The Science Show - Full Program Podcast

Opals, ancient humans and sharks dating back 465 million years. This week we see how today’s world has been shaped from the distant past.

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) do much more than fill whales' bellies. These tiny crustaceans also play a huge role in Earth's carbon cycle. They sequester around 40 million tonnes of carbon each year, mostly in their poo — that's the equivalent of taking 35 million cars off the road. Yet there's plenty we don't know about these thumb-sized critters. Now a new study has revealed what they get...

Opalised fossils previously overlooked at the Australian Museum have overturned our understanding of the origin of mammals with the emergence of a whole new age of mammals: The Age of Monotremes.

Robert F Kennedy Jr is tipped to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services. Over the years, RFK Jr has repeatedly pushed the claim that childhood vaccines cause autism spectrum disorder — a theory that's been well and truly debunked. So where did this idea come from? What's bowel disease got to do with it? And what might the US expect with an anti-vaxxer at the helm of health and human s...

A remote community in the western Pacific is working with scientists to battle the effects of invasive species, a leaking WW2 oil tanker and climate change.

Strewn throughout the sands of an island in the Great Barrier Reef, shards of pottery lay for thousands of years before an archaeologist quite literally stumbled across them 20 years ago. As more pieces were lifted from the sand, a question was also raised: Who shaped and fired these clay pots? We also get to the bottom of a strange phenomenon that had the earth ringing like a bell for nine days -...

Hollywood promoted her as the most beautiful woman in the world. But Hedy Lamarr was more than good looks. She invented and patented a new form of communication which is used widely today and even allows mobile phones to work.

Do you get texts telling you there’s an unclaimed parcel waiting for you at the post office? Turns out scammers can find out if we’re expecting something in the post and time a scam text to coincide with our online purchases -- and it could all be completely legal. And while 2024 saw advances in artificial intelligence, they didn’t seem to wow us like they did in 2023. Are we simply harder to impr...

CRISPR is the most powerful means of gene editing ever developed. It led to Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier being awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2020. Jennifer Doudna speaks with Merlin Crossley about CRISPR, its capability, and the ethical questions which arise.

Up with the sparrows or hanging with the night owls: we humans like to put ourselves into one of two camps. But when it comes to native animals, this idea of either being awake during the day or at night just doesn’t hold up. And while cane toads have already traversed most of northern Australia, there is an ambitious project to stop the pests from infiltrating the Pilbara -- but time is running o...

It might be the largest telescope humans will ever build. Jonathan Webb visits the site in Chile’s high dry Atacama Desert.

Once considered a problem for high-income countries, being overweight is now on the rise in low- and middle-income parts of the world. At least 2.5 billion adults are now overweight or obese.  What’s causing this collective weight gain? And if 2023 was the year of hype about weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, 2024 felt like the year of acceptance. We find out why weight-loss drugs are here to stay. T...

Paul Davies retraces one of the great engineering achievements of the 19th century – the construction of a telegraph wire from the UK to Australia.

More than 30 years ago, astronomers came up with the bold idea to build the world’s biggest radio telescopes. One is now taking shape in the Western Australian outback, where scientists and engineers are installing more than 130,000 Christmas-tree-shaped antennas onto the red earth. And those stunning auroras over the past year? There’s a good chance we’ll see more colourful displays in 2025. All...

Bianca Nogrady traces the scientific journey of astronomer and Prime Minister’s Science Prize winner Matthew Bailes.

A signal that stumped seismologists for a year has finally been identified. And an author takes us to a distant location.

Momelotinib, a drug to help treat myelofibrosis has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, a rare achievement for an all-Australian team.

Opalised fossils previously overlooked at the Australian Museum have overturned our understanding of the origin of mammals with the emergence of a whole new age of mammals: The Age of Monotremes.

Platypuses in NSW are carrying PFAS chemicals many times over accepted levels indicate widespread contamination

Gay behaviour has been observed amongst at least 1,500 animal species.

Tianyi Ma at RMIT Melbourne has won the Prime Minister’s Physical Science Prize for his work producing cheaper hydrogen and using captured carbon dioxide for the green production of basic chemicals.

Tim Mendham tells us about Alfred Russel Wallace who worked with Darwin establishing theories of evolution and natural selection but who is barely known.

Bryde’s whale seen year-round in Australian east coast waters and reports from the British Science Festival.

The Science Show gives Australians unique insights into the latest scientific research and debate.

This week we look at some brilliant figures in science who after being allowed to fade from memory are now at last being recognised.