Last week the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia got in touch with me about some CSIRO-produced films they had found from the 1950s and ‘60s.

While these films are always amusing for the stilted presentation style and English accents, they got me thinking.

One film from 1950 introduces radio astronomy as a new branch of science that uses radio equipment rather than telescopes to study the stars and sun.

It showed the work of the Radiophysics Laboratory which became a division of CSIRO in 1940. In 1996, the Division of Radiophysics merged with the Division of Applied Physics to become CSIRO, Telecommunications and Industrial Physics, then down the track that was merged with CSIRO Industrial Physics and CSIRO ICT Centre.

What an amazing journey from 1950 when we ‘introduced’ radio astronomy to this week when CSIRO signed licensing agreements with some of the biggest telecommunications companies in the world for the use of our patented WLAN technology– the technology which makes wireless devices work.

The invention came out of CSIRO's pioneering work in radio astronomy. That work involved complex mathematics known as 'fast Fourier transforms' as well as detailed knowledge about radio waves and their behaviour in different environments.

Every time we use a wireless device we should thank the funny sounding scientists on those black and white films.

Huw Morgan

Oh, for those who prefer little icons and stats, check out this nifty infographic on how we brought wireless LAN technology to the world.

Feeling the pressure The Planet Under Pressure conference was held in London last week and our own Mark Stafford-Smith was on the organising committee.

A fair few of our scientists spoke at the conference, which was designed to be a major opportunity to link global-change science with a wide range of groups working towards global sustainability.

Interestingly, for the first time, a State of the Planet Declaration was published as a way of summarising the insights and concerns from the world's largest gathering of experts on global environmental and social issues.

30 million species... and still counting A small Brush Bronzewing (pictured right) recorded by Dutch explorers in the 17th century helped the Atlas of Living Australia top the 30 million mark in records last week.

The ALA is a collaboration between all Australian museums, herbaria and biological collections, CSIRO, Adelaide and Southern Cross Universities and the Commonwealth Government and is the largest collection of information on Australia’s plants, animals and fungi.

The Bronzewing record is part of the collection from Birdlife Australia.

State of the Climate: the factsWorking with the Bureau of Meteorology, we recently released our second State of the Climate report.

It provides a summary of observations of Australia's climate and analysis of the factors that influence it.

We're looking for two Enterprise Service Managers for our Communication division.

The first is for Director of Publishing, the second is for Director Education and Outreach.

The fine folk over at Education have taken the plunge into social media. Woohoo!

The @CSIROhelix twitter account will broadcast fun science news, quizzes, activities and info about events and holiday programs.

Now, we can say it's all about the kids and their love of science... but we really know you adults won't be able to keep away.

Everyone loves a long, dispassionate and dull corporate video.

Yeah. Right.

We wanted to do something different. We wanted to make something short and sweet that tugs at the heart strings but still demonstrates some of the amazing science we're proud to put our name to.

You see, for us, it's all about the Positive Impact we make on people's lives, daily.

Watch it here.

• Korean connection makes an 8000-km telescope
• Uncovering nature's nano-secrets
• Carbon capture technology moves a step closer
• Putting wheat under the artistic microscope

Enquiries: Huw Morgan +61 8 8303 8857 / +61 417 834 547 / huw.morgan@csiro.au