Space debris: What is it? Is it dangerous? How can we get rid of it? This week, we are joined by friend of the show Benji Metha to talk about space junk! Stay tuned to the end of the episode where we also tackle a listener question about eel junk. If you liked what Benji had to say and want to find more of him, you can find him on Instagram (@benjaminmetha). And, as always, you can find us @curiosityrat on twitter, instagram, and facebook, and send your listener questions in to curiosityrat@gmai...
Sep 06, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Season 2Ep. 26
This episode, Kate and Matt chat about a wonderfully majestic and strange-looking creature: the flamingo! A large brightly coloured bird, the flamingo begs many interesting questions. Why are they bright pink? How do they eat and why do their tongues look like something out of a horror film? What do their social structures look like? And of course… why do they stand on one leg? This episode tackles a listener question about problematic substance use… what exactly is the difference between “addic...
Aug 23, 2021•58 min•Season 2Ep. 25
In a slightly different style of episode to usual, we’re joined by Janine Jaramillo for a chat full of reflections about science. We chat about our experiences studying and researching science, why science is so important and relevant to EVERYONE (whether you want to be a scientist or not), and some science-related life hacks to do with stress, drinking, and social media that we wish we’d known in high school! We also tackle a fun listener question about the brain – does it using it burn calorie...
Aug 09, 2021•1 hr 38 min•Season 2Ep. 24
This episode, Kate and Matt are joined by the amazing Meg Pusey to talk all about video games. Meg introduces us to a wildly cool concept: using video games to do SCIENCE! We learn about a whole category of video games out there being used to do either data collection or data analysis for real scientific research. We talk about some super cool examples you can go play yourself, such as Fold it ( https://fold.it/ ) or Eye Wire ( https://eyewire.org/explore ), and about science mini-games embedded...
Jul 26, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 2Ep. 23
This episode we take a deep dive into the science of colour! From the physics to the biology to the psychology, Kate and Matt chat all about what exactly “colour” is, and how we’re able to perceive it. What are the physical properties of colour? How do fluorescent colours work? Why are the primary colours of paint and light different, and why do they mix differently? How are our eyes, and our brains, able to discriminate between different colours? We cover all this and so much more. We also tack...
Jul 11, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Season 2Ep. 22
This episode, Kate and Matt are joined by the lovely Jasmine Schipp. Jasmine is a PhD candidate researching the experiences of people with type 1 diabetes who are using open-source technology to manage their condition. We chat briefly about what diabetes is, the different types of diabetes, the role of the pancreas… and how people are taking matters into their own hands to create artificial pancreases! We then take a deep dive into how this amazing technology, and the current trials and tribulat...
Jun 28, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Season 2Ep. 13
This episode, Kate is joined by reproductive biologist and science communicator Jarrod McKenna about some of the cool research going on in the world of assisted reproduction. How does a cute little animal like the Egyptian Spiny Mouse help us study reproduction? What are some of the cool techniques that exist to assist with reproduction? We also tackle a listener question about yawning. Why do we do it? And why does looking at other people yawning make us yawn? If you liked what Jarrod had to sa...
Jun 14, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 12
We’re once again teaming up with the wonderful crew from Pint of Science to bring you a super interesting episode featuring UWA physics PhD Candidate Chayan Chatterjee. Chayan teaches Kate and Matt all about gravitational waves: what they are, what we can learn from them, and how we go about using cool tech like AI to detect them! We’re also back with a listener question this week: why is milk the go-to solution for reducing spice, and are there better alternatives? If you liked what our guest h...
May 31, 2021•58 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Kate and Matt are once again partnered up with Pint of science to bring you a very special episode with not 1, not 2, but 3 guests! In this episode we delve into three uniquely different topics: music psychology, the Fat Tailed Dunnart (an adorable tiny carnivorous marsupial!), and the use of Sugar Polymers in bioengineering! If you liked what our guests had to say today and want to find more of them, you can check them out on twitter @StudyListening @SciclunaEmily @brookefarrugia If you want to...
May 17, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Season 2Ep. 9
This episode, Kate and Matt are once again joined by the Chemical Cowboy Declan Burke. This time he is here to chat all about graphite. Which, believe it or not, is more exciting than just pencils! We learn all about some of graphite’s incredible physical properties, the difference between natural and synthetic graphite, and some of the wildly cool uses for this amazing material! All this, and so much more. We also have a listener question about that dangly thing at the back of our throats… what...
