Science Queeries

Having just passed the longest night/the winter solstice, we’re looking at the cosmic choreography that shapes our whole year. We’ll talk about why the winter solstice is the ultimate dark night of the soul-ar system. Dr Cat untangles the tilt that gives Earth its seasons, and explains why the coldest days rudely arrive just as the days start getting longer. She shares ancient calendars of astrono...

Australia’s iconic marsupials are going extinct at an alarming rate. But innovative science is offering hope. One in six human couples rely on assisted reproduction technologies like IVF…and marsupials may need to rely on these technologies too – it’s just that we can’t use the exact same tools across humans and marsupials. Understanding the unique biology of marsupial reproduction could rev...

Would you snack on some insects? What if they were blended into your chocolate mousse and you couldn’t even tell? The human population is heading toward 9 billion and traditional livestock farming can’t sustainably feed our hungry world. We need new solutions – fast. The answer may be crawling right in front of us. Insect farming could be the solution. Bugs are more sustainable t...

The brain is complex – billions of neurons, trillions of connections, and countless ways things can go wrong. Brain malformations and severe epilepsies can derail development, disrupt learning, and change lives forever. And sometimes, the cause remains a mystery. Until now. Genetic testing is unlocking answers. Translational genetics is rewiring how we approach treatment. And understanding the gen...

Ovarian cancer is a disease that’s often invisible, often deadly, and often overlooked. Over 1900 estimated new cases of ovarian cancer were diagnosed last year, and women diagnosed have been stuck with limited options…but that may be changing. Cancer is cunning. It hides and our immune cells can’t find it to fight back. But what if we could bring the cancer out of hiding and unleash t...

Soil is often overlooked – we walk on it, we grow food in it, but we rarely think about what’s actually in it. Yet soil is one of the most important ecosystems on Earth. And it’s under siege. From traditional pollutants like heavy metals and petroleum compounds to emerging threats like PFAS and microplastics, our soils are becoming increasingly contaminated. But how do we know how bad...

Fungi aren’t all bad. They’ve given us penicillin – one of the most important medicines ever discovered. But they can also rot our crops, threaten food security, and spread resistance to our best fungicides. Climate change is introducing fungal diseases where they previously didn’t exist. And as farmers use more fungicides to combat these threats, fungi develop resistance – creat...

Every day, we encounter tens of thousands of microbes. Our antibodies are our anti-buddies, protecting us from infection. The Day of Immunology is the perfect day to immune cell-ebrate this biology that keeps us alive. We also celebrate a literally life-saving change to blood donation eligibility rules. Gay and bisexual men, trans people, and other previously excluded communities can now donate bl...

What do clitoral erections, lesbian co‑lactation and bimbo branding have in common? Dr Naomi Koh Belic. Bedazzled with hot‑pink and glam, Dr Naomi Koh Belic is rewriting what science education looks like. In this episode, the biracial, bisexual, bimbo biologist joins Dr Cat to unpack the inspiration behind her Bimbo Biology series. Along the way, Dr Naomi explains why visibility matters and how sh...

For so long, contraception has been a woman’s burden. The pill. The IUD. The implant. The patch. While condoms and vasectomies exist for people who produce sperm, the responsibility for preventing pregnancy has overwhelmingly fallen on those with ovaries. But what if that changed? Luke Baz at The University of Melbourne is working on a non-hormonal contraceptive that targets sperm. He is try...

Pathogens are everywhere. They’re invisible to our eyes, but they’re not invincible. This week, we’re diving deep into three very different infections: Talaromyces marneffei – a fungus that’s thriving in South-East Asia and emerging as a serious threat, tuberculosis – a bacterial infection that’s been coughing up trouble for centuries, and shingles – a viral infection that...

Seventy percent of Australians live within 50 kilometres of the Great Southern Reef. Yet many of us have never heard of it. This reef is home to species found nowhere else on Earth. It’s a place where cuttlefish perform spectacular mating displays, where giant spider crabs gather in their tens of thousands, and where nature’s mysteries are waiting to be uncovered. Every winter, giant s...

