The Science Show - Full Program Podcast

Urgent action required to steer clear of climate tipping points - Johan Rockström part 3. Thermal bricks could assist transition to renewable energy. Young people at risk from online gambling. Dinosaurs - from pipsqueaks to monsters. Children’s book features adventures with reptiles.

Stressed planet sending clear warning signs – Johan Rockström part 2. The nudge which opened the door to mathematics. Shells and blackened rocks on the Victorian coast dated to 40,000 years before first people believed to be in Australia. STEM Superstar says go for it! Patient Zero

Window closing for action to stabilise the Earth’s climate. Cleaner air delivers LA health and economic benefits. Lithium processing a new opportunity for Australia. Children’s book about surgeon Fiona Wood. STEM Superstar prompts government probe on masks. South Georgia Island once rat infested, becomes a rat-free bird sanctuary.

What really controls our eating decisions? How our bodies tell us what to eat. Taste and pleasure of food offer a new way to understand evolution.

Scientists urged to keep waving the flag. UNSW launches new degree in quantum engineering. Startup building the infrastructure for quantum computing. Reducing the data, energy and emissions of big data computing. Designing the computers of tomorrow. Lasers support our modern way of life.

Dr Dolittle turns 100, The Bird Way: a new look at how birds talk, work, play, parent and think and flies dance to lure their mate

The stars that time forgot – at the edge of our galaxy. Protect your hippocampus with exercise, diet, socialising and sex. Rope-like filaments common to rouge brain proteins. Kinky proteins suspected cause for Alzheimer’s. Microalgae the basis for fuels, food and more. New seaweed processing plant opens in southern NSW. Singing frogs bid farewell to Mike Tyler.

Basics of naming in biology, museum returns human remains to traditional communities, the history of Boeing and the future of passenger flight, space rockets being developed in Queensland.

Pilbara used by NASA to prepare for Mars missions. Pilbara Aboriginal site destroyed by Rio Tinto. Predicting earthquakes. Evolution of angiosperms. Mike Tyler reflects on Joseph Banks.

From mathematics and mammoths to the woman who found out what stars are made of: Robyn Williams and Carl Smith talk about books with Eddie Woo, Sharon Giltrow, Zofia Witkowski-Blake, Craig Cormick, Danielle Clode and Chris Flynn.

The plunder and destruction of the vast Amazon forests have been so terrible, that by 2035, they will cease to be a sink for CO2. The burning was so bad last year that the holocaust featured on the cover of The Economist magazine. This week The Science Show receives its first report from Ignacio Amigo who lives in Manaus and writes for the journal Nature. 

Talk to our top creative people – writers, musicians, comedians even (especially them) and you find most are deeply concerned about the massive threats to environment. Last week we heard the concerns of marine scientist Ove Hoegh-Guldberg. This week one of Australia’s greatest young singers, Missy Higgins, tells Dr Jonica Newby how climate grief has been at the heart of her most recent songs. Don’t Look Down is a breathtaking example. Missy describes the emotions – and the science – that have inspired her. She comes from a scientifically-minded family and is struggling with the choices confronting most families in this turbulent, uncertain world. 

This week professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from the University of Queensland, a world-renowned marine scientist and contributor to IPCC assessments, talks about the likely loss of the Great Barrier Reef. How does a determined, optimistic researcher keep going amid the upsets. WARNING: This episode contains language that may cause offence to some listeners.

Catherine Hamlin was born in Sydney. She worked in Ethiopia pioneering medical treatment for young women damaged by unsuccessful childbirth. In 2000, Pauline Newman visited Catherine Hamlin and her famous hospital in Addis Ababa. Catherine Hamlin died in March 2020 at the age of 93. By way of tribute today we revisit Pauline’s program from nearly 20 years ago.