Humpbacks threat, green cities and EVs, and origins of life
How did life begin? It may not have been on Earth, with asteroids carrying a range of organic molecules
Jan 30, 2026•55 min
The Science Show
The Science Show gives Australians unique insights into the latest scientific research and debate, from the physics of cricket to prime ministerial biorhythms.
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Episodes
Lab Notes: What's behind the rising tree death rates?
Fire, insects and disease all pose a threat to Australia's forests but scientists are now seeing a rise in natural tree deaths right across the country. New research links this background mortality to higher average temperatures. So what do these higher temperatures mean for our forests and the future of Australia's ecosystems? You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science editor and presenter Jonathan Webb on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal beh...
Jan 29, 2026•14 min
Mysterious stellar object discovered
Natasha Hurley-Walker considers what might explain a mysterious stellar object which shines every 18 minutes.
Jan 24, 2026•55 min
Lab Notes: The oldest rock art in the world…that we know of
A faint orange hand stencil on the wall of a cave in Indonesia just became the oldest art known to science. The art, made by splattering ochre over a hand, had been painted over by subsequent generations and was only preserved because moisture combined with the limestone of the cave to form a protective layer on top. The finding strengthens the picture that humans migrated via Borneo, Sulawesi and Papua to reach Australia at least 65,000 years ago. You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes po...
Jan 22, 2026•11 min
Kiruna: The city that moved to make way for a mine
In the Swedish city of Kiruna, an entire community is being relocated to accommodate the expansion of the world's largest underground iron ore mine.
Jan 16, 2026•55 min
Lab Notes: Why UV levels are so high in Australia
Australia's summer UV levels are high enough to cause sunburn in as little as 11 minutes. Yet the summer sun in the Northern Hemisphere rarely feels that full on. So why does our sunlight have that extra "bite"? Spoiler: it's not the hole in the ozone layer. You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more. Get in to...
Jan 13, 2026•14 min
A portrait of Dame Miriam Rothschild
She became an expert on fleas and despite no formal education received honorary doctorates from both Oxford and Cambridge was elected a fellow of The Royal Society.
Jan 09, 2026•54 min
Lab Notes: The Treaty of the Metre: how the metre came to be
The next time you pick up a bag of spuds from the supermarket or fill up the car with petrol, you can thank the Treaty of the Metre for the metric system that underpins daily life. The treaty was signed exactly 150 years ago, when delegates from 17 countries gathered in Paris to establish a new and standardised way of measuring the world around us. But the metre's inception predates the treaty that bears its name by nearly 100 years. So how did it come about, and how has its definition changed o...
Jan 07, 2026•14 min
Mary Somerville — Brilliant polymath, scientific genius
She could only read and write from age 10. She reared children and had a first unsupportive husband. But Mary Somerville was able to correct the work of Isaac Newton, help discover Neptune, and write a science book which became a university text.
Jan 02, 2026•55 min
Lab Notes: Why do whales strand en masse?
Every now and again, dozens or even hundreds of perfectly healthy looking whales strand themselves on a beach. And despite people's best efforts, many — if not all of them — will die. So why do whales strand themselves, and why do they seem to do it at the same locations? This episode was first broadcast in August 2025. You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behavio...
Dec 30, 2025•14 min
Celebrating 50 years of The Science Show
Norman Swan, Fiona Stanley and Lorin Clarke describe their involvement with Robyn Williams and The Science Show with MC Richard Glover at a party celebrating 50 years of broadcasting.
Dec 26, 2025•54 min
Lab Notes: Tips to reduce microplastics exposure
It's impossible to escape microplastics. They're in our food and water, and the air around us is teeming with them. So considering they're all around us, how can we minimise our exposure to tiny plastic fragments without resorting to living in a cave? This episode was first broadcast in August 2025. You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, spa...
Dec 23, 2025•13 min
The Science Show
The Science Show gives Australians unique insights into the latest scientific research and debate.
Dec 20, 2025•55 min
Émilie du Châtelet - portrait of a leader of the Enlightenment
She battled rigidities of 18th century Europe. But with writer and philosopher Voltaire, Émilie du Châtelet led the Enlightenment.
Dec 19, 2025•55 min
Lab Notes: How is sunscreen SPF tested?
Australia's known for having some of the world's toughest sunscreen standards, but in June, that reputation was rocked. Independent testing of 20 sunscreens found 16 did not meet their advertised SPF50 rating, including three children's sunscreens and three sold by the Cancer Council. So how are sunscreens tested, and what can we learn from these recent SPF revelations? This episode was first broadcast in September 2025. You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalis...
