Today we talk with Journalist Earl Swift. Earl’s latest book, Across the Airless Wilds: The Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings, is the follow-up to his acclaimed New York Times bestseller Chesapeake Requiem . In it he investigates the final three Apollo Moon landings, arguing that these overlooked missions, distinguished by the use of the revolutionary Lunar Roving Vehicle, were the pinnacle of human exploration. Today’s interview is hosted by Royal Institution of Australia E...
Jul 05, 2021•25 min
Distinguished Professor of Theoretical Physics at ANU, Susan M. Scott, is a mathematical physicist working on fundamental theoretical aspects of gravitation and, general relativity theory in particular. She has been part of a team of international scientists who have, for the first time, detected the moment a black hole and a neutron star collided in space, not just once but twice. Today’s interview is hosted by Cosmos journalist Ellen Phiddian. Find the science of everything at Cosmos Magazine ...
Jun 30, 2021•7 min
James Brown is a marine biologist and pearl farmer from Broome WA, who was recently recognised as the 2020-21 Australian Farmer of the Year and winner of the Award for Excellence in Innovation for his innovative approach to farming, his support of industry research and development and his dedication to advancing Australian pearls as a premium product around the world. We talk to James about what it is like to farm oysters and pearls and how science is permeating the industry. Today’s interview i...
Jun 28, 2021•14 min
There’s a lot more to a retail transaction – whether online or in-store – than there used to be. Information (data) about you and your shopping habits is collected just about every time you make a purchase. How is it used? How will it affect the future of retailing? Jonathan Reeve is GM APAC for Eagle Eye, a software as a service personalised digital loyalty and promotions platform. Clients include Loblaw, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, the Warehouse Group and Woolworths. Jonathan has worked with global re...
Jun 24, 2021•36 min
Cosmos journalist Ellen Phiddian speaks to Dr Karen Alt, Head of the Nano Theranostics Laboratory at the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases, Monash University, about medical imaging technology using nanoparticles, how it compares to current imaging like MRI, and where it could be seen in the future. Find the science of everything at the Cosmos Magazine website Subscribe to Cosmos Magazine (print) or the Cosmos Weekly Register for the next Cosmos Briefing...
Jun 21, 2021•11 min
If they can’t be used second-hand, is it possible to recycle old clothes? What about recycling other fabrics and textiles? An Australian company, BlockTexx, has recently received funding to build a textile recovery facility in Queensland. Using technology developed by Queensland University of Technology researchers, the plant will take old textiles and turn them into raw materials that can be used by other industries. One of the central problems with textiles is that they’re often a mix of compl...
Jun 16, 2021•17 min
Artificial intelligence technology brings the promise of improvements in many areas of life, but it’s not without problems. Near the top of the list of issues are ways in which it may embed prejudice, for instance through facial recognition, and surveillance. If AI’s to fulfil its potential, it needs to be safe, fair and reliable. About three years ago, the Australian Human Rights Commission began compiling a report into the impacts of AI; the Human Rights and Technology Final Report was present...
Jun 14, 2021•20 min
Remote and wild, Antarctica was once solely the domain of hardcore explorers. As the continent becomes more accessible, science and tourism are expanding – but does this come with an environmental cost? Should access to these fragile ecosystems be regulated, and who gets to decide? Professor Steven L Chown FAA FRSsaf is Director of Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future, an Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative and Professor at Monash University. His Antarctic research cove...
Jun 10, 2021•37 min
Lauren Fuge, a science journalist with the Royal Institution of Australia, talks to Brett Krause, the president and cofounder of Brettacorp Inc, a not-for-profit building forests in the Cassowary Coast region of Tropical North Queensland, Australia, about Brettacorp’s mission to revegetate degraded lands and rehabilitate habitat through conservation and preservation techniques. Find the science of everything at cosmosmagazine.com
Jun 03, 2021•8 min
Over the next decade, the Australian manufacturing industry will need to change its practices to continue making things for the rest of the world. Dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution, AI and smart technologies have the potential to make the sector more productive and less wasteful, but the implementation needs to be done right. How will AI change our manufacturing sector, and what skills will we need to stay competitive? Professor Giselle Rampersad, Professor of Innovation at Flinders Univer...
May 21, 2021•40 min
Water is the most vital resource on Earth and underpins all areas of survival. Over the next ten years, we will need more fresh water to sustain us – even as drought and contamination make our current resources dwindle. How do we protect our most precious resource? Assoc. Professor Bradley Moggridge is a Kamilaroi Man with over 20 years’ experience in Aboriginal engagement, water & environmental science. Bradley is currently an Associate Professor in Indigenous Water Science (hydrogeology &a...
May 06, 2021•45 min
Dr Deborah Devis, a science journalist with the Royal Institution of Australia, talks to Philippa Sjoquist, principal advisor of sustainability strategy and development at Rio Tinto, about Rio Tinto’s proposed strategy to address the environmental costs of mining. Find the science of everything at cosmosmagazine.com
Apr 28, 2021•13 min
Dr Alan Finkel AO FAA FTSE is an Australian neuroscientist, engineer, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He served as Chancellor of Monash University from 2008 to 2016 and was Chief Scientist of Australia from 2016 to 2020. He is also President of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ex-officio) and Patron of the Australian Science Media Centre, and he contributes to a number of research institutes. A neuroscientist, entrepreneur and philanthropist, he invented a comme...
