Science Friction

Last year, 81-year-old rancher Arthur 'Jack' Schubarth was sentenced to six months in prison. His crime? An elaborate, multi-country conspiracy to smuggle in the tissue of a rare big horn sheep — clone it — and sell the offspring to hunters. But how did we get to the point where such a scheme could be run out of an elderly rancher's backyard? In episode one of Artificial Evolution, we trace the st...

In 1996, Dolly the Sheep became the first ever cloned animal. Nearly 30 years later, genetic technology has reshaped the world around us. What exactly has happened, where are we headed, and are we OK about it? In Artificial Evolution, our latest series of Science Friction, ABC environment reporter Peter de Kruijff follows the story of gene technologies all the way from Dolly right through to the p...

We’ve all dreamt of lobbing our smartphone into the ocean and going off grid.  So what happens when you follow through with it? For our final episode of Brain Rot, we speak to the people who decided they’d had enough.  From a French village, to Gen Z ‘luddites’ in New York City and a group of parents in regional Victoria, there are clubs, campaigns and even laws dedicated to a smartphone-free life...

Plenty of people will say they are addicted to the internet. But how well-recognised, scientifically, is an addiction ... to your screen? In episode four of Brain Rot, we dig into how behavioural addictions work. And we hear from self-described internet addicts about the treatment programs that help them stay “internet sober”. Brain Rot is a new five part series from the ABC’s Science Friction abo...

We’re trusting tech with more tasks than ever — including the ones our brains once did. We’re Googling things we used to know, taking screenshots of things we’ll instantly forget, and hoarding all kinds of data we’ll never check again. On this episode of Brain Rot: is tech giving your brain a holiday, or putting it out of a job? You’ll also meet a guy who’s turned the tables, by using AI to help r...

Whether it’s social media, the omnipresent smartphone or AI companions, in recent decades the way we relate to each other has been completely up-ended.  In episode two of Brain Rot, we explore the potential implications that tech poses to human relationships.  Worldwide estimates suggest there are around one billion users of AI companion — people using software or applications designed to simulate...

Everyone seems to have a hunch that their phone is destroying their attention span, but is there any science to back it up? In episode one of Brain Rot, we’re doing our best to focus on the topic of attention for a full 25 minutes — and find out what's actually happening in your brain every time your phone buzzes or dings. Is brain rot a real thing? Or just another moral panic? And how do you know...

For Science Friction, it's Brain Rot — a new series about the science of being chronically online and what it’s doing to our brains. What's really going on with our attention spans? Is data-dumping your entire life into ChatGPT helpful? And what's it like to be in love ... with an AI? National technology reporter Ange Lavoipierre tackles the wildest ways people are using tech and the big questions...

For episode six of Cooked, we turn the lens on … science communication itself. We’re looking at how information travels from a scientific study to the world and what can go wrong along the way. This is the final episode in our Cooked series. We'll be back in May for another series of Science Friction on a different topic — digital devices and how they're driving us to delight ... and to despair. S...

Over the past few years, you might have heard advertisements in your podcast feed or on social media for electrolyte supplements. If you haven’t seen them, they’re basically these little sachets or tubs that get mixed in with water as a drink. News media reports demand for such products is exploding – with the market for electrolyte supplements set to grow to 112 billion dollars by 2030, more than...

Why did a group of anonymous strangers on the internet try to eat almost nothing but potatoes for a month?  On Cooked this week, an unusual experiment and the possibilities and perils of a mono-diet. Guests: Andrew Taylor Melbourne, Australia Slime Mold Time Mold Scientist collective Dr Jess Danaher Associate Dean, RMIT University; Nutrition Scientist and Dietitian Credits: Reporter: Alistair Kitc...

It was one of the world's biggest nutrition trials. A study of thousands of people which found that following a Mediterranean diet could meaningfully reduce someone's risk of heart disease and stroke. But as data detectives began to comb through the results of the trial, something wasn't quite adding up. On Cooked this week, we're taking a look at what can go wrong when implementing a nutrition sc...

