Virologist Dr. Grant Hill-Cawthorne joins us to discuss Ebola. Everything you need to know about the current outbreak.Researchers in Florida have noticed than in just fifteen years a particular species of lizard has grown larger, stickier feet as an evolutionary response to an invading Cuban lizard.In the lead up to the attempted landing of Philae on a comet in a few weeks, the Rosetta probe has taken some readings. And now we know what a comet smells like , and it's not pretty.A man with a comp...
Nov 05, 2014•41 min
Defence giant Lockheed Martin has announced it wants to build a truck-sized nuclear fusion power-plant in the next ten years. They just don't appear to have a plan .The microbes in our guts have their own body clocks, and they too get messed up when we get jetlagged .The giant kangaroos that used to roam the Australian continent were three times the size of their modern descendants. And new research shows they used to walk, rather than hop .NASA's Messenger spacecraft has provided the first opti...
Nov 01, 2014•44 min
More artifacts have been recovered from the Antikythera wreck , the 1st century BC shipwreck discovered in 1900 off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera. None of the newly found artifacts, however, appear to be related to the mysterious Antikythera Mechanism, widely known as the first analog computer. It had long been thought that volcanic activity on the moon stopped around a billion years ago. Now high-resolution images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) suggest there was acti...
Oct 25, 2014•41 min
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014 was awarded with one half to John O'Keefe and the other half jointly to May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser "for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain". The Nobel Prize in Physics 2014 was awarded jointly to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources". The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014 ...
Oct 19, 2014•42 min
The Ig Nobel Prizes honour achievements that first make us laugh, then make us think. We take a look at this year’s winners : from banana peels to people dressed as polar bears! PHYSICS PRIZEA team from Japan for measuring the amount of friction between a shoe and a banana skin, and between a banana skin and the floor, when a person steps on a banana skin that's on the floor. Banana peel slipperiness wins IgNobel prize in physics NEUROSCIENCE PRIZEScientists from China and Canada for trying to u...
Oct 08, 2014•1 hr 4 min
Professor Stephen Hawking has written a preface to a book, and his comments have gotten a little misinterpreted . Katie explains why the Higgs boson is absolutely not in any danger of destroying the world.A study of Spinosaurus bones has determined the sail-backed dinosaur had adaptations to make it better suited to swimming than running. This study suggests that Spinosaurus may have been the only known swimming dinosaur . And plesiosaurs and icthyosaurs were technically not dinosaurs. Neither w...
Sep 24, 2014•39 min
The Common Octopus, or Octopus Vulgaris, is the most studied of all octopus species. But all that studying has found so many differences between some, which could mean the Common Octopus is possibly as many as ten different species .Why coffee has caffeine: An international team of scientists has sequenced the genome of Coffea canephora , one of the main sources of coffee beans. By analysing its genes, they were able to reconstruct how coffee evolved to make caffeine.The availability of camera-p...
Sep 20, 2014•34 min
Sean Elliott joins us to talk about the origins of life and his upcoming Melbourne Fringe show, Rough Science: Life .Cobi Smith joins us from CERN to talk about her Melbourne Fringe show, Delusions of Slander .The mystery of the ‘Wandering Stones’ of Death Valley may no longer be a mystery. Researchers have used video cameras, GPS units and a weather station to document and track how these large rocks move along the dry lake bed.Researchers at the University of Ottawa have done a really cool exp...
Sep 11, 2014•39 min
About ten years ago an entomologist at the University of Colorado found 250 forgotten boxes in a storage cupboard. Inside were 13,000 grasshopper specimens collected more than 40 years ago, which provide a fascinating insight into climate and other environmental changes in that time. A chance observation has led to the discovery that the blood of certain abalone has antiviral properties , which could lead to better treatments for the herpes simplex virus. The vitamin K injection at birth helps p...
Sep 03, 2014•44 min
Mother turtles and their newly hatched babies talk to each other underwater , and scientists in Brazil have managed to record them. Taking antibiotics to kill ‘bad’ bacteria can be a good idea, but such disruptions to the gut microbiome can have long-term consequences for our health, and could even be making us fat . The widely held belief that magpies steal shiny objects seems to be myth-busted. Instead, they seem to avoid new objects regardless of shininess. Analysis of bones from King Richard...