Dec 16, 2025•14 min
Author Terry Pratchett’s links to science and Adelaide
Retiring Vice Chancellor of the University of South Australia David Lloyd awarded Pratchett two honorary degrees. In exchange, the author honoured the university with a special scholarship – to be offered every year forever. This week David Lloyd explains his enthusiasms for the Discworld author in front of a packed audience at the Hawke Centre in Adelaide.
Dec 12, 2025•55 min
Lab Notes: How maths explains nature's weirdness
A huge cold blob of air above Antarctica and bushfires spreading along ridgelines don't appear to have anything in common, yet the strange behaviour of these natural phenomena — and many others — can be understood and explained by mathematics. You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more. Get in touch with us: la...
Dec 09, 2025•14 min
Evidence shows no link between pain relief drugs and autism
In her book Prove It! Elizabeth Finkel presents the evidence showing no link between pain relief drugs and autism
Dec 05, 2025•55 min
Lab Notes: Are bioplastics the future of packaging?
Step into the supermarket and there's plastic around just about everything, even mangoes — and not all that packaging will be properly disposed of. So with around 20 million tonnes of plastic polluting the environment each year, not to mention the potential health effects of microplastics, is there a better, more environmentally friendly alternative? You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll ...
Dec 02, 2025•14 min
3 young high achievers in science, and Sydney hosts space conference
The International Astronautical Congress held in Sydney showed how space science is vital to our modern world.
Nov 28, 2025•54 min
Lab Notes: Why aurora season isn't over yet
Astrophotographers have had another great month, with the aurora australis lighting up night skies as far north as southern Queensland. And while you might've heard that the best of this bunch of auroras is behind us, don't put your camera away just yet. There's good reason to think the southern lights will illuminate the sky well into 2026. It all depends on what the Sun shoots in our direction … and we might find ourselves in the firing line more often over the next few months. You can binge m...
Nov 25, 2025•14 min
Rare earth minerals – we’ll need geologists to find them
University departments of geology and geophysics are getting smaller or closing. So how will we find new mineral deposits?
Nov 21, 2025•54 min
Lab Notes: How are long-range weather forecasts made?
It looks like most of Australia is in for a warmer-than-usual summer this year. That's according to the Bureau of Meteorology's long-range forecast, which was released in October. So — without a crystal ball — how do meteorologists make weather predictions so far out, how accurate are they, and how is climate change affecting them? You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on an...
Nov 18, 2025•14 min
Bragg winners for science writing, more from the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science and water droplets used for geoengineering
In just 75 years the Earth’s average temperature is predicted to be close to 3 degrees above pre-industrial levels. We are in the fast lane to a different world, one that will not be friendly to the current range of plants and animals, including humans. The race is on to cool our overheating planet.
Nov 14, 2025•54 min
Lab Notes: How breastfeeding can protect against cancer
Thanks in part to 18th-century nuns, we now know that having children and breastfeeding reduces a mum's risk of developing breast cancer for years, even until her kid is well into primary school. Now Australian scientists have discovered how breastfeeding specifically enlists the immune system to protect against an aggressive and hard-to-treat type of breast cancer. You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Aus...
Nov 11, 2025•13 min
The Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science and a dilemma over the appropriate use of artefacts from a Roman shipwreck
Robyn Williams reports from the 2025 Prime Minister's Prizes for Science ceremony in Parliament House Canberra.
Nov 07, 2025•54 min
Lab Notes: How your brain chooses your next snack
It's mid-afternoon and time for a treat! Do you choose a healthy piece of fruit, or do you head straight for the chocolate? It turns out that well before we consciously decide what we're going to eat, our brain has already weighed up our choices — and in a fraction of a second. Now a new study shows which food attributes are processed by our brain faster than others, and how this might influence our dietary decisions. You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist a...
Nov 04, 2025•14 min
The history of life on Earth may be very different to what we think
We’ve built a picture of the evolution of biodiversity based on a few accessible fossils. But the real story may be very different.
Oct 31, 2025•55 min
Lab Notes: Times we thought we found aliens
We have a mysterious visitor to our little patch of the cosmos this week: A comet called 3I/ATLAS. This icy, rocky ball is only the third interstellar object we've discovered zooming past our Sun. There are scientists who think the comet may be alien technology sent from another solar system to invade Earth, but space agencies poured cold water on this idea. So how will we know if we truly find evidence of extraterrestrial life? You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science j...
Oct 28, 2025•13 min
Paint additive boosts plant growth in greenhouses
An additive in paint converts ultraviolet light into red light allowing plants to grow more producing higher yields, a boon for greenhouse agriculture.
Oct 25, 2025•53 min
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