Diets like carnivore have been popping up all over the place. People who go carnivore aim to eat nothing but a select few animal products, like meat and eggs. So why are some people turning to an all-meat diet? And why do they say they feel good doing so? On this episode of Cooked, we sift through some of the counterintuitive findings around carnivore — the scientific pitfalls you need to be aware...

Two decades ago, nutritional epidemiologists made a startling finding – that people eating more ice cream were less likely to develop diabetes. In the years since, various groups have tried to account for this peculiar scientific signal — with limited success. In multiple studies the link between ice cream and a reduced risk of diabetes persists. Yet nutrition experts globally still aren’t convinc...

For Science Friction, a new series — Cooked! On Cooked, we dig into the nuance of nutrition. Why are studies showing that ice cream could be good for you? Do we really need as many electrolytes as the internet says? And why are people feeling good on the carnivore diet? Nutrition and food scientist Dr Emma Beckett helps comb through the evidence on food groups and ingredients like meat, dairy and...

Behind the rise of AI there's big questions about where this technology is going. Is it going to be super intelligent — and if that happens — is it going to kill us all? In our final episode, we're diving into the future and unpacking the full spectrum of expert predictions, from the idea that we're on the brink of creating human-level AI, to fears that AI will make humanity extinct. Come meet our...

2023 was the year powerful new AI technology went mainstream, with image generators and tools like ChatGPT. And people quickly started wondering where these advances were taking them. This is the story of 2023 in three chapters: the first contact, the backlash that followed, and the new reality. It's the story of actors fighting back against plans to replace them with digital clones, writers suing...

AI is often portrayed as being all about technology. But it is also about money and control. Because those who control AI, may control the world. In the AI world, there are two names that keep coming up: OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and its CEO, Sam Altman. Who is Sam Altman? How did his tiny company leapfrog the tech giants and win the scramble for control of AI? And what are Altman's plan...

When you think about a driverless car future, perhaps your mind goes to being driven around, watching movies from the backseat and drinking martinis. For over a decade, perfect driverless cars have seemed only a few years away. But in reality, they were nowhere close. Now, driverless cars are finally being rolled out in some cities. But (like humans) they're crashing and causing chaos. So are driv...

As ChatGPT shows us, AI can do some amazing stuff. But it does some creepy stuff as well. And it's already been responsible for locking up innocent people. The story of how AI scanned millions of drivers licences and accused Michigan man Robert Wiliams of a crime he didn't commit. When human biases lead to neural networks going rogue.

The world is experiencing a boom in artificial intelligence (AI). It's everywhere. In just a few years, computers have learned to paint a picture, write a novel, translate languages and consume the entire internet. But how we got here goes back decades to two men who couldn't agree on the best way to teach a thinking machine. The AI world was divided. Then a new kind of machine beat a human at Go,...

2023 has been the breakout year of artificial intelligence. After decades of investment and improvement, the technology suddenly went mainstream.  For many, it was as though a miraculous machine was plonked in our midst. But AI didn't come from nowhere. And it hasn't been a smooth and simple process. It's been a story rife with drama, conflict, and disagreement. So where did it come from? Who made...

Two groups of boys on a camp in the wilds of America are pitted against each other. But the camp leaders have only one thing on their minds. Science. The mind-blowing story of a psychological experiment that crossed a line. Big time.

What family secrets lie deep inside your cells? A story of survival against the odds, hope after the Holocaust, and the eye-opening new science of epigenetics… Can biology help you transcend the traumas of your ancestors, or forever burden you with their legacy?

At the heart of this moving and extraordinary medical mystery is Robbie, a man in a genetic lottery. Two rare mutations made his life uniquely interesting. Then came a third, random event...a chance encounter, a global detective quest and science at the cutting edge.