Chinese scientist Dr Jiankui He flouted the law and bioethics basics to create the world's first CRISPR gene edited babies. Now out of jail, he's back on Twitter recruiting patients and raising funds for more trials, this time in adults not embryos. A dangerous distraction or a cautionary lesson for the world's scientists? Dr Joy Zhang has an extraordinary insider view after a recent encounter. Dr Katie Hasson is part of a global Coalition to Stop Designer Babies. They join Natasha Mitchell on S...
Mar 17, 2023•30 min
Science is political. So let's go straight to the heart of political power in Australia. 10 months into role, the Federal Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic joins Natasha this week. From the muzzling of scientists to stemming the brain drain, from the corporatisation of CSIRO to connecting science to more people — will the state of play for Australian science change?
Mar 10, 2023•30 min
Self-proclaimed TikTok mystics, healers, wellness influencers are increasingly turning to quantum physics to give their claims credibility, with potentially dangerous consequences. How do you disentangle the woo from the wow in quantum physics? And can it be deadly?
Mar 03, 2023•30 min
Chemist Kim Kwan didn’t realise how much they needed to find their queer crew in science until they did. Rami Mandow threw in a successful career in finance and business to find true love — astronomy. They share frank, fearless stories about coming out as third culture kids and why bringing their whole selves to science - their queer self and their nerd self - has been transformative.
Feb 24, 2023•30 min
Australia is hosting the 2023 World Pride festival and queer botanists are celebrating by bringing their full selves to their science.Ryan O'Donnell is an accomplished opera singer and musical theatre performer turned botanist studying orchids and fungi.Botanist Hervé Sauquet is piecing together the evolutionary history of flowering plants – most of which are bisexual. They're here, they're queer, they're fabulous and join Natasha to discuss why connecting the personal and the professional matte...
Feb 17, 2023•30 min
From the nomadic world of the Sahara Desert to a fantasy wonderland inside a Melbourne industrial warehouse ... meteorites are a growing business and a controversial one. Are the secrets inside space rocks at risk of being lost to wealthy collectors in the West? And, the battle of the Arab world’s first — and first female — meteorite scientist to save her geological heritage.
Feb 10, 2023•30 min
A rock celebrity with a wild biography. Saharan nomads, a weight-loss doctor feeding an unusual addiction, scientists seeking the origins of Everything. 'Black Beauty' has it all. The meteorite with a mighty story, with love from Mars.
Feb 03, 2023•30 min
Scientists Jonathan Napier and Cathie Martin remember when they needed armed guards and high fences to protect their genetic experiments. But the rules around genetically modified crops are rapidly changing. What could this mean for your dinner plate? (REPEAT)
Jan 27, 2023•30 min
A pair of twin girls is born in the late 1980s and their mother, Chris, is told a series of ‘facts’ about them.Each born with their own placenta, Chris is told it’s extremely unlikely that her twins are identical, but, if they were, they’d be a perfect DNA match. She’s also told that her daughters have a much higher likelihood as adults of conceiving twins themselves.These were the foundations of how Chris and her daughters understood their ‘twin-ness’ as they grew. But in recent years, new rese...
Jan 22, 2023•30 min
Science journalist, biologist, podcaster, teacher and activist Dr Ilya Kolmanovsky is a superstar science communicator.He hosts one of the biggest Russian language podcasts. Bigger than podcasts on sex or politics.But he's no stranger to the brutality of Russia's political leadership.Now, with Putin's violent invasion of Ukraine and as a new Iron Curtain descends, Ilya and thousands of others inside Russia have just made the most wrenching decision of their lives. For RN Summer we're playing som...
Jan 15, 2023•30 min
Leading computer scientist and co-founder of Black in A.I , Dr Timnit Gebru, was hired by Google to co-lead its Ethical AI team with another tech industry trailblazer Dr Margaret Mitchell. The team investigated the ethics of artificial intelligence to understand and prevent its potential harms. Timnit was the first Black woman the company had employed in a research scientist role. Then Google terminated her contract sparking an international outcry. Some 7000 industry colleagues and others, incl...
Jan 08, 2023•30 min
What does it take to reimagine your life?In this occasional Science Friction series, scientists who end-up their lives and strip themselves of their professional identity to become artists.Kolkata-born engineer Nishant Jain flew in the face of expectations, threw in a PhD in biomechanics, and reinvented himself as a cartoonist, writer, and self-taught artist.Now the self-described 'Sneaky Artist' hosts a podcast of the same name and sells his urban artworks to a growing global fanbase.For RN Sum...