In this well-seasoned conversation, we’re after a recipe for change. Food racism isn’t just about ingredients. It’s about whose knowledge counts as science, whose culture gets celebrated, and whose gets criminalised. Myths around the harms of MSG, the flavour enhancer, is a perfect case study. While it is found naturally in ingredients used around the world, these myths are speci...

Around 1.7% of babies born in Australia have innate variations in sex characteristics. That’s roughly one in 60 babies. For decades…and to this day, intersex people have been treated as medical problems that need solving. Doctors make decisions about their bodies – often surgical decisions – before they are old enough to consent. Variations in sex characteristics exist on a spectrum, j...

We are facing a triple planetary crisis. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution aren’t separate problems – they’re interconnected threats that are unravelling our world. This week, we’re exploring how these three crises collide through the lens of three seemingly different stories: frogs fighting for survival against chytrid fungus, sea ice melting in response to a warm...

Let’s get into the marrow of bone structure and its link to osteoporosis, learn about some un-nerve-ing mutations that can spark brain tumours and epilepsy, and crown our conversation with cutting-edge dental solutions that are changing lives. Caitlyn Tan, Nuthara Manuwelge, and Majella Warpenius (L-R) make their research and radio debuts as undergraduate students from around Australia and N...

When frogs face a life-threatening disease, you’d expect them to hunker down and focus on survival. But nature sometimes has other plans. A deadly disease caused by a chytrid fungus has decimated 500+ amphibian species. Over 90 are already extinct because of it. The green and golden bell frog has an interesting response to it… Conservation biologist Venice Chan studies frog reproductiv...

Chúc mừng năm mới! 恭喜发财! 새해 복 많이 받으세요! Happy New Year! Lunar New Year is celebrated by millions of people around the world. The celebration isn’t just cultural — it’s also astronomical. It’s tied to the night sky and is shaped by observations of celestial objects that stretch thousands of years. Explore the science behind Lunar New Year. Find out how the Moon became one of humanity’s...

Sydney Harbour is one of the most iconic waterways in the world — but beneath the postcard views lies a complex ecological story of sea-rious degradation, recovery, and renewal. In this episode of Science Queeries, we honour the late Professor Emma Johnston — marine ecologist, champion for equity in science, and a true tide-turner. She laid the scientific foundations for understanding and restorin...

Biological sex in nature is far from simple – and the animal queendom proves it. From fish that change sex, to intersex whales, to species that reproduce without males at all, this episode dives into the wonderfully non-binary reality of animal anatomy and reproduction. Some animals are born one sex and become another. Some respond to temperature, social structures, or hormones. Others simply opt...

Penguins may live at the bottom of the world, but they’ve risen to the very top of our hearts. For Penguin Awareness Day, Dr Cat and archeologist Dr Wenjing Yu are sliding onto the Antarctic ice to celebrate these iconic birds. Having voyaged to Antartica as part of Homeward Bound, a leadership program for women and non-binary people in STEM, they encountered thousands of penguins in the wild. The...

We spend over $20 billion a year on our dogs in Australia — but are our dogs actually happy, or just very well accessorised? This week on Science Queeries, Dr Cat is sniffing out the science of dog happiness with interdisciplinary researcher at the University of Melbourne, Dr Mia Cobb. While animal welfare science has focused on preventing negative experiences, she is finally asking the tail-waggi...

What if the key to Australia’s climate future is hidden in its past? When we talk about climate change, we often picture satellites, supercomputers, and graphs stretching into the future. But this week on Science Queeries, we’re turning back the clock, digging into dusty data, early thermometers and rain gauges, handwritten weather diaries, and historical records to understand what’s coming next....

This week, we cell-ebrate how far biomedical science has come. We start with the basics: why scientists grow cells in labs, how they do it, and why sometimes a cell line is better than borrowing cells from a real human. Then, we sit with the story of Henrietta Lacks and the immortal HeLa cells that were taken from her cancer (without consent) that revolutionised medicine. We tackle the massive eth...

HIV targets the very immune cells meant to protect us. But science – and community – keep fighting back. This World AIDS Day, Dr Cat and Dr Jen Juno chat about how HIV infects CD4 T cells and can lead to AIDS, and how ART and PrEP have transformed lives, empowering HIV+ people to thrive, to build relationships, to have sex and families without fear, and to know they are not a risk to the people th...