May 03, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Season 2Ep. 8
In this episode about the science of siblings, we take a close look at the popular idea that your birth order can affect your personality or who you grow up to be. Are first born children more likely to be natural leaders? Are they more neurotic, having experienced the luxury of undivided parental attention only to be “dethroned” by the birth of younger siblings? Are younger siblings more free-spirited and less conscientious? Is there any actual scientific substance to birth-order theory at all?...
Apr 19, 2021•59 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Have you ever wondered why your room always gets messy, no matter how much you clean it? Why you can't un-break that priceless plate you accidentally dropped? Or if there is anything we can do as individuals to prevent the inevitable heat death of the universe? In this extra long episode, Kate and Matt are joined by Bodhi to talk about entropy, life, and ethics, and how they are all more closely related than you may think. Stick around to the end for our listener question, where we find out why ...
Apr 06, 2021•1 hr 58 min•Season 2Ep. 6
This episode, Kate and Matt are joined by legendary science communicator Dr Jen Martin to chat all about her experiences when she visited the coldest, driest, most remote continent on earth: Antarctica. Jen went to Antarctica as a staff member for Homeward Bound (a global leadership program for women in STEMM) and consequently was involved in the (so far) largest women-only expedition to Antarctica. But what kind of temperatures are we talking about? Is climate-change-in-action super clear from ...
Mar 21, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Joined by our resident immunologist Catriona Nguyen-Robertson, Kate and Matt chat all about Vaccines! How and why do vaccines work to protect us against disease? What happens in the body in response to receiving a vaccine, and how does this help? What are some of the different types of vaccines? And what about the COVID-19 vaccines? Are they safe? Why were they ready so quickly? And why are they an example of some very clever science in action!? This episode’s listener question is about cheese –...
Mar 08, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Why do our eyes leak when we feel emotions, chop onions, or get poked in the eye? Do these scenarios lead to the creation of different types of tears? How are tears created? WHY? This episode, Kate and Matt delve into all these questions and so many more, as we chat all about crying. We also tackle a listener question about sweating – why do our palms sweat when we get nervous?References: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4035568/ https://athenaeum.libs.uga.edu/handle/10724/36619 http...
Feb 21, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 3
With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, Kate and Matt spend this episode talking about the science of love. What is love? Can science explain all those feelings you get when you fall in love with somebody? Breaking love down into the three phases of Lust / Attraction / Attachment, we delve into some of the neuroscience and biochemistry responsible for love. We also answer a listener question about plants and grow lights… how do they work? Episode sources: http://www2.webmatic.it/workO/s/113/pr-45...
Feb 08, 2021•59 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Welcome back, folks, to another season of Curiosity Killed the Rat! This episode, Kate and Matt chat about the idea of perpetual motion, and the amazing machines designed to harness this motion to keep moving… forever! From overbalanced wheels to self-refilling flasks, we take a dive into some of the coolest perpetual motion machines that have been theorised throughout history (…or claimed to be real on YouTube…) and why, realistically, they couldn’t possibly work. This episode’s listener questi...
Jan 25, 2021•59 min•Season 2Ep. 1
In a truly spooktacular Halloween special to round out season 1, Kate and Matt are joined by Rosie Arnold to chat about ghosts! Have you ever wondered about the explanations scientists have for ghostly encounters? As Rosie breaks down some theories of human perception, we chat about how humans experience the world and why some humans might feel/ hear/ or even see ghosts. Our listener question keeps us in the spirit… spirit, as we try answer the question: Do EMF meters measure ghost energy?If you...
Oct 31, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 21
We have an exciting episode this week feature not one, not two, but THREE awesome guests from the Science Communication program at Unimelb, ready to chat all about some awesome science! Steph teaches us about aquatic apes and tiny bones in our ears. Cat leads us through the solving of the mystery in the link between vultures, rabies, and Voltaren. Wayne chats about how different animals can camouflage... by changing their smell!Kate then tackle’s this week’s listener question all about IV vitami...
Oct 16, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 20
In this episode, Kate and Matt are joined by physicist Kaih Mitchell to discuss all things Lasers. What is a Laser beam? How are different colour lasers made? How powerful and deadly can they be? This week's listener question takes a look at how habits are formed and what a person can do to overcome them.Find more of Kaih Mitchell on Radio SciLense every Saturday at 4pm AEST at Radio Fodder: http://radiofodder.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/RadioSciLens?s=20Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/r...
