Richard Bean – The Conversation

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June 5, 2024

Bad weather, hills and the dark deter cyclists, particularly women. So what can we do about it?

Richard Bean, The University of Queensland; Dorina Pojani, The University of Queensland, and Jonathan Corcoran, The University of Queensland

Male cyclists greatly outnumber female cyclists in Australia. New research points to ways to close the gap.

Hans de Bull, Alchemical Hand Bell of Rudolf II, ca. 1600. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

June 7, 2023

Seven metals, ringed with four magical inscriptions: what other secrets does the ‘Alchemical Hand Bell’ hold?

Richard Bean, The University of Queensland; Corinna Gannon, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, and Sarah Lang, University of Graz

Habsburg emperor Rudolf II owned a spirit-summoning alchemical hand bell. We want to decipher its cryptic Greek inscriptions.

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December 20, 2022

How closely monitoring households’ energy data can unleash their solar outputs and (possibly) make them more money

Richard Bean, The University of Queensland and Neil Horrocks, The University of Queensland

Fixed limits are set for household energy exports because of the uncertain impacts of so many variable generation sources on the network. New energy data and simulation systems may offer an answer.

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September 27, 2022

E‑scooters are becoming wildly popular – but we have to factor in the weather

Anthony Kimpton, The University of Queensland; Dorina Pojani, The University of Queensland; Jonathan Corcoran, The University of Queensland; Julia Loginova, The University of Queensland; Richard Bean, The University of Queensland, and Thomas Sigler, The University of Queensland

Scooter share schemes actually become more popular in hot weather, as people turn to them to avoid breaking a sweat

October 13, 2021

Deciphering the Philosophers’ Stone: how we cracked a 400‑year‑old alchemical cipher

Richard Bean, The University of Queensland; Megan Piorko, Georgia State University, and Sarah Lang, University of Graz

The secret recipe came from Arthur Dee, 17th-century alchemist and royal physician to the Tsar.

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October 6, 2021

We analysed 100 million bike trips to reveal where in the world cyclists are most likely to brave rain and cold

Richard Bean, The University of Queensland; Dorina Pojani, The University of Queensland, and Jonathan Corcoran, The University of Queensland

Cyclists in Melbourne are less likely than those in Dublin or Seville to ride in the rain. Understanding why is crucial.

NSA

May 30, 2021

Declassified Cold War code‑breaking manual has lessons for solving ‘impossible’ puzzles

Richard Bean, The University of Queensland

Researchers tried several times to have the document declassified, including in 1992, 2004 and 2016. It was initially written to help American NSA agents crack difficult coded messages.

A freedom march for Biafra held to mark the anniversary of the unilateral declaration of independence in 1967 that sparked a brutal 30-month civil war in Nigeria. Stefano Montesi - Corbis/Getty Images

July 13, 2020

We decrypted messages from the Biafran war that have remained secret for 50 years

Richard Bean, The University of Queensland; Frode Weierud, CERN, and George Lasry, University of Kassel

Fifty years after the Biafran civil war in Nigeria, the efforts of secessionist diplomats have recently come to light through the decryption of telexes sent from Portugal to Biafra during the war.

The American Survival Research Foundation offered a reward of $1,000 for cracking one of Thouless’s two codes within three years of his death. It was not claimed. Shutterstock.com

August 29, 2019

Cryptology from the crypt: how I cracked a 70‑year‑old coded message from beyond the grave

Richard Bean, The University of Queensland

Computer capabilities have boosted our decryption technology to great heights. How will the future compare to a past, one in which codes were thought to be a means of communicating after death?

After nearly a decade of operation, Brisbane’s CityCycle scheme still needs to be subsidised. Ash Kyd/flickr

December 21, 2017

Here’s what bike‑sharing programs need to succeed

Derlie Mateo-Babiano, The University of Melbourne; Dorina Pojani, The University of Queensland; Jonathan Corcoran, The University of Queensland, and Richard Bean, The University of Melbourne

Many short-term bike-hiring programs have been launched amid much fanfare, only for their popularity to decline soon after. Several key factors need to be in place for a program to work.

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