Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Australian science news and policy • AI impacts and infrastructure • climate, oceans, biodiversity • health, genetics, vaccines • space exploration and astronomy • archaeology and science history
This podcast surveys a wide range of scientific research, debate, and science-in-society issues, with a strong Australian focus but frequent links to global events and institutions. Across the episodes, listeners hear about how science is done and funded, including the impacts of government budgets and policy choices on national research capacity, as well as the consequences of joining—or not joining—large international collaborations in areas like astronomy.
A recurring theme is emerging technology and its real-world trade-offs. Artificial intelligence appears in multiple contexts: its use in environmental and ocean research, its infrastructure demands through data centres, its energy footprint, and questions about how human–chatbot interactions can affect beliefs and mental wellbeing. The show also explores measurement and standards, and how technical definitions underpin everyday life.
Health and biology topics span from infectious disease surveillance and vaccination (including influenza and measles) to environmental exposures and consumer product safety, such as lead contamination, microplastics, skincare ingredients in pregnancy, and the science behind sunscreen testing and UV intensity. Episodes also touch on genetics and human variation, including the complexity of sex testing in elite sport.
Environmental and Earth systems science features prominently, including climate-driven changes to forests, the risks associated with shifts in major ocean currents, pollination, and the ecological challenges facing marine animals. Space and exploration threads run through coverage of lunar missions and the practicalities of sustaining humans beyond Earth, alongside public interest in space.
The podcast also includes natural history, palaeontology, archaeology, and human origins—such as dinosaur discoveries, rock art, and ancient habitation—plus occasional scientific biographies and cultural intersections with science.
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Episodes:
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Kris sword with an intriguing history, echidnas, tropical forests and Australia’s energy potential
2026-Jun-12
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Tallest tree in East Asia
2026-Jun-11
10 minutes
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The First Inventors
2026-Jun-05
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Plants can hear you
2026-Jun-03
10 minutes
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AI tools in ocean research and a tribute to Dame Bridget Ogilvie
2026-May-29
53 minutes
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Lab Notes: Lead may be hiding in your clothing
2026-May-28
10 minutes
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Sex testing at the Olympics: beware the exceptions
2026-May-22
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Giant dino discovery fulfils a childhood dream
2026-May-21
10 minutes
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Science and the budget, bird flu closer to Australia and a guide to pollination
2026-May-15
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Can AI chatbots make you delusional?
2026-May-14
10 minutes
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Celebrating David Attenborough’s 100th birthday and a new way of making vaccines
2026-May-08
53 minutes
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Lab Notes: What happens if a major ocean current … stops?
2026-May-07
10 minutes
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Australian science under strain
2026-May-01
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: AI data centres are coming to remote Australia
2026-Apr-30
10 minutes
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Response to Australia’s ESO rejection
2026-Apr-24
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Aussies loved Artemis II — and they want more
2026-Apr-23
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Getting more from fertiliser, viral DNA's vital role and help from hookworms!
2026-Apr-17
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Is measles back?
2026-Apr-16
10 minutes
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Australia says no to European Southern Observatory collaboration, applications of quantum mechanics and testing trees’ response to rising carbon dioxide
2026-Apr-10
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: What can we grow on the Moon?
2026-Apr-09
10 minutes
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Australian and New Zealand research presented at Falling Walls Berlin
2026-Apr-03
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Can we replace lab animals?
2026-Apr-02
10 minutes
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Saving Australia’s R&D, robot for cleaning up oil, and quantum physics with Paul Davies
2026-Mar-27
53 minutes
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Lab Notes: NASA's mission to the Moon
2026-Mar-26
12 minutes
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Possums thought to be extinct found in Papua, early Indigenous ingenuity, and how we adjust to ultra-processed food
2026-Mar-20
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Super-K flu is here … but it's not our biggest problem
2026-Mar-19
10 minutes
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New idea for the origin of language
2026-Mar-13
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Slip! Slop! Slap! SUCCESS!
2026-Mar-12
10 minutes
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Astronomy and toxicology converge at Caltech
2026-Mar-06
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Why air traffic won’t return to normal for months
2026-Mar-05
10 minutes
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How the US came close to losing half its science funding
2026-Feb-27
53 minutes
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Lab Notes: The surprising history of the backyard sprinkler
2026-Feb-26
10 minutes
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Stories told by feet
2026-Feb-20
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Why buying a star name is nonsense
2026-Feb-19
12 minutes
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Ancient humans lived in an Indonesian cave until Homo sapiens arrived
2026-Feb-13
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Skincare, pregnancy and a minefield of mixed messages
2026-Feb-12
10 minutes
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Social media ban impacts political knowledge of young Australians
2026-Feb-06
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Can we tap the brakes on energy-hungry AI?
