through simulated robotic task planning scenarios in Unity, guided by abstract language instructions and using the indoor public dataset Replica. Furthermore, we apply it in a digital duplicate of a real wet lab environment to test QSR-supported robotic task planning for emergency response. The results demonstrate the framework's ability to facilitate scene understanding and integrate spatial and semantic reasoning, effectively translating high-level human instructions into precise robotic task planning in complex 3D environments.

The tiny shark and a ghost-like crab are two of the latest species uncovered in a yearslong expedition. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Oceanographers scouring the waters off of Western Australia have discovered two new deep-sea oddities . On October 6, Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) showcased these new species originally collected in 2022: a bioluminescent lanternshark and a tiny, semi-translucent porcelain crab . The team revealed two of its initial finds--the painted hornshark and the ridged-egg catshark --in 2023.

Nitrate ($\text{NO}_3^-$) is a form of dissolved inorganic nitrogen derived primarily from anthropogenic sources. The recent increase in river-discharged nitrate poses a major risk for coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) lagoon. Although nitrate is an optically inactive (i.e., colourless) constituent, previous studies have demonstrated there is an indirect, non-causal relationship between water surface nitrate and water-leaving reflectance that is mediated through optically active water quality parameters such as total suspended solids and coloured dissolved organic matter. This work aims to advance our understanding of this relationship with an effort to measure time-series nitrate and simultaneous hyperspectral reflectance at the Fitzroy River estuary, Queensland, Australia. Time-series observations revealed periodic cycles in nitrate loads due to the tidal influence in the estuarine study site. The water surface nitrate loads were predicted from hyperspectral reflectance and water salinity measurements, with hyperspectral reflectance indicating the concentrations of optically active variables and salinity indicating the mixing of river water and seawater proportions. The accuracy assessment of model-predicted nitrate against in-situ measured nitrate values showed that the predicted nitrate values correlated well with the ground-truth data, with an $R^2$ score of 0.86, and an RMSE of 0.03 mg/L. This work demonstrates the feasibility of predicting water surface nitrate from hyperspectral reflectance and salinity measurements.

Australia's new chief scientist has said he is open to the prospect of nuclear power playing a role in the country's energy mix, but remained focused on forms of energy that were "available to help us right now". On his first day in the job, Prof Tony Haymet said new energy-intensive technologies like artificial intelligence could be powered by renewables, but that he thought serious discussions about nuclear in Australia were likely to be years away. "If you go back and look at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island and so on, there wasn't enough transparency and openness. I think the nuclear industry has accepted the fact that they have to rebuild their social licence to operate," Haymet told a press conference when asked about small modular reactors (SMRs). "You know, for the next chief scientist in 2030 or 2040, I think you can re-ask your question."

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes integral to business operations, integrating Responsible AI (RAI) within Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks is essential for ethical and sustainable AI deployment. This study examines how leading companies align RAI with their ESG goals. Through interviews with 28 industry leaders, we identified a strong link between RAI and ESG practices. However, a significant gap exists between internal RAI policies and public disclosures, highlighting the need for greater board-level expertise, robust governance, and employee engagement. We provide key recommendations to strengthen RAI strategies, focusing on transparency, cross-functional collaboration, and seamless integration into existing ESG frameworks.

Scientific research organizations that are developing and deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are at the intersection of technological progress and ethical considerations. The push for Responsible AI (RAI) in such institutions underscores the increasing emphasis on integrating ethical considerations within AI design and development, championing core values like fairness, accountability, and transparency. For scientific research organizations, prioritizing these practices is paramount not just for mitigating biases and ensuring inclusivity, but also for fostering trust in AI systems among both users and broader stakeholders. In this paper, we explore the practices at a research organization concerning RAI practices, aiming to assess the awareness and preparedness regarding the ethical risks inherent in AI design and development. We have adopted a mixed-method research approach, utilising a comprehensive survey combined with follow-up in-depth interviews with selected participants from AI-related projects. Our results have revealed certain knowledge gaps concerning ethical, responsible, and inclusive AI, with limitations in awareness of the available AI ethics frameworks. This revealed an overarching underestimation of the ethical risks that AI technologies can present, especially when implemented without proper guidelines and governance. Our findings reveal the need for a holistic and multi-tiered strategy to uplift capabilities and better support science research teams for responsible, ethical, and inclusive AI development and deployment.

Climate change, clean energy and sustainability, building low emissions technologies and developing ethical artificial intelligence are some of the challenges being tackled by CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, and the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) under a multi-million-dollar partnership. The recently established partnership between the two leading science organisations is aiming to accelerate joint research and initiatives in areas of mutual priority between Australia and the United States. CSIRO Chief Executive Larry Marshall said the two leading science organisations have already enabled a number of opportunities across the two countries in only a year, launching this month an AUD$100 million Global Centers initiative, partnering in the areas of responsible and ethical Artificial Intelligence (AI) and developing sustainable materials for global challenges. "As national science agencies, CSIRO and the NSF are working together to build international bridges for national benefit, strengthening our science and innovation to improve lives around the world," Dr Marshall said. "As the world races towards new applications for technologies like AI, it will take global collaboration to champion responsible and ethical applications that embrace the full potential of technological advances and drive healthy competitive advantages.

A world-first report from Australia's science agency, CSIRO, has found that scientists are adopting artificial intelligence (AI) at an unprecedented rate. Analysing the impact of AI on scientific discovery, 'Artificial intelligence for science' draws insight from millions of peer-reviewed scientific papers published over 63 years and identifies key issues ahead for the sector. The report found that artificial intelligence is now implemented in 98 per cent of scientific fields, and by September 2022 approximately 5.7% of all peer-reviewed research worldwide was on the topic. "AI is no longer just the domain of computer scientists or mathematicians; it is now a significant enabling force across all fields of science, which is something we live every day at CSIRO, where digital technologies are accelerating the pace and scale of our research in fields ranging from agriculture to energy to manufacturing and beyond," says CSIRO Chief Scientist Professor Bronwyn Fox. The report uses a bibliometric analysis – statistical methods analysing trends in peer-reviewed research – to determine what percentage of the 333 research fields studied were publishing on artificial intelligence between 1960-2022. Analysing all disciplines of natural science, physical science, social science and the arts and humanities, the report found that only 14% of fields were publishing on artificial intelligence in 1960.

Despite the best intentions, the sad reality is that only a fraction of the plastics we dutifully separate from the rest of our waste is ever truly recycled. And one of the biggest contributing factors to this state of affairs is that plastic recycling isn't properly sorted. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), almost half of the overall waste generated annually in the country is recycled. But in New South Wales alone, only 10 per cent of the state's 800,000 tonnes of plastics are recycled because they are not sorted properly, according to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). "The recycling process is quite complicated. If you go to the supermarket or for the daily recycling you need to know how to properly place all the recyclable (items), like bottles or others, into the right bins. You need to know the labels, know the icons," says Dr Xu Wang, from the School of Electrical and Data Engineering at the University of Technology Sydney.

Earlier this week an artificial intelligence-powered rapper was dropped from its label (yes, it had a label) after its algorithm learned to use racial slurs in its lyrics. More usefully, a recent AI trial at Queensland's Princess Alexandra Hospital was able to give early warnings as much as eight hours before a patient's condition was predicted to decline. Artificial technology is about to send a "tidal wave" of disruption through the way we work, according to a once-in-a-decade forecast by CSIRO, the national science agency. The federal government is being urged to use the upcoming national jobs summit to "double down" on policies set by the former government to ride that tidal wave, or risk being rode over. AI technology is forecast to replace as much as half of the work that is done today by 2030.