Aug 30, 2014•23 min
The Rosetta space probe has finally arrived and is currently in orbit around the comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko! Rosetta is now officially the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet.A previously unknown tribe of humans has emerged from the rainforest in Brazil and made contact with a settled indigenous community. They are believed to have fled illegal loggers and drug traffickers, but some have already contracted influenza.Newly discovered crAssphage could be the most common virus in your ...
Aug 22, 2014•43 min
At our 150th episode celebration earlier this year, we were fortunate to have Dr. Krystal Evans address the audience to talk about science in Australia. Dr. Evans is a medical researcher at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute where she is working on Malaria treatment and developing a vaccine. She is a leading advocate for science and technology, and was a founding member and Chair of the Australian Academy of Science’s Early and Mid Career Researcher Forum. In this talk she looks at how Australi...
Aug 10, 20140
Steve Nerlich from the Cheap Astronomy podcast gives us an update on the roller-coaster life of the ISEE-3 space probe. It was alive, then it died, then it was resurrected then it seemed dead but now it may be still alive again ! Paleontologists have discovered the fossilised remains of one of the world's first known predators that lived in the sea around 520 million years ago. The fossils were detailed enough to show some of the brain structures . Researchers at UCLA have found eight types of e...
Jul 31, 2014•43 min
Twenty-seven months ago the "Mississippi Baby" stopped HIV treatment and was believed to be free of the virus. Unfortunately, that changed this month when test showed the virus is back . It had gone into hiding and the now four-year-old girl will face years, possibly her whole life, on antiretroviral therapy. A scientist at a CDC research centre found a cardboard box containing six vials of the smallpox virus in a storage room . The vials are believed to have been left there since the 1950s, and...
Jul 26, 2014•35 min
We’re not comfortable being bored, according to a study published in the journal Science. The paper suggested people would rather give themselves electric shocks than be left alone with their thoughts . Where humans detect colours via three receptors in our eyes, the mantis shrimp have twelve. And a new study indicates six of those detect five different wavelengths of ultraviolet light. The mantis shrimp has adapted “nature’s sunscreens’ – mycosporine-like amino acids – and turned them into ultr...
Jul 16, 2014•59 min
The announcement earlier this year that the BICEP2 team had discovered gravitational waves is now mired in controversy . Dr. Alan Duffy joins us to explain why 'the biggest announcement' is now probably meaningless. In 2012, Facebook manipulated the newsfeed of 689,003 users as part of a psychological experiment. The company claims it was able to alter the moods of some users, but the study's methodology and ethical concerns have drawn widespread criticism . The electric eel - described by one r...
Jul 11, 2014•1 hr
Koalas will cuddle specific tree types during summer heatwaves to cool down. Hugging the right tree can reduce a koala's body temperature by almost 70 per cent. Researchers have sequenced the genome of Eucalyptus grandis , a common type of gum tree. And this genetic blueprint, according to the researchers, could help design more powerful and efficient jet fuels. The project took five years and involved 80 scientists from 18 countries. A 36 year-old space probe, mothballed by NASA, has just been ...
Jun 29, 2014•43 min
A study suggests hurricanes with 'female' names have killed more people than 'male' names . But it's MUCH more complicated than that. Men are more likely than women to report severe pain after major surgery . But Women are more likely to complain after minor surgery. Because reasons. A tiny tick trapped in a droplet of amber more than 15 million years ago appears to have been infected with a bacteria similar to the one that causes Lyme disease in humans. The oldest known pair of trousers has bee...
Jun 14, 2014•34 min
Greenland is more vulnerable to melting than we thought , and the West Antarctic ice shelf is melting much faster and is now 'unstoppable'. The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is shrinking and changing shape. The top 10 new species of 2013 have been announced. Some of them are cute. The first farm to supply insects for human consumption has opened, but faces regulatory, engineering and cultural hurdles. Jupiter's moon Ganymede has layers of ice and water beneath its surface. NASA calls it a 'moonwich'...
Jun 09, 2014•41 min
The Australian researcher who provided the best evidence for non-celiac gluten sensitivity has now done more extensive research. He now believes gluten may not be the culprit after all . Polar bears, the largest land predators alive, have many genetic tricks they have developed to help them survive on an extremely high-fat diet . Ratites - flightless birds like emus, ostriches and rheas - have long been thought to have evolved from a single flightless ancestor. But now new research made with the...