2026-Feb-05
12 minutes
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Humpbacks threat, green cities and EVs, and origins of life
2026-Jan-30
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: What's behind the rising tree death rates?
2026-Jan-29
13 minutes
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Mysterious stellar object discovered
2026-Jan-24
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: The oldest rock art in the world…that we know of
2026-Jan-22
10 minutes
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Kiruna: The city that moved to make way for a mine
2026-Jan-16
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Why UV levels are so high in Australia
2026-Jan-13
14 minutes
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A portrait of Dame Miriam Rothschild
2026-Jan-09
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: The Treaty of the Metre: how the metre came to be
2026-Jan-07
13 minutes
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Mary Somerville — Brilliant polymath, scientific genius
2026-Jan-02
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Why do whales strand en masse?
2025-Dec-30
13 minutes
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Celebrating 50 years of The Science Show
2025-Dec-26
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Tips to reduce microplastics exposure
2025-Dec-23
13 minutes
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Émilie du Châtelet - portrait of a leader of the Enlightenment
2025-Dec-19
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: How is sunscreen SPF tested?
2025-Dec-16
13 minutes
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Author Terry Pratchett’s links to science and Adelaide
2025-Dec-12
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: How maths explains nature's weirdness
2025-Dec-09
13 minutes
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Evidence shows no link between pain relief drugs and autism
2025-Dec-05
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Are bioplastics the future of packaging?
2025-Dec-02
14 minutes
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3 young high achievers in science, and Sydney hosts space conference
2025-Nov-28
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Why aurora season isn't over yet
2025-Nov-25
13 minutes
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Rare earth minerals – we’ll need geologists to find them
2025-Nov-21
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: How are long-range weather forecasts made?
2025-Nov-18
14 minutes
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Bragg winners for science writing, more from the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science and water droplets used for geoengineering
2025-Nov-14
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: How breastfeeding can protect against cancer
2025-Nov-11
12 minutes
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The Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science and a dilemma over the appropriate use of artefacts from a Roman shipwreck
2025-Nov-07
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: How your brain chooses your next snack
2025-Nov-04
13 minutes
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The history of life on Earth may be very different to what we think
2025-Oct-31
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Times we thought we found aliens
2025-Oct-28
13 minutes
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Paint additive boosts plant growth in greenhouses
2025-Oct-25
53 minutes
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Lab Notes: The extinct ape-like human relative that made tools
2025-Oct-21
13 minutes
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Teenagers encounter their challenges
2025-Oct-17
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: How solar eclipses trick birds into singing
2025-Oct-14
15 minutes
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2025 Nobel Prizes plus more from the British Science Festival
2025-Oct-11
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: How humpback whales bounced back
2025-Oct-07
14 minutes
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Reports from The British Science Festival in Liverpool England
2025-Oct-04
53 minutes
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Lab Notes: Why CO2 peaks at this time of year
2025-Sep-30
13 minutes
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Climate change and pollution effects seen on Palau
2025-Sep-27
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: These high-tech mouthguards predict concussions
2025-Sep-23
12 minutes
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Uncovering the mystery of Palau’s ancient terraces
2025-Sep-20
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: After the SPF scandal — how is sunscreen tested?
2025-Sep-16
13 minutes
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Quantum biology, two botanic gardens, and the importance of archaeology
2025-Sep-13
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Move over, NASA — Australia's heading back into space
2025-Sep-09
14 minutes
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Bird navigation, reducing food waste and a tribute to John Clarke
2025-Sep-06
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Why your hay fever will get worse with climate change
2025-Sep-02
13 minutes
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The Science Show celebrates 50 years
2025-Aug-28
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Why do whales beach themselves?
2025-Aug-26
13 minutes
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Complex molecules in space – how they formed and how they got here
2025-Aug-23
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: The fall of the food pyramid
2025-Aug-19
14 minutes
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Gene editing brings promise for genetic blood disorders
2025-Aug-16
53 minutes
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Lab Notes: The native ants that take down cane toads
2025-Aug-12
11 minutes
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Back to the dark ages for American research?
2025-Aug-09
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: How do I avoid eating and breathing microplastics?
2025-Aug-05
13 minutes
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Climatic changes everywhere as the world’s oceans become hotter
2025-Aug-02
53 minutes
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Lab Notes: What's quantum mechanics ever done for me?
