That's What I Call Science!

Happy birthday, Beaker Street! Hobart’s science festival turned ten years old this year, and Olly was back at its Roving Scientist Bar to hear from some of the scientists that make the festival special.  Tune in to hear from scientists from across Australia, including a physicist, an ecologist, and maybe even a forensic scientist or two. Plus, we have two very special guests to start this week’s e...

Welcome to this year’s episode with the Inspiring Women in STEMM fellows!  Firstly, we hear from Roberta Amoah, a PhD candidate in the School of Nursing at the University of Tasmania, with a background in midwifery and community health. Up next is Liqun Guan, an architecture graduate specialising in healthy, energy-efficient built environments. And, last on the mic, we have Kimiya Padidar, a PhD c...

Young Tasmanians are taking over the microphones! Created as part of the University of Tasmania-led Young Tassie Climate Change-Makers Research Project, this episode gives Echo, Lily and Amanda the chance to ask the questions that matter to them. They speak with Luke Cripps from Alluvium Water Cremations about a lower-carbon alternative to flame cremation, and with forest ecologist and science-tou...

Curiosity killed the cat. Or did it? Turns out the rumours aren’t true, and the cat is off making incredible scientific discoveries.  This week, Dr Jennifer Payne from the Curiosity Factory shares with Olly her passion for being curious and why she started STEMpals: the program connecting school children with scientists across the country.  Beyond science outreach stories, Jennifer also shares her...

What does it take to help people connect with the ocean? In this episode of That's What I Call Science, we chat with Dekota Mark, marine science communicator, educator, fellow podcaster, and Master of Marine and Antarctic Science graduate at the University of Tasmania. From founding the podcast Let's Dive In - Ocean Conversations to facilitating STEM programs with schools, collaborating...

This week kicks off our double bill on the Big Fish card game! You may remember our first guest, Matt Testoni, from Episode 185. Matt’s back to tell us all about the Big Fish card game: a locally-made game aiming to engage the community in the conversation about sustainable fishing.  Matt talks with Ella and Olly about what he’s been up to since he was last on TWICS, the creation of Big Fish, and...

Did you know musicking (the act of connecting to music) lights up more parts of the brain than any other activity that modern scientific studies have found so far? So how can music transform from a catchy tune to therapy? In this episode Anna Abela chats with Zach Von Bertouch from Sonic Sibilings Music Therapy. Zach explains what musical therapy is and how music can affect the brain. Alongside hi...

What does the future of geoscience education look like? Hannah heads to Adelaide for GeoSciEd X, the 10th International Conference on Geoscience Education, to meet some of the people working to inspire the next generation of earth scientists. We hear from educators, researchers and outreach leaders about the organisations and initiatives they represent, what they are presenting and showcasing at t...

In this week’s episode of That’s What I Call Science, we are joined by science communication expert, Caitlin McLeod. We explore Caitlin's journey into science communication and the experiences that shaped her career. From delivering hands-on workshops to some of Western Australia's most remote schools with Scitech, to travelling the country as a Questacon Presenter, freelance science wri...

What happens when animals spend thousands of years adapting to life in complete darkness? This week on That's What I Call Science, Dr Olly Dove and Dr Hannah Moore are joined by Josh Greenhill, a recent Honours graduate from the University of Tasmania and a Young Tassie Scientist. As part of our special Young Tassie Scientists mini-series, Josh takes us into the fascinating world of Tasmania&...

What happens when a black hole launches a jet travelling close to the speed of light? And how can scientists study events happening millions of light years away? This week we are joined by Sophie Young, a PhD candidate in astrophysics at the University of Tasmania and a Young Tassie Scientist. This episode is part of our special Young Tassie Scientists mini-series, highlighting emerging researcher...

Have we got an explosive episode for you today, listeners!  If you live in Hobart, you may have seen a man walking around with a briefcase full of enough gadgets and wotsits to make an international spy envious. And that man is Sam Verne, today’s guest. Sam is a cosmologist who studies how light changes colour when it passes through moving galaxies. He is also a scicomm enthusiast who shares his l...

