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...

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ABC Australia

Episodes

The wattle war 06.06.2021 25:54

Flower power, and the mighty battle that divided nations.

The wild woman of Brooklyn, the Peabody bones, and science of tree climbing! [REPEAT] 30.05.2021 34:33

A skeleton with a back story that's almost too bizarre to believe. What would Suzy think? [REPEAT]

Lucy's Story - the chimp, the poet, and the interspecies experiment that went weird [REPEAT] 23.05.2021 32:31

Psychotherapist Maurice Temerlin called Lucy his "daughter"...but then things got weird. [REPEAT]

Troublemakers for truth — death threats for calling out bad COVID science 16.05.2021 26:13

Death threats. Cyber harassment. Meet three dogged scientists on a mission ...

The Anthropocene radical: the scientist who saved the world 09.05.2021 25:47

Few scientists can say they saved the planet. Paul Crutzen did. Legit.

Your right to know the universe! Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's disordered cosmos and Particles for Justice 02.05.2021 25:31

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.

I grew up in a sect — top scientist's candid story of an Orange People childhood 25.04.2021 25:44

This scientist's childhood in a cult was ... let's say ... wild. The light and dark of the path to enlightenment.

Natasha tries taxidermy: the wild, wonderful world of the museum makers 18.04.2021 25:43

Pass the scalpel - taxidermy is on the menu.

The mystery of the flute boy bones: a child lost in time 11.04.2021 26:16

Science Friction breathes life into the bones of an ancient medical curiosity...and investigates the story of a child lost in time.

Artists on the loose at the Large Hadron Collider - Science Friction at the CERN (REPEAT) 04.04.2021 25:45

88 metres underground, in the labyrinth of chambers and corridors of the world’s large particle accelerator, art and science collide in wild and wonderful ways.

Trust after genocide: this African COVID success is a big wake-up call for the West 28.03.2021 26:11

How has one of the world's poorer nations become a shining star in this pandemic, when rich countries failed to save lives? Two African movers and shakers tell it like it is.

Laurence Vincent Lapointe's 'Pee of Gold': Has anti-doping science gone too far? 21.03.2021 25:35

An athlete plays detective to clear her name from scandal. Is anti-doping science to blame?

How to Be Animal - go on, embrace your inner beast! 14.03.2021 26:04

Don't forget this. You're an animal. And it just might be lovely.

Carlo Rovelli: intellectual free spirit, quantum physicist, bestselling author 07.03.2021 25:38

There is nothing this physicist with radical roots won't think about!

Meaning in mayhem: COVID death counts and a Black Lives Matter reckoning 28.02.2021 25:47

The pandemic is personal and political for data scientist Inioluwa Deb Raji and historian of medicine Evelynn Hammonds.

Science FAIL! A perilous story of why it's good to do 21.02.2021 25:41

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

DEMONS: be scared, very scared* 14.02.2021 25:45

When Jimena Canales went looking, she found them everywhere. But Science's demons are not the supernatural souls of religion.

From wild idea to COVID vaccine – meet the mRNA pioneer who could win a Nobel 07.02.2021 26:31

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

Of Mice and Men: This top cancer scientist thought he knew a lot about cancer. Then he got it. 31.01.2021 28:27

You're a top cancer scientist. And then you get cancer. Suddenly you become "A Cancer Patient", and one of your colleagues is wielding the (robotic) scalpel. A story about science, knowledge, and vulnerability. (Summer Season highlight)

COVID-19, China’s wild wet markets, pangolins, and bats - is it US not THEM? 24.01.2021 31:15

Why do deadly viruses love bats so much, why don’t bats get crook, and what’s with China’s wild wet markets? The curious making of a pandemic. (Summer Season highlight)

School gate racism, education reclaimed, and family found (Part 2) 17.01.2021 34:21

Three generations with powerful, personal stories of family lost and found, racism, and the right to education reclaimed. This is not your average Science Summer School. (Summer Season highlight)

How to be Two Ways strong: Dreamtime science and finding yourself (Part 1) 10.01.2021 29:25

Pack your pyjamas, we’re heading to camp! From Arnhem Land to Adelaide, Caboolture to Coffs – let's gather from far and wide to meet on Kaurna country. A scientific and cultural odyssey in two parts. (Summer Season highlight)

The carnivorous woman – a saga from Charles Darwin to Wheatbelt Western Australia (Part 2) 03.01.2021 38:01

A flesh-eating botanical saga. Outside the hallowed halls of science, revolutions are made. (Summer Season highlight)

A wild and whimsical world of flesh-eating plants (Part 1) 27.12.2020 26:02

From Day of the Triffids to Little Shop of Horrors, meet a most sagacious animal. What the hell is a plant doing eating flesh? (Summer Season highlight)

Mike's Miracle at Lightning Ridge 20.12.2020 25:43

Imagine holding in the palm of your hand an object that holds a big secret - one that could unlock the history of the Australian continent.