Apr 21, 2021•46 min
Think of a computing process underpinned by masses of complex data – such as modelling planet-wide shifts in climate or simulating the detonation of an atomic bomb. The process is known as supercomputing, and it’s run on a powerful system working at its maximum potential performance – a supercomputer. Dr Karen Lee-Waddell (Director of the Australian SKA regional centre, and Project Scientist for WALLABY, the all-sky neutral hydrogen survey that is being conducted on the CSIRO’s new telescope, th...
Apr 15, 2021•38 min
Dr Cathy Foley is a physicist and commenced her term as Australia’s ninth chief scientist in January 2021. Before that she had a long and distinguished career at CSIRO, where she was appointed chief scientist in August 2018 – only the second woman in that role. Over the course of her career, she has made significant contributions to the understanding of semiconductors and high-temperature superconductors. Her work led to the development of field-deployable superconducting devices that locate val...
Apr 08, 2021•37 min
Papua New Guinea has been somewhat sheltered from the COVID-19 pandemic, with relatively low numbers throughout 2020. Since late February, however, the country has experienced a spike in new cases. Dr Deborah Devis, a science journalist with the Royal Institution of Australia, talks to Professor Leanne Robinson, Program Director of Health Security and Group Leader and Vector-Borne Diseases & Tropical Public Health at the Burnet Institute, to discuss the situation. Find the science of everyth...
Mar 31, 2021•16 min
The global economy sees unprecedented levels of resources extracted at great expense and effort, as well as polluting emissions in the process, to forge new products but all too often these then go to landfill at the end of their lives. A revolutionary, yet beguilingly simple, idea known as the circular economy would see all these products entirely recycled and their resources returned to form new products in turn. Just how realistic is the intention to transform the entire economy to realise th...
Mar 25, 2021•37 min
Australian-born Professor Peter Goadsby is the NIHR-Wellcome Trust King’s Clinical Research Facility at King’s College London in the United Kingdom and is Professor of Neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. He is also Honorary Consultant Neurologist at King’s College Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond St, London. Professor Goadsby is one of four neuroscientists who have won this year’s prestigious international Brain Prize. The group has been recognis...
Mar 17, 2021•14 min
To combat the climate crisis, the world needs to decarbonise its economy, and that means finding ways to store and transport renewable electricity. Hydrogen has the potential to be a completely clean supply of energy, but it could just as easily become the next emissions and resource-intensive industry. If hydrogen takes off, where can we expect it to go? Dr Jessica Allen (an electrochemist and an engineer working in chemical engineering at the University of Newcastle) and Associate Professor Ad...
Mar 11, 2021•38 min
The recent pardon petition by leading Australian scientists regarding the Kathleen Folbigg case – in which new scientific findings have shown her four children could have died of natural cases – has raised a number of questions about how specialised scientific evidence is regarded by our system of courts. Gary Edmond (law professor at University of NSW), Anna-Maria Arabia (chief executive of the Australian Academy of Science) and Richard O’Brien (endocrinology professor at the University of Melb...
Mar 10, 2021•38 min
Healthcare has been changing rapidly since genomic data became available, and has opened the door to precise, targeted therapies and treatments for an individual. However, the amount of data that can be collected from a single genome is immense, especially when looking to learn about whole populations. For this, high processing computers and AI are necessary to help distil and analyse genomic data. Dr Deborah Devis, a science journalist with the Royal Institution of Australia, talks to Dr Mileid...
Mar 03, 2021•16 min
It has been two years since the official launch of the Australian Space Agency. While the Agency is still young, it has opened exciting doors for the nation from fast-growing startups to multi-national collaborations. We look at how Australia’s space industry is expanding, what we can do to stay competitive, and how to maximise the benefits of private industry alongside government at the final frontier. Dr Cassandra Steer (Mission Specialist with the ANU Institute for Space, and a Senior Lecture...
Feb 25, 2021•42 min
A major threat of climate change is to future food security. With a projected Australian population of 35.9 million in 2050, and rising average temperatures of up to 4°C, how will agricultural science work to feed the future? Should we lean on gene technology or traditional methods? Professor Rachel Burton (Head of the Plant Science Department & Chief Investigator ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology at Waite Campus, University of Adelaide) and Dr Angela Pattison (Research Scient...
Feb 11, 2021•37 min
Demand for renewable energy technologies is growing across the world, but their constituent materials – such as the lithium used in batteries – are non-renewable, as the Earth contains only finite amounts. Currently, 55% the world’s lithium supply comes from Australia, so we must ask ourselves: how do we mine these materials in a sustainable and responsible way? Dr Mahdokht Shaibani (Research Fellow at Monash University, with expertise in materials synthesis, engineering, and scale-up for next-g...
Feb 11, 2021•40 min
Barely known to the public before the COVID briefings of early 2020, epidemiological modelling informs public health decisions that can shutter communities and alter lives. But what does it mean? Professor Jodie McVernon (physician and director of Doherty Epidemiology) and Professor Tony Blakely (an epidemiologist, specialist in public health medicine and Director of the Population Interventions Unit at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health) join our host Professor Alan Duffy (Dir...
Feb 11, 2021•38 min
