A shady story about seeds, China, the FBI, and industrial espionage. Mara Hvistendahl delves into America's pursuit of ethnic Chinese scientists.
May 17, 2020•31 min
Doing is a PhD can screw with your mind at the best of times. Isolating and exciting all at once. What’s happening to PhD students locked out labs worldwide right now? What will their options be as the clock ticks towards D(eadline) Day?
May 10, 2020•33 min
In the 1960s, when gay sex was still treated as a crime in Australia, science intervened in shocking ways.
May 03, 2020•26 min
What do we know, what will it take, and why have we struggled to effectively act on climate change? Don't miss the compelling new series, Hot Mess.
May 01, 2020•5 min
Exploding stars and killer cells. Then comes a pandemic. Drop everything. Head into the battle-zone. It's Survivor but not as you know it.
Apr 26, 2020•36 min
Extraordinary scientists doing extraordinary things. Then came the pandemic.
Apr 19, 2020•38 min
After the pandemic, what else can we make work better? Here are some dumb things to start with. We flush fresh water down our toilets. We throw out perfectly edible food by the tonne.
Apr 12, 2020•36 min
Why do deadly viruses love bats so much, why don’t bats get crook, and what’s with China’s wild wet markets? The curious making of a pandemic.
Apr 05, 2020•31 min
At the frontline of the COVID-19 fight right now, Adam Kucharski is author of The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread - and Why They Stop. He sees patterns of contagion everywhere – in viruses, memes, markets.
Mar 29, 2020•31 min
The stories we construct about biology, viruses, and beyond can reshape the course of our lives. When the world suddenly feels very small, connected by a virus that’s porous to people and borders, let's consider the power and porosity of science.
Mar 22, 2020•31 min
If you could 3D print a new body part, what would it be? For marine scientist Pia Winberg that question was about to become intensely real. The science and the ethics of a wild frontier for medicine.
Mar 15, 2020•31 min
Three generations with powerful, personal stories of family lost and found, racism, and the right to education reclaimed. This is not your average Science Summer School.
Mar 08, 2020•34 min
Pack your pyjamas, we’re heading to camp! From Arnhem Land to Adelaide, Caboolture to Coffs – let's gather from far and wide to meet on Kaurna country. A scientific and cultural odyssey in two parts.
Mar 01, 2020•30 min
How would you react if you received this SMS? BUSHFIRE WARNING. LEAVE NOW.When we evacuate from a bushfire, we fall into one of seven types of evacuee; from Threat Deniers, to Worried Waverers, to Experienced Independents. This is the story of a bad evacuee turned good.
Feb 23, 2020•26 min
This Summer's overwhelming bushfires have produced overwhelming numbers - hectares burnt, animals killed, carbon dioxide emitted. But who's fact checking the numbers? We are.
Feb 16, 2020•26 min
The poetic cosmos drips with mango juice. Pigs might fly when porcine cells are your paint and wings your canvas. Rap lyrics that challenge science denialism. Artists pushing at the boundaries of the imagination and the possibilities of science.
Feb 09, 2020•39 min
You're a top cancer scientist. And then you get cancer. Suddenly you become "A Cancer Patient", and one of your colleagues is wielding the (robotic) scalpel. A story about science, knowledge, and vulnerability.
Feb 02, 2020•29 min
In pursuit of a predator. A sting operation. A black list. Big law suits. Is this the biggest threat to science since the Inquisition? This audio has been updated due to technical glitch. Science Friction's fresh season for 2020 kicks off next episode.
Jan 26, 2020•32 min
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
Jan 19, 2020•34 min
A young ornithologist. A Nazi expedition to Tibet. A Faustian pact in the name of science, but at what cost? This story gets very weird, very fast. But the animals are watching.
Jan 12, 2020•30 min
One Amish childhood + one strict Christian upbringing = two 21 year olds questioning everything they were ever taught. On the afterlife, evolution, and making your own way. (Summer Season highlight)
Jan 05, 2020•34 min
Lolita had one of the world's first uterus transplants - then what happened? (Summer Season highlight)
Dec 29, 2019•37 min
Who needs to get pregnant anymore when you can use a baby pouch? FullLife has the product for you. The sci fi imaginings of Helen Sedgewick. Utopia or the ultimate dystopia?A Science Friction mini-series that takes a womb's eye view of the future of reproduction.
Dec 22, 2019•31 min
It's boys against girls. Unleash the nerds and mischief. Play along.
Dec 15, 2019•29 min
Are you a little bit evil or a lot?
Dec 08, 2019•41 min
The selfish gene. The selfish ape. Survival of the fittest. Remarkable stories of two renegades who challenged a scientific orthodoxy about selfishness.
Dec 01, 2019•31 min
On poo, pooing and all that palaver. A children's author, a colorectal surgeon, a psychologist walked onto stage...
Nov 24, 2019•36 min
In the 1950s computers were so big they filled whole rooms. Women were employed in big numbers to work with them. But then something weird happened.
Nov 17, 2019•31 min
Hidden amongst astronomy's nineteenth century effort to map the stars, is a tale about some of the first women working in computing in Australia.
Nov 10, 2019•26 min
It's there if you look...under the sea. But how would we know? Join Science Friction on a journey into the lost heart of Doggerland.
Nov 03, 2019•26 min