2025-Jul-29
14 minutes
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Tracing the 100-year history of quantum mechanics
2025-Jul-26
53 minutes
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Lab Notes: Why some mums have all boys or all girls
2025-Jul-22
14 minutes
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Australia's forgotten inventor brothers
2025-Jul-19
41 minutes
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Lab Notes: Can bottom trawling be a sustainable way to fish?
2025-Jul-15
14 minutes
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The trees that harness lightning to kill their rivals
2025-Jul-12
42 minutes
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Lab Notes: The telescope redefining the Universe
2025-Jul-08
12 minutes
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What does it take to bring back an extinct animal?
2025-Jul-05
40 minutes
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Lab Notes: What we can learn from the world’s cleanest air
2025-Jul-01
13 minutes
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A portrait of philosopher Karl Popper
2025-Jun-28
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: How Ozempic stops food cravings
2025-Jun-24
11 minutes
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Celebrating Charles Todd and the overland telegraph
2025-Jun-21
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: The tiny beetle ravaging Perth's trees
2025-Jun-17
14 minutes
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Professor Roger Short, reproductive biologist
2025-Jun-14
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: What makes Sydney's cockies so clever?
2025-Jun-10
14 minutes
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Hang on – we’re about to enter a wormhole!
2025-Jun-07
53 minutes
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Lab Notes: How microscopic algae can devastate ocean life
2025-Jun-03
13 minutes
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Black white and green
2025-May-31
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: AI that outperforms humans is coming
2025-May-27
14 minutes
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Mary Somerville - Brilliant polymath, scientific genius triumphed against the odds
2025-May-24
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Why a metre is a metre long
2025-May-20
13 minutes
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Evidence of oldest reptiles found in Victoria
2025-May-17
53 minutes
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Lab Notes: The plight of the southern right whales
2025-May-13
13 minutes
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Aging halted in fruit flies. How about humans?
2025-May-10
53 minutes
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Lab Notes: Why one man let deadly snakes bite him 200 times
2025-May-06
14 minutes
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A happy 99th birthday to a friend of The Science Show
2025-May-03
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Where's my needle-free vaccine?
2025-Apr-29
14 minutes
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The wonder of sharks surviving for 500 million years
2025-Apr-26
53 minutes
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Lab Notes: Why did NASA spend a billion bucks on Lucy?
2025-Apr-22
13 minutes
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The power of palaeontology
2025-Apr-19
52 minutes
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Lab Notes: Why sprinting sensation Gout Gout is so fast
2025-Apr-15
12 minutes
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New findings show how genetic mutations drive autoimmunity.
2025-Apr-12
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: How to decommission a nuclear power plant
2025-Apr-08
13 minutes
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A new approach for democracy, tracing ancient dead stars and does the soil have a biome?
2025-Apr-05
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Should we be putting pig parts in people?
2025-Apr-01
13 minutes
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Net zero carbon emissions – a review of progress
2025-Mar-29
53 minutes
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Lab Notes: Why have Saturn's rings 'vanished'?
2025-Mar-25
11 minutes
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Landscape and islands
2025-Mar-22
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: The extreme conditions F1 drivers face in a race
2025-Mar-18
13 minutes
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Your exposome, Kavli awards and more improbable research
2025-Mar-15
52 minutes
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Lab Notes: 1 in 3 women get this infection. To cure it, treat men
2025-Mar-11
13 minutes
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A crisis, an opera, and one of the greatest photos in history - The AAAS rides again.
2025-Mar-08
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: How Ozempic stops food cravings
2025-Mar-04
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Naomi Oreskes The Big Myth and a new theory for the origin of black holes
2025-Mar-01
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Are we on the brink of another pandemic?
2025-Feb-25
13 minutes
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Scope for all as some cities leap ahead with green initiatives
2025-Feb-22
53 minutes
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Lab Notes: What history can teach us about ‘city-killer’ asteroids
2025-Feb-18
13 minutes
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Vale Felicia Huppert
2025-Feb-15
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Varroa is here but honey bees strike back
2025-Feb-11
13 minutes
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The wonder of Australia’s deserts
2025-Feb-08
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: Why the Australian sun has a real sting to it
2025-Feb-04
13 minutes
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Old rocks, old humans, old sharks, and links to today
2025-Feb-01
54 minutes
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Lab Notes: More than whale food — krill are climate heroes
2025-Jan-28
13 minutes
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Science Show Summer - Australia’s “Indiana Jones” and the lost Age of Mammals
2025-Jan-25
53 minutes
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Lab Notes: A debunked vaccine theory rears its ugly head — again
2025-Jan-21
13 minutes
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Micronesian community and scientists unite to protect remote Ulithi atoll
2025-Jan-18
54 minutes
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Science Extra: Echoes of a tsunami
2025-Jan-14
50 minutes
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Science Show Summer - Hedy Lamarr - actress, inventor, and amateur engineer
2025-Jan-11
54 minutes
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Science Extra: The anatomy of a scam
2025-Jan-07
50 minutes
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Science Show Summer - Merlin meets Dr Crispy
2025-Jan-04
52 minutes
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Science Extra: March of the cane toads
2024-Dec-31
50 minutes
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Science Show Summer - The Extremely Large Telescope
2024-Dec-28
54 minutes
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Science Extra: Weight of the world
2024-Dec-24
50 minutes
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Science Show Summer - A wire around the world
2024-Dec-21
53 minutes
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Science Extra: More auroras in store?