Oct 03, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Have you ever wondered what Aboriginal Australian culture looked like thousands of years ago? Thanks to the end of the last ice age and rising sea levels, so much of what was once dry land is now underwater. But that doesn’t stop archaeologists from discovering and learning from artefacts found under the sea! This episode, Kate and Matt are joined by archaeologist Patrick Morrison to chat about an ancient aboriginal archaeological site discovered at Murujuga, Western Australia, as part of the AR...
Sep 19, 2020•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Come on a journey with us… into the immunoverse! Inside our immune system we have a whole host of characters: from assassins to superheroes, hipsters to butlers. Kate and Matt are joined once more by singing scientist Catriona Nguyen-Robertson. Cat is an immunologist who tells us about some of the cool immune cells she studies, and the role they play in our internal immunoverse.Kate also answers a listener question about snakes… do they have necks?!If you loved what Catriona had to say you can f...
Sep 05, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 17
What does your brain look like… on music? Have you ever wondered why music makes you feel the way it does, or what exactly is going on in your brain when you hear a bangin tune that you vibe with? How about playing music… what does that do? And are there differences between the brains of musicians and non-musicians? To answer all of these questions and more, Kate and Matt are joined by James aka singer/songwriter known as Catseye Parish. This episode’s listener question is about dogs… can they s...
Aug 22, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Everyone knows that plants belong at the bottom of the food chain… but what about when they don’t? This episode, Matt and Kate talk all about carnivorous plants. That’s right… plants that eat animal flesh to get the juicy nutrients that they need to survive. We all know about the venus fly trap, but HOW does it work? And what about some of the other 600+ species of carnivorous plant? How do they attack, kill, and digest their prey? And also… why? This week’s listener question is about weighted b...
Aug 08, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 15
The Hubble Space Telescope has contributed to some of the most exciting science from the last 30 years, but technology has evolved. Now, we have Hubble 2: The Hubbling… more officially known as the James Webb Space Telescope. Friend of the show and return guest Benji Metha chats to Kate and Matt about this exciting telescope, all the amazing things it will be able to do, and all the trials and tribulations it has faced during development.The picture of we discuss can be found at https://scx2.b-c...
Jul 25, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Exercise: one of the four acceptable reasons to leave the house during COVID-19 lockdowns. We know exercise is good for us, but what is actually happening inside the body? Specifically, what impact is it having on our immune system? Joined by immunologist Catriona Nguyen-Robertson, Kate and Matt chat about exercise, and what working out might do to immune function.They also chat muscle memory; do our muscles actually remember their past strength, or is it all in our brains?If you loved what Catr...
Jul 11, 2020•59 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Boomerangs have been around for tens of thousands of years… but how exactly do they work? What is it about the simple but clever design that keeps them flying through the air… and why on earth do they come back to you!? This episode, Kate and Matt chat about some of the physics behind these incredible tools, and how that very same physics applies to much more modern pieces of technology like aeroplanes, helicopters, and motorbikes. This episode’s listener question is all about hiccups. What are ...
Jun 27, 2020•53 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Despite what we announced last episode, we will not be dropping a new episode this weekend. The reason is simple: our voices are just not the ones that need to be heard most right now. So, we’re going dark for episode 11. Instead, we will be posting some resources to our social media pages which you can look to if you want to understand more about the black lives matter movement. It's important that we take this time to shut up. #blacklivesmatter
Jun 13, 2020•1 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Welcome to the third and final instalment of our Pint of Science special episodes! If you don’t know what Pint of Science is, you can find out more via their website: https://pintofscience.com.au/ This week, we have our very own resident scientist Kate talk to us about the area of research they’re most passionate about and actually involved in: addiction neuroscience. What happens in the brain when we do something rewarding? How do drugs of abuse hijack this system, ultimately leading to substan...
May 30, 2020•39 min
Welcome to the second of our special episodes brought to you in conjunction with Pint of Science! If you don’t know what Pint of Science is, you can find out more via their website: https://pintofscience.com.au/ What makes someone who they are? Is it their genes? Is it their lifestyle? Is it all of the above… and how on earth does someone research this!? This episode we are joined by Luke Whiley, who chats to us all about the different things that make up somebody’s “phenotype” and how scientist...
May 23, 2020•36 min
