Science Queeries

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...

Before you check out at the Black Friday sales… check this Science Queeries episode out. Why do we fall into a festive food coma after a big Christmas or Thanksgiving feast? Is it the turkey, the carbs, or just the emotional aftermath of spending too many hours with relatives? Dr Cat is serving up a full Thanksgiving science spread. We’re carving into the psychology that makes Black Friday deals s...

Ever wondered how much of you is floating around in the cloud? We dive into the world of big data: who gets counted, who gets mis-categorised, and who gets left buffering forever. From algorithmic bias to the very real land and water swallowed up by data centres, we’re unpacking the hidden costs of the digital world. When it comes to artificial intelligence and big data, the world is messy… and be...

We’re getting very meta: communicating about science communication. Why do some people have more of a “head start” when it comes to pursuing STEM? Shanii Phillips teaches us how to make some serious capital gains – science capital gains that is – and boost your interest in STEM. Shanii is a PhD student at the Australian National University and based SciTech exploring the idea of “science capital”...

Who you gonna call? Ghost Busters! For Halloween, the Ghost Buster is Dr Cat. She talks about the history of Halloween and Día de los Muertos, sheds some light on glowing will-o’-the-wisps, de-spookifies ghosts, and gets all tangled up in the fang-tastic science of spiders. From mysterious ghost lights to spider-powered robots, she’s proving that even the creepiest science stories can be illuminat...

Around one third of the food on your plate is there thanks to the hard work of bees. We’re buzzing with excitement to chat about bees! Thanks to Clancy Lester, aka the Bee Man of “Bees and Blossoms”, for bee-ing on the show this week. Dr Cat chats with ecologist Clancy about his research with the Yolŋu people and their deep connection to bees, honey, and Country – and how these tiny pollinators ar...

How does the immune system bite back against malaria? Malaria is caused by parasites that are transmitted to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes. The parasites travel to the liver and then infect red blood cells, leading to symptoms. Malaria has been bugging humanity for centuries. It’s hard to control the disease because the parasites can be resistant to drugs and current vaccines onl...

What do you think of when you think “renewable energy”? What is one change we can make to drastically reduce our individual impact on the planet? What should we be planting in our gardens if we’re rooting for the planet? It’s a takeover! Dr Cat sits back from the microphones this week to let three science communication students take the reins. Dominique Bezzina, Daniel Nørk...

We’re bringing science back from the dead — almost literally! Dr Cat chats to Professor Andrew Pask, who is developing tools and resources to de-extinct the Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) – which could help save endangered marsupials before they vanish for good. They explore how gene editing, stem cells and assisted reproduction could give our lost and threatened marsupials a second life. Professor A...

We’re over the Moon about science, cultural stories, and celebration! Perhaps you caught the recent total lunar eclipse, or you’re looking forward to the next Full Moon, which is when we celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. Quoc Viet Tran, a volunteer for the Vietnamese Museum Australia, reminisces with Dr Cat about cultural stories of the Moon and the Vietnamese version of the festival: Tết T...

The early Earth was quite different to the world we know of today. What creatures lurked in the oceans 500 million years ago? Dr Cat describes the evolution of life on Earth from the very beginning. Then, palaeontologist Alyssa Fjeld comes onto the arthropod-cast to chat about ancient bugs that were around during the “Cambrian explosion”, when life got wilder and whackier. Dig deep into Earth’s an...

Want to be dam well-informed about floods and dams? How do we protect our homes and communities from disastrous floods? Why do insurance companies seem to know more about whether your house is at risk than you do? Water engineer Erin Hughes helps us wade through the world of floods and dams. Erin is a Senior Surface Water Engineer at Hydrology and Risk Consulting. She has led many projects around...

Is all that talk of “quantum” in the movies legit? Dr Cat asks Professor Nick Menicucci about what quantum is, how close we are to getting quantum tech in our pockets, and whether its representation in movies is accurate. They collapse this complex topic of conversation into one very enlightening state. From quantum myths to cosmic time-travel dreams, they measure up some big ideas without any unc...