2024-Dec-17
50 minutes
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Science books for Christmas and a portrait of Matthew Bailes
2024-Dec-14
51 minutes
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Mysterious signal and a mysterious place
2024-Dec-07
53 minutes
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PM’s Innovation Prize for childhood cancer drug
2024-Nov-30
53 minutes
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Australia’s “Indiana Jones” and the lost Age of Mammals
2024-Nov-23
54 minutes
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Prime Minister’s teaching prizes, platypuses with high PFAS and house bricks from sugar cane waste
2024-Nov-16
54 minutes
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Big astronomical flash imminent and gay behaviour across the animal world
2024-Nov-09
52 minutes
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Cheaper hydrogen, marine invertebrates and European wasps threaten biodiversity
2024-Nov-02
53 minutes
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Stephen Hawking’s voice – and what he left behind!
2024-Oct-26
53 minutes
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Bryde’s whales prolific in east coast Australian waters
2024-Oct-19
53 minutes
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Nobel Prizes, Prime Minister's Science Prizes, unis under pressure, and remembering Mawson
2024-Oct-12
53 minutes
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Surprise Hon Doc for Rose, but why did we forget Louise?
2024-Oct-05
54 minutes
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Dark energy – not necessarily constant
2024-Sep-28
54 minutes
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The Extremely Large Telescope - under construction in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
2024-Sep-21
54 minutes
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The Huxleys – a scientific dynasty
2024-Sep-14
54 minutes
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Seabirds have stomachs full of plastic
2024-Sep-07
54 minutes
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The Science Show celebrates 49 years
2024-Aug-31
51 minutes
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New chemical reaction promises to slash price of some pharmaceuticals
2024-Aug-24
53 minutes
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Merlin meets Dr Crispy
2024-Aug-17
54 minutes
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Fire destroying the Amazon, northern hemisphere forests and a tropical island suffers drought.
2024-Aug-10
54 minutes
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Biodiversity crucial on land, in rivers and in our guts
2024-Aug-03
54 minutes
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One billion people at risk as temperatures rise, sex genes, Shackleton VR and tennis
2024-Jul-27
54 minutes
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Stanford University: the great university with a dark side
2024-Jul-20
54 minutes
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The deep dark ocean – Exploring the abyss
2024-Jul-13
54 minutes
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The world's largest underground lab and the hunt for dark matter
2024-Jul-06
55 minutes
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The hunt for a crucial update to Einstein's revolutionary theories
2024-Jun-29
54 minutes
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The lab listening to Earth's mysterious seismic rumbles
2024-Jun-22
54 minutes
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Molecules with their own fingerprint
2024-Jun-15
54 minutes
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Paul Ehrlich - memoir traces science, activism and concerns for the planet
2024-Jun-08
54 minutes
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Age of Monotremes including three new genera
2024-Jun-01
54 minutes
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Are our tall forests really being saved?
2024-May-25
54 minutes
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Big savings possible for the world’s ships
2024-May-18
54 minutes
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Charcoal reveals secrets of first humans in Australia
2024-May-11
54 minutes
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Getting serious about energy storage. But is it too late as wildfires rage?
2024-May-04
54 minutes
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Scientists protest in Adelaide
2024-Apr-27
54 minutes
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Two inspirational books and new powers for Parkes dish
2024-Apr-20
54 minutes
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The science of friendship
2024-Apr-13
53 minutes
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The amazing world of alpine plants
2024-Apr-05
54 minutes
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Meet the man who changed the world forever
2024-Mar-29
54 minutes
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Big things
2024-Mar-23
54 minutes
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US National Center for Atmospheric Research
2024-Mar-16
54 minutes
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Microorganisms support all life, and plastic in creatures’ guts
2024-Mar-09
54 minutes
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Supernova!
