The Science Show - Separate stories podcast

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The Science Show gives Australians unique insights into the latest scientific research and debate, from the physics of cricket to prime ministerial biorhythms.

ABC Radio


    • Jun 3, 2025 LATEST EPISODE
    • weekdays NEW EPISODES
    • 20m AVG DURATION
    • 1,064 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from The Science Show - Separate stories podcast

    Lab Notes: How microscopic algae can devastate ocean life

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 3, 2025 13:34


    A couple of months ago, a killer started mobilising off the South Australian shore — one that would wipe out marine life, make surfers feel sick, and smother picturesque beaches in thick foam.The culprit? A bloom of tiny organisms called microalgae. We can't see them with the naked eye, but in big enough numbers, they can devastate ecosystems.So what made the South Australian algal bloom so lethal, and can anything be done about blooms like it?

    Can we trust scientific papers?

    Play Episode Listen Later May 31, 2025 7:39


    Len Fisher tackles accusations that some scientific papers and some science books contain misinformation. How well are they checked? Are academics too busy or too few to monitor the work of others?

    Do people have a place in wilderness?

    Play Episode Listen Later May 31, 2025 39:43


    In her book Beyond Green, Geographer Lesley Head argues that Indigenous presence in wilderness in Australia has existed in a balanced way. And Robyn is taken on a walking tour of the highlands around the Shoalhaven River in NSW by two Indigenous guides.

    Lab Notes: AI that outperforms humans is coming

    Play Episode Listen Later May 27, 2025 14:41


    If you were impressed by generative AI such as ChatGPT, then artificial general intelligence or AGI promises to really knock your socks off.Over the past couple of decades, tech companies have been racing to build AGI systems that can match or surpass human capabilities across a whole bunch of tasks.So will AGI save the world — or will it spell the beginning of the end for humanity?

    Lab Notes: Why a metre is a metre long

    Play Episode Listen Later May 20, 2025 13:03


    The next time you pick up a bag of spuds from the supermarket or fill up the car with petrol, you can thank the Treaty of the Metre for the metric system that underpins daily life.The treaty was signed exactly 150 years ago, when delegates from 17 countries gathered on a Parisian spring day to establish a new and standardised way of measuring the world around us.But the metre's inception predates the treaty that bears its name by nearly 100 years. So how did it come about, and how has its definition changed over the centuries?

    Antibiotic resistance – a surprising new source

    Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2025 10:27


    It can come, not only from the indulgent use of drugs, but also from the exchange of genes within our own guts.

    Antibiotic resistance – a surprising new source

    Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2025 10:27


    It can come, not only from the indulgent use of drugs, but also from the exchange of genes within our own guts.

    Volcano! Another book for children by prize-winning author Claire Saxby

    Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2025 9:28


    Claire Saxby shows how the restless Earth can have fissures in its crust leading to huge explosions from deep in the sea, forming islands such as Hawaii whilst allowing thousands of living things to flourish under water.

    Effects of early life adversity in marmots and humans

    Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2025 12:02


    Long-term stress may have consequences. These are being studies in marmots and humans.

    Marsupial reproduction - one at your feet, one in the pouch and one on standby!

    Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2025 12:11


    The diapause, the suspension and then triggering of foetal development, has allowed Australian marsupials to battle the extreme environment with remarkable success.

    Citizen scientists score major fossil find in Victoria

    Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2025 6:58


    A group of amateur fossil hunters in Victoria has uncovered fossilised tracks left in a slab of mud, which have been dated as 35-40 million years older than the previously oldest known evidence of an early reptile.

    Lab Notes: The plight of the southern right whales

    Play Episode Listen Later May 13, 2025 13:46


    Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) were named by whalers because their high oil content made them the "right" ones to kill.In the decades since whaling was banned, southern right numbers increased — but a new study shows that population growth stalled, and might've dropped a bit, despite current numbers still far below what they were in pre-whaling times.So what's going on with the southern rights?

    Is it possible to stop aging?

    Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2025 11:10


    David Walker of UCLA has studied aging for 30 years and thinks he now knows how it happens and, at least in fruit flies, how to reverse it.

    Two tertiary students and an artist combine learning and creativity

    Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2025 30:19


    Jonathan Davis, Zofia Witkovsky-Blake and Jessie French discuss their lives as tertiary students combining their interests spanning science and the arts.

    Gus Nossal reflects and launches a new research chair

    Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2025 10:58


    Australia's eminent immunologist Gus Nossal is 94 and ailing but as enthusiastic as ever for the prospects for research.

    Lab Notes: Why one man let deadly snakes bite him 200 times

    Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2025 14:05


    Cobras, taipans, black mambas — Tim Friede's been intentionally bitten more than 200 times by some of the most venomous snakes on Earth.And he survived, mostly because years of self-injecting venom let him develop immunity to them.(Please do not try this yourself!)Now his blood's been used to make a broad-spectrum antivenom that researchers say may protect against nearly 20 deadly snakes.But this is not how antivenom is usually made. So how are snake antivenoms produced, and where are we with a "universal" version?

    Happy 99th birthday to a Science Show friend

    Play Episode Listen Later May 3, 2025 9:26


    David Attenborough describes one of his favourite birds, Birds-of-paradise with their golden crests.