We sit down with Thomas Verne, a Masters researcher at the Tasmanian Institute for Agriculture, to talk about his work developing probiotics that protect potatoes from disease. We also dig into his path from drought science to plant microbiology, and what it's like being part of the Young Tassie Scientists program.  Show theme music: Kevin MacLeod Thank you to the whole TWICS team for the inc...

We kick off our Young Tassie Scientists series with marine ecologist Paula Ruiz, a PhD candidate at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania.  Paula shares her journey from Colombia to Australia and the experiences that inspired her passion for ocean conservation. We explore her research into reef recovery along Australia's east coast, investigating how ma...

Dr Margaux Didion-Gency grew up playing in the forest, building tree houses and as an adult she hangs out in forests, shrublands and very hot climate chambers to study how plants respond to climate change.  Recording in the middle of a heatwave in Europe, in this very topical episode we hear about Margaux’s research into what happens when plants get too hot.  Listen to learn about Margaux’s exciti...

During her final week in the UK, Olly had the pleasure of visiting The National Museum of Computing in Bletchley. There, she chatted with four volunteers about what visitors can see at the museum, as well as their own experiences in computing and electrical engineering. The museum houses computer models from the very early days of computing, including those far larger than Olly herself! Show theme...

A long, long time ago in a university far away, TWICS host Olly studied Zoology alongside adventurer Kate Lacey. Kate’s career would take her across the world to places like the Amazon, South Africa, and beyond.  On her recent trip to the UK, Olly caught up with Kate to hear about her career in ecology, including Kate’s involvement with the recent reintroduction of pine martens to southwest Englan...

How much can a tree tell us about the climate? Quite a lot, it turns out. This week, we chat with Dr Kathryn Allen from the University of Tasmania, one of Australia’s few dendroclimatologists, about how she uses tree rings to reconstruct past climates and environmental change. Kathryn shares her unconventional pathway into science and how she built a career in climate research. Along the way, we e...

Copper is all around us, from the wires in our homes to the technologies powering the transition to renewable energy. But where does it actually come from, and how do we find it? In this episode, Dr Hannah Moore is joined by geologist Dr Yamila Cajal to explore the fascinating science behind copper. From her early career in mining and exploration in Chile to her current research at UTAS, Yamila sh...

What is a hydrogeologist, why is groundwater important, and how can mine sites both contribute to and impact our hidden water sources? In this episode, Dr Elise Tuuri is joined by the recently conferred Dr Birte Moser, a hydrogeologist at Flinders University's National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training and the One Basin Cooperative Research Centre. Birte takes us into the hidden wo...

Welcome back to another episode in sunny Oxford!  While Olly was in the UK, she visited St John’s College at the University of Oxford. There, she sat down with the College President, Professor Lady Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome, to hear about Sue’s career in forensic anthropology and what it is like working as a scientist when your data can be used in the courtroom.  Show theme music: Kevin...

This week, Dr Jane Younger returns to the TWICS mic to tell Olly about her recent adventures down south to Antarctica. Unfortunately, the trip involved seeing staggering rates of avian influenza, affecting multiple species of seabirds as well as seals. Jane talked Olly through her experiences, as well as the science conducted to help understand what’s happening. A bonus fact about the episode: des...

In this episode of That's What I Call Science, Dr. Elise Tuuri sits down with Dr. Andrew Turner, Medical Director of DonateLife Tasmania, to explore the life-saving world of organ and tissue donation. Tasmania is leading the nation in donation rates, with 25 donors saving the lives of 62 Australians in 2025 alone, and Dr. Turner unpacks what is driving that culture of generosity. From the sci...

With Pint of Science just around the corner, we’re joined by three of the presenters from Hobart’s 2026 event, “From Inner Workings to Icy Worlds” at Shambles Brewery. First, sea ice researcher Dr Johannes Lohse takes us to the Arctic and Antarctic to explore how scientists study sea ice and why it matters for our changing climate. Next, postdoctoral researcher Dr Vimarsha Kodithuwakku discusses h...

Henna Tyyskä is a PhD student in Catalonia, Spain studying how historical land-use affects fungi under the  forest floor. Inspired to be a scientist after reading Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey, Henna grew up in Finland, hanging out by lakes & collecting berries and mushrooms in the forest.  Before her current position Henna developed a taxonomic key to identify plants from a group that l...