Science Friction

Science Friction's latest series is: Brain Rot. We're looking at what being chronically online is doing to our brains. What's really going on with our attention spans and tech addiction? Is data-dumping your entire life into ChatGPT helpful? Can going internet free help you escape the doomscroll? And what's it like to be in love ... with an AI? National technology reporter Ange Lavoipierre tackles the wildest ways people are using tech and the big questions about our own use. That's Brain Rot — our latest series from Science Friction. Science Friction's previous series was: Cooked. We dig into food science pickles. Why are studies showing that ice cream could be good for you? Do we really need as many electrolytes as the internet says? And why are people feeling good on the carnivore diet?

Last refreshed: July 9th, 2025 at 9:37 AM ⓘ

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Episodes

Matty's Story - donor conception and the cost of secrecy

What if you suddenly found out you aren't quite who you thought you were? Matty and family's story will move you.

Oct 27, 2019•26 min

The conundrum of unused IVF embryos: The Trouble With Embryos Part 2

What should you do with the embryos you have left over after IVF treatment?

Oct 20, 2019•26 min

The mystery of two millionaires and two IVF embryos: The Trouble with Embryos Part 1

A mystery about two Californian millionaires and two "orphan" embryos at the very beginning of the IVF revolution.

Oct 13, 2019•31 min

Pulsar woman: It's not a bird, it's not a quasar, it's...

The signals were weird. But was what happened afterwards even weirder?

Oct 06, 2019•36 min

Broad Band - the untold story of the women who made the internet

Have you heard these stories of what was and what could have been? You'll want to. If we CARE enough, could the internet be way, way better?

Sep 29, 2019•59 min

Bioerror to bioterror - does synthetic biology give new tools to terrorists? Part 2

Will bioterrorism become more targeted with the help of new tools in biotechnology and synthetic biology? From your cells to crops, pandemics to plagues - are the risks real or far-flung? Natasha Mitchell was the only journalist in a NATO security workshop considering the threats. Hear what insiders have to say.

Sep 22, 2019•30 min

Bioerror to bioterror - what if a human-engineered virus escaped the lab? Part 1

Scientists can now 'engineer' biological organisms never before found in Nature. What if they make a mistake, and a synthetic virus escapes the lab? Or a rogue mind turns to synthetic biology to wage bioterror? Is anyone watching?

Sep 15, 2019•29 min

Lovers in the Lab: when your passion for science becomes passion for each other

Meet three couples who have taken their romances way further than most. Frank, passionate, hilarious stories of making it work.

Sep 08, 2019•26 min

Tai Asks Why - the seventh grader with a cult science podcast and mind for big ideas

Meet a 12 year old scientist who's got a whole lot of questions...enough to take you to the moon and back.

Sep 01, 2019•30 min

Only technology will save us from ourselves - Science Friction's Beaker Street Great Debate

The battlelines are drawn, brains tuned, arguments sharpened and teeth gnashing as two teams go head to head at the BeakerStreet@TMAG festival at Hobart's Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery for National Science Week. Your fearless adjudicator, Science Friction host Natasha Mitchell, cannot and will not be bribed*. (*Except with wombats).

Aug 25, 2019•31 min

This famous physicist wants to solve a big mystery – cancer

Why is a famous physicist and cosmologist usually interested in Big Questions about the Universe now diving into the deep history of cancer?

Aug 18, 2019•29 min

Artists on the loose at the Large Hadron Collider - Science Friction at the CERN

88 metres underground, in the labyrinth of chambers and corridors of the world’s large particle accelerator, art and science collide in wild and wonderful ways.

Aug 11, 2019•27 min

A mind on the move - Nobel winner Venki Ramakrishnan on being an outsider, borders and Brexit

How can a Nobel Prize winning scientist feel like an outsider?

Aug 04, 2019•26 min

Brexit gets personal: borders, brains and science

A whistle-stop tour into the lives of adventurous young European scientists and their wunderlust. For them Brexit is deeply personal. Moving stories of lives shaped by bitter politics.

Jul 28, 2019•30 min

The Apocalypse Part 3: A supervolcanic winter

Could one volcano cause global carnage? Making sense of a mystery. Your DNA and the archaeological record are full of surprising clues.

Jul 21, 2019•26 min

The Apocalypse Part 2: The next almighty asteroid

They’ve struck before, and they’ll hit again. Can we save our skins in time, or will we go the way of the dinosaurs?

Jul 14, 2019•26 min

The Apocalypse Part 1: A supercharged Sun storm

A storm strikes from space, with little warning, and electrifying impact. Put away your umbrella, it won't help one iota.

Jul 07, 2019•31 min

China, freedom, science: The personal is political for this particle physicist

Born just months after the Tiananmen massacre, Yangyang Cheng grew up in the shadow of those shocking events. Now this young particle physicist has found a potent voice - her own - on history, human rights, science, and freedom.

Jun 30, 2019•32 min

Sum of All Parts - The sound of seizure

Brant Guichard has heard The Music for as long as he can remember.

Jun 23, 2019•26 min

Sum of All Parts - The Infinite God

A musician gives up the rock n' roll dream for number theory, and a glimpse of the infinite.

Jun 16, 2019•26 min

Sharks, devils, wombats: three homosapiens saving what we've got

Meet three homosapiens who are passionate about preserving the future of other species.

Jun 09, 2019•35 min

The CRISPR gene-edited babies and the doctor who made them - what really happened?

Wall Street Journal journalist Preetika Rana has unearthed extraordinary new information about the Chinese scientist who created the world's first gene-edited babies.

Jun 02, 2019•34 min

Does genomics know if you’re Palestinian? A cautionary tale about genetic databases and ancestry testing

Palestinian-American cartoonist and illustrator Marguerite Dabaie thought she understood her ancestry. But then she had a genetic test and things got messy. It’s not her DNA, it’s the technology.

May 26, 2019•35 min

Let there be ROCK: science in the moshpit

Pull on your black t-shirt or spandex. Turn up the volume. A heavy metal loving professor with guitar in arms and physics in his soul. [From the archive]

May 19, 2019•26 min

Are scientists scared of politics? Science Friction Election Special

Are science and politics alien to each other? From climate change to coal mines, are scientists cutting through in policy debates?

May 12, 2019•29 min

The crisis of predatory publishers sucking the blood of science

In pursuit of a predator. A sting operation. A black list. Big law suits. Is this the biggest threat to science since the Inquisition?

May 05, 2019•32 min

Lise Meitner and the bittersweet story of a nuclear genius

Nuclear fission. That Nobel Prize. The Nazis. Lise Meitner's story has it all and more.

Apr 28, 2019•26 min

Was Einstein's wife the hidden contributor on his most famous works? Part 2

How much did Einstein’s first wife contribute to his work? Mileva's supporters and skeptics go head to head over the evidence in Part 2 of this Science Friction series.

Apr 21, 2019•33 min

Who was Einstein’s first wife? Part 1 -Debate heats up over Mileva's role in Albert’s science

Who was Einstein’s first wife? Muse or collaborator? The plot thickens. The battlelines are drawn.

Apr 14, 2019•27 min

Who owns your DNA? Ancestry services, solving crimes and your privacy

Genetic profiling of persecuted Muslim people in China. Forensic investigators using popular ancestry services to solve crimes. Who owns your DNA? And who protects your privacy? Think before you spit.

Apr 07, 2019•34 min

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