    The amazing work of dung beetles

    Play Episode Listen Later May 3, 2025 13:58


    Dung beetles were introduced to Australia to clean up after cattle. Rhiân Williams describes the lives and work of dung beetles in her book for younger readers, One Little Dung Beetle.

    A tour of Cockatoo Island – and its hotels for marine creatures

    Play Episode Listen Later May 3, 2025 16:20


    Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour has a rich Indigenous history, the one-time industrial site is now a nature reserve and function centre.

    Stellar explosions - where elements are formed

    Play Episode Listen Later May 3, 2025 8:26


    Mansi Kasliwal studies the moments when stars merge and produce heavy elements. The light from the massive explosions reveals which elements are produced.

    Lab Notes: Where's my needle-free vaccine?

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 29, 2025 14:01


    Hate getting needles? You're in good company — one in five people in Australia have needle fear.

    The dangers of eating pumpkin with pigeon!

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 26, 2025 7:17


    Len Fisher has created a computer program to analyse strange beliefs in order to test them and find out where they come from.

    A visit to Kangaroo Island in South Australia

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 26, 2025 17:38


    Robyn meets resident Mark Bruce who describes the impact of the 2019 bushfires, and Rob Brookman who hopes to establish an art museum on the island.

    AI as a teacher's aid

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 26, 2025 13:05


    AI can be tailored to an individual and the individual's progress. It provides one on one assistance.

    Sharks the great survivors now under threat

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 26, 2025 7:19


    Palaeontologist John Long takes us on a journey covering the unparalleled reign of sharks, describing their evolution at the top of the food chain in environments that changed little, and only slowly… until now.

    Lab Notes: Why did NASA spend a billion bucks on Lucy?

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 22, 2025 13:00


    Somewhere out past Mars in the early hours of Easter Monday, a space probe called Lucy whizzed by an asteroid named Donaldjohanson.Lucy then sent back images showing Donaldjohanson is about five kilometres wide and shaped like a peanut.It's one of a handful of asteroids on Lucy's 12-year itinerary.So what does the billion-dollar mission hope to achieve?

    Machines identify images and sounds

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 19, 2025 9:12


    Professor Pietro Perona describes his work on machine recognition of plants, animals and birdsong. 

    Palaeontology – revealing the past, helping predict the future

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 19, 2025 22:15


    Mike Archer explains how palaeontology helps us form a picture of the past, of what happened when, and so helps us see more clearly the path we are on and what is likely to happen.

    Feeding coral and how spawning is coordinated

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 19, 2025 7:47


    While the outlook for coral is poor, feeding them vital nutrients might buy time on a warming planet.

    Science in Australia's federal election campaign

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 19, 2025 12:04


    Euan Ritchie says science is barely visible in campaigning for Australia's federal election.

    Lab Notes: Why sprinting sensation Gout Gout is so fast

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 15, 2025 12:49


    Gout Gout is fast becoming the face of Australian athletics, regularly clocking blisteringly quick times over 100- and 200-metre sprints.And he's only 17. Many think the best is yet to come.So what is it about Gout that makes him such an impressive sprinter at such a young age?

    Jared Diamond - CEOs respond to environmental challenge

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 12, 2025 6:30


    Jared Diamond responds to critics and tells of a CEO's response to his children's environmental concerns.

    A new massive fossil deposit – underground?

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 12, 2025 14:39


    Satellite imagery may be suggesting a new large underground fossil deposit in Queensland.

    The history of money

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 12, 2025 19:07


    Tom Levenson shows how a nation's dosh differs from coin that appears from other sources, and why you should care.

    history money tom levenson
    Insights into how immunity can vary within populations

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 12, 2025 8:53


    Cynthia Turnbull has tracked the ways in which immunity to disease can vary between people, even within a family and has revealed some of the basis for this variation.

    Lab Notes: How to decommission a nuclear power plant

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 8, 2025 13:47


    We've been hearing a lot about a certain proposal to get nuclear power up and running in Australia, but little's been said about what happens when plants reach the end of their life.Decommissioning a single nuclear power plant can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take decades.So what's involved, and why is the process so long and expensive?

    The Microbe by Hilaire Belloc

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 5, 2025 1:30


    The Microbe by Hilaire Belloc is read by Sophie Newby.

    Caring for soil brings great benefit to produce and human health

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 5, 2025 29:58


    Alexandra De Blas takes us from Tasmania's Huon Valley to farms in Western Australia to explore what's possible in a ‘grounded' way of living with the land.

    How the Golden-fronted Bowerbird was rediscovered

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 5, 2025 7:27


    In the 1800s, it was hunted for its beautiful feathers and thought to be extinct. Jared Diamond describes how he rediscovered the Golden-fronted Bowerbird on a survey trip in the Foja Mountains of New Guinea.

    Tracing the history of invisible dead stars

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 5, 2025 8:06


    David Sweeney is investigating how massive stars end their lives in fiery supernovas, leaving behind neutron stars and black holes.

    Greed has failed us so how about compassion

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 5, 2025 7:27


    Len Fisher argues that compassion is a high value yet undervalued aspect of human interaction. It can foster trust and cooperation and lead us to solutions benefiting society.

    Lab Notes: Should we be putting pig parts in people?

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 1, 2025 13:27


    Hearts, kidneys and now livers — over the past couple of years, surgeons have taken all these from gene-edited pigs and put them in people.

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