Jan 01, 2023•30 min
It started with an idea. Then came the university car park full of tonnes of fish heads. Now this extraordinary 20-something couple have deployed a mighty maggot army to turn 50 tonnes of food waste a week into … well, you'll want to listen to find out. A story of science, ingenuity, and revolution. We throw out a third of the food we produce, and the food system is one of the biggest contributors to global warming. Let's stop the rot! For RN Summer we're playing some our favourite programs from...
Dec 25, 2022•30 min
Two teams. Scientists and science journalists. Brains vs brains. Boys vs Girls. From the small (bed bug sex) to the big (er, the whole cosmos), it's the year in science with a tongue firmly in our cheeks.
Dec 16, 2022•30 min
The long prison sentence given to Sydney climate protester Deanna 'Violet' Coco for blocking traffic on the Sydney Harbour bridge has surprised many, including her fellow protester Jay, who spent 42 days under house arrest. Are new laws suppressing fundamental human rights to protest, or a proportionate response to disruptive blockades? Note: Since making the show, Violet Coco, has been released on bail, as from 13th December.
Dec 09, 2022•30 min
We make machines, but do our machines make us? And who's in control really? Superstar anthropologist, technologist, futurist, cyberneticist, and Silicon Valley insider Genevieve Bell and guests talk machines, minds and messing with the code to make the world so much better.
Dec 02, 2022•30 min
If the universe began with a big bang, how will it end? This question has suddenly got very personal for acclaimed science poet Alicia Sometimes.Physicists have got some hair-raising ideas, from the Big Crunch to the Big Rip. The personal, the poetic, and the physical of endings this week on Science Friction.Hear Part 1: What Came Before the Big Bang Guests: Alicia Sometimes Poet, writer, broadcaster, podcaster Chris Ferrie Quantum physicist, Associate Professor, Centre for Quantum Software and ...
Nov 25, 2022•30 min
Should solving climate change be left to politicians? What if YOU could drive policy without ever running for an election?WHO'S GONNA SAVE US? is an ABC podcast about the people who are trying to map out a better future in the face of the climate crisis.France gave so-called 'deliberative democracy' a crack, where lay citizens are assembled to deliberate and shape vital policies. Europe is ahead of the game in this, but find out what happened next in the French experiment.Catch up on the whole s...
Nov 17, 2022•30 min
Saul Griffith has an ambitious plan to save the planet. It all begins at home and it's completely electrifying! WHO'S GONNA SAVE US? is an ABC podcast about the people who are trying to map out a better future in the face of the climate crisis. Catch up on the whole series HERE , or wherever you get your podcasts.Guests: Saul Griffith, Andrew Davies, Cameron Gardiner Host: Jo LauderReporters: Joel Werner, James PurtillSeries Producer: Cheyne AndersonExecutive Producer (audio): Joel WernerExecuti...
Nov 11, 2022•30 min
Science and culture ... with extra spice. All species welcome.
Nov 04, 2022•30 min
When intrepid botanist Tim Collins went sleuthing in the wilds of Australia in pursuit of a papery daisy's DNA, little did he know he'd find himself at the heart of an historical saga, a complicated romance, and a botanical mystery. A floral story of love, exile and serendipity. Oh, and an Emperor and Empress!
Oct 30, 2022•25 min
Too much. Not enough. Too weird. Not weird enough. Sex is enjoyed, explored, exploited, and policed in countless ways. The pleasure and pain of writing about sex … with authors Jennifer Mills (The Airways, Dyschronia), evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks (Artificial Intimacy: Virtual Friends, digital lovers, and algorithmic matchmakers), and Josephine Taylor (Eye of a Rook).
Oct 20, 2022•30 min
2022 Hugo Award winning science fiction author, Becky Chambers , is loved by fans for her brilliantly hopeful imagined worlds in her Monk and Robot and Wayfarers book series. Archaeologist Dr Emma Rehn investigates the ancient relationship between humans and fire. Science Friction brings Becky and Emma together to share a conversation about worlds past, future, real, and imagined.
Oct 14, 2022•30 min
What came before time as we know it began? A time before. Can we ever really know?
Oct 07, 2022•30 min
Four big minds on the next steps for our species.
Sep 30, 2022
Sex is complicated. Oh yes indeed.
Sep 21, 2022•30 min
Science is way personal.
Sep 18, 2022•30 min
Three rising stars in science on why they can’t come back.
Sep 09, 2022•30 min
An explosive love triangle with a difference.
Sep 02, 2022•30 min
They hold their secrets close. But these scientists are getting Tasmania's "living fossil" trees to talk. And whoa, we need to listen!
Aug 26, 2022•30 min
