ABC Australia

Science Friction

Science EN ↓ 250 episodes

Quantum computers could be the next giant leap in technology — transforming how we heal people, how we grow food, how we get around our cities. So how close are we to the quantum future we've been promised? For Science Friction on ABC Radio National, Jacinta Bowler unpacks how the weird world of quantum physics could change everything. Hear about the surprising twists, the quantum cat-fights and the plucky heroes that have defined humanity's effort to build nature's most unpredictable machine. Dead and Alive is a four-part series from Science Friction on ABC Radio National. Episode 1 is out on...

Author

ABC Australia

Episodes

The second kind of impossible: Part 2 — the wild adventure (REPEAT) 22.05.2022 25:46

Lace up your boots. Get down and dirty. We're hunting the impossible.

The second kind of impossible: Part 1 — a maverick mind (REPEAT) 15.05.2022 25:46

Nature's rules are made to be broken. Paul Steinhardt just had to find a way.

Should Big Pharma profit from secret COVID-19 vaccine deals? Moderna responds 08.05.2022 26:53

Big Pharma has helped get life-saving COVID-19 vaccines into billions of arms. The profits are pouring in, but at what cost?

Feeling a bit hopeless? Primatologist Dr Jane Goodall is here for YOU 01.05.2022 28:00

Jane Goodall wants you to gird your loins. What does that mean? Well ... for hope, push PLAY.

Scratch that itch! She of flamenco flair and molecular dances 24.04.2022 26:53

By day, she's making molecules dance. By night, this vintage fashionista has a different dance on her mind.

AI ethics leader Timnit Gebru is changing it up after Google fired her 17.04.2022 30:36

Timnit Gebru was fired by Google in a cloud of controversy, now she's making waves beyond Big Tech's pervasive influence

World-first pig to human heart transplant. What happened? 10.04.2022 25:45

You need a new organ. But there aren't enough to go around. Would you accept one from a pig? Hearts, kidneys, corneas ... xenotransplantation is here.

Scratch that itch! Meet the Sneaky Artist 03.04.2022 25:51

Indian-born engineer Nishant Jain flew in the face of expectations to radically reinvent himself as the Sneaky Artist

Escaping Russia's new Iron Curtain - superstar science podcaster Ilya Kolmanovsky 27.03.2022 30:03

Ilya Kolmanovsky is a popular science superstar in Russia. Like so many anti-Putin activists, he’s just made the most wrenching decision of his life.

Foodies, why you should give a f*** about farming! 20.03.2022 25:41

Why are we so weirdly paradoxical about food? Food, farms, revolution with two women closer to it all than most.

The gun dealer’s defence — on nukes, fossil fuels, and Australia 13.03.2022 33:39

If you sell the gun but don’t pull the trigger ... are you to blame?

Breaking Buruli, part two 06.03.2022 26:31

After 25 years of painstaking research, could scientists be getting close to unlocking the mysteries of Buruli ulcer?

Breaking Buruli, part one 27.02.2022 25:44

When people from a small beach town on Phillip Island started developing severe skin lesions, scientists were left scratching their heads as to what was causing them.

Masha and Dasha 20.02.2022 25:46

Despite being very different people, sisters Masha and Dasha spent their entire lives conjoined.

Twinning! 13.02.2022 27:41

A pair of twin girls is born in the late 1980s and their mother is told a series of ‘facts’ about them. But just how much of what she was told is true?

Does Omicron spell the end of Covid-zero in China? 06.02.2022 25:47

Covid-zero was once a dream pursued by many countries, but the arrival of highly transmissible variants has brought an end to such aspirations for most. However there is one place where the Covid-zero dream is still alive: China.

Science FAIL! A perilous story of why it's good to do (REPEAT) 30.01.2022 25:46

A sliding door moment. A test of character. A career on the line. What would you do?

The Anthropocene radical: the scientist who saved the world (REPEAT) 23.01.2022 25:47

Few scientists can say they saved the planet. Paul Crutzen did. Legit. (RN Summer highlight)

Your right to know the universe! Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's disordered cosmos and Particles for Justice (REPEAT) 16.01.2022 25:46

Dark Matter sleuth. #BlackinSTEM pioneer. Particles for Justice co-founder. This incredible physicist will change your sense of the universe and your role in it. (RN Summer highlight)

Natasha tries taxidermy: the wild, wonderful world of the museum makers (REPEAT) 09.01.2022 25:47

Pass the scalpel - taxidermy is on the menu. (RN Summer highlight)

I grew up in a sect — top scientist's candid story of an Orange People childhood (REPEAT) 02.01.2022 25:46

This scientist's childhood in a cult was... wild. The light and dark of the path to enlightenment. (RN Summer highlight)

From wild idea to COVID vaccine – meet the mRNA pioneer who could win a Nobel (REPEAT) 26.12.2021 25:47

No-one thought they would work. This dogged scientist persisted with a difficult idea. Now it's driving the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. (RN Summer highlight)

Science meets high vaudeville - who will win our 2021 quiz? 19.12.2021 25:46

Two teams. Scientists and science journalists. And your quiz mistress with a whip. Let the mischief begin.

Nature Fast, Nature Slow - ballistic mushrooms, moss piglets and more! 12.12.2021 25:44

Blink and you'll miss it. Eyes wide open and you can't comprehend it. Life beats to all kinds of pulses.

The Lost Family - how DNA testing is upending our lives 05.12.2021 26:08

Is the era of family secrets over? Is love deeper than DNA?