2024-Mar-02
54 minutes
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The Science Show
2024-Feb-24
54 minutes
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How Chinese science was revealed to the world
2024-Feb-17
54 minutes
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Improved photosynthesis may increase crop yields
2024-Feb-10
54 minutes
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Climate forces change to traditional lifestyles in PNG
2024-Feb-03
54 minutes
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The Science Show’s Top 100 Australian Scientists
2024-Jan-27
54 minutes
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Science Extra: Aspects of psychology: ADHD diagnosis explosion—and singing to babies
2024-Jan-20
22 minutes
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H. G. Wells – father of science fiction
2024-Jan-20
54 minutes
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Science Extra: falling antimatter, chimps, Beethoven's hair, Jupiter, and that telescope
2024-Jan-13
20 minutes
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Portrait of Isaac Newton
2024-Jan-13
54 minutes
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Science Extra: One semaglutide please
2024-Jan-06
19 minutes
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What to do when science doesn’t cut through
2024-Jan-06
54 minutes
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Science Extra: The rise of the thinking machines
2023-Dec-30
18 minutes
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The Anglo-Australian Telescope – approaching 50 years
2023-Dec-30
54 minutes
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Science Extra: It's gettin' hot in here
2023-Dec-23
21 minutes
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The bigger Australian story - Odyssey down under
2023-Dec-23
54 minutes
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Transitions
2023-Dec-16
54 minutes
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The Future Is Now
2023-Dec-09
54 minutes
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2FC now Radio National celebrates 100 years
2023-Dec-05
28 minutes
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The Bragg Prize for Science Writing, and we remember Sir Clarence Lovejoy
2023-Dec-02
54 minutes
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The Science Show
2023-Nov-25
54 minutes
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Getting your rocks off
2023-Nov-18
54 minutes
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Ultrasound moves immune cells and triggers their response and more Prime Ministers Prizes for Science
2023-Nov-11
54 minutes
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Maths is here, it's there, it’s everywhere
2023-Nov-04
54 minutes
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Australia may join world coalition of collaborative research
2023-Oct-28
54 minutes
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Prime Minister’s Prize for Science and new insights into the benefits of social interaction
2023-Oct-21
54 minutes
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Lockdown behaviour, vaccines for new variants, and evidence for coronavirus source
2023-Oct-14
54 minutes
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Here come the superstars
2023-Oct-07
54 minutes
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Why do textbooks leave out so many scientists with one thing in common?
2023-Sep-30
54 minutes
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What counting trees tells us about the health of the planet
2023-Sep-23
54 minutes
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A battle between consciousness theories, and harnessing resources from thin air
2023-Sep-16
54 minutes
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Sir John Eccles and the invaluable work of his daughter Rose
2023-Sep-09
54 minutes
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Sir John Eccles, one of the big brains in neuroscience
2023-Sep-02
54 minutes
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Cyber hygiene, deep sea parasites and what weeds can teach us about cancer
2023-Aug-26
54 minutes
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Big ideas at Beaker Street Festival
2023-Aug-19
54 minutes
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What can we learn from five minutes of silence?
2023-Aug-12
54 minutes
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The Oppenheimer who influenced our modern science centres
2023-Aug-05
54 minutes
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Pioneering particles, time-travelling molecules and outer space poets
2023-Jul-29
54 minutes
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There's no age limit to science
2023-Jul-22
54 minutes
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Protecting habitats and the creatures that dwell within
2023-Jul-15
54 minutes
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Torres Strait VR, taming CERN's magnets and Fiji's fight against varroa mite
2023-Jul-08
56 minutes
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Where science can lead: An isolated island, the slimy forest floor, and centre stage for stand-up
2023-Jul-01
56 minutes
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Communities team up with scientists to tackle flooding
2023-Jun-24
54 minutes
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Helping marine life thrive — from Fiji to Goondiwindi
2023-Jun-17
54 minutes
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Come inside the vault preserving Pacific plants for future generations
2023-Jun-10
54 minutes
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The surprising past — and promising future of women in science
2023-Jun-03
54 minutes
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The botanist behind Dame Edna's favourite flower, and the virtuous side of weeds
2023-May-27
54 minutes
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Nearer the Gods: The enduring legacy of Isaac Newton
2023-May-20
53 minutes
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Unravelling the mysterious workings of the epigenome — and the universe
2023-May-13
54 minutes
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Celebrating David Attenborough on his 97th birthday
2023-May-06
54 minutes
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A lab for seas and winds, measuring carbon dioxide and monitoring animal ecology
2023-Apr-29
54 minutes
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Astronomers watch as black hole pulls dust cloud apart
2023-Apr-22
54 minutes
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Beaming energy to Earth from space
2023-Apr-15
54 minutes
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