May 28, 2014•34 min
Man-made electromagnetic noise is affecting migratory birds . But it's not wi-fi, microwaves or any of the usual culprits - just good old fashioned AM radio. US scientists have developed artificial DNA - X and Y base pairs - which then replicated with the normal G, A, T and C molecules when the cell divides. This could pave the way for new methods of developing drugs and other chemicals. Or Godzilla. A study with mice involving exercise, electric shocks and drugs have given new insights into how...
May 26, 2014•46 min
Microbes from lakes in the French Pyrenees thrive on the fungus that has been linked to a dramatic decline in amphibian populations. A new spider species has been found in the Namibian desert, and it does cartwheels to escape predators . Rats and mice show increased stress levels when handled by male researchers rather than women, potentially skewing study results. The average height of British soldiers fighting in the First World War was 168cm. Today the average height for men of the same age i...
May 21, 2014•40 min
Evolutionary biologist and author of Sex, Genes & Rock 'n' Roll Professor Rob Brooks joins us to talk beards, monogamy and evolution. Beards seem to be popular now, but we may be approaching 'peak beard' , where beards are so common they lose their novelty appeal. Do babies cry at night to stop their parents having more babies? Evolutionary biologist David Haig thinks they may be unintentionally sabotaging their parents' sex lives. A ten year, worldwide project has finally sequenced the Tset...
May 10, 2014•42 min
The world's longest continuously running lab experiment, The Pitch Drop, finally drops for the ninth time . Cephalotes ants can glide to nearby trees when they find themselves skydiving. Also they use their heads as shields. The most Earth-like exoplanet yet has been discovered , just 10% bigger than our planet. We all know malaria is spread by mosquitoes, but in 1995 in Taiwan there was an outbreak that spread throughout a hospital without any mosquito assistance....
May 04, 2014•32 min
Continental drift could have been started by a massive meteorite impact 3 billion years ago. Fossilised daddy longlegs reveal the arachnids had an extra pair of eyes 305 million years ago . And weren't cute then, either. A new study suggests that even if there was liquid water on the surface of Mars billions of years ago, there wasn't enough atmospheric pressure to keep it liquid for long . The UK Government has stockpiled over £500m worth of the antiviral drug Tamiflu. A study now finds that th...
Apr 27, 2014•56 min
We have six basic facial expressions, but computer software has shown we combine them to display hybrid emotions , like 'happily surprised' or 'angrily surprised'. Scientists have long suspected that Saturn's sixth largest moon, Enceladus, held large amounts of water beneath its icy surface. But now gravity measurements have found a large ocean below the southern polar region. Genetic modification could allow us to grow plants that are more easily broken down to make biofuels and paper. Contrary...
Apr 18, 2014•35 min
A woman with a bone disorder has had her cranium replaced with a 3D printed one , and shows no sign of rejection. Skeletons unearthed last year from a burial ground in London may suggest that the Black Death plague was spread via the air, not tick bites from rats . The rubber hand illusion is an old trick where your brain is fooled into thinking a rubber hand is your own. Psychologists in Italy have now made people believe the hands were made of marble . Because Italy. Could the Permian extincti...
Apr 12, 2014•45 min
Giant pythons in Florida's everglades can navigate vast distances , and we're not sure how. For the first time ever, an asteroid in our solar system has been discovered with a ring system . Dark chocolate is good for you, but it's the bacteria in your gut that make it so . Astronomers have discovered an icy body with an orbit so big it never gets closer than 12 billion kilometers from the Sun!...
Apr 06, 2014•29 min
The most comprehensive infrared search of our skies has found no trace of "Planet X" , the mythical giant planet on the edge of our solar system. The troublesome Western Corn Rootworm is developing a resistance to the genetically modified corn designed to thwart it. British archaeologists have found what they say is the world's oldest complete example of a human being with metastatic cancer . Tracing human migration across the pacific 3,000 years ago is tricky, but tracing the chickens they brou...
Mar 26, 2014•52 min
Last Monday, astronomers announced what has been described as "the biggest thing since dark energy" - detection of gravitational waves from the afterglow of the big bang. We got astronomer Dr. Alan Duffy from Swinburne University on to tell us what that means, and what it says about the very early stages of our Universe.
Mar 24, 2014•38 min
