Great Moments In Science
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
The Greatest Moment in Science
23 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Karl was first heard on the wireless in 1981 when he convinced Triple J that a talk about the space shuttle would be good listening because he ...
Why the 'marijuana munchies' make you feel good
16 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We know that the drug called cannabis, or marijuana, increases the appetitecommonly called the 'Marijuana Munchies', and we are finally getting clos...
Insects fly to the light
09 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The ancient Romans thought that insects were attracted to bright light, and then there's the well-known phrase, "drawn like a moth to a flame", so it...
Dreaming a diagnosis with Dr Karl
02 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Some sleepers who act out their dreams are later diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. As Dr Karl explains, it's one of a few slightly odd new diagnos...
Sniffing out disease with Dr Karl
25 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The power of smell can't be understated — our noses don't just sniff out tasty treats, they can also alert us to danger. In this episode of Great...
How tall is time? Well, it's all relative
18 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Atomic clocks are the most precise time-keepers we have.But that doesn't mean they can escape the timey wimey effects of gravity. In this episode of...
The physics of dunking biscuits
11 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Humans have been dunking biscuits for as long as biscuits have existed. But why do we do it? Why are soggy biscuits so darn good?In this archive epi...
Want to see an eclipse without travelling? You might be waiting a while
04 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Thousands of people will descend on the tiny WA town of Exmouth later this month to witness the Moon block out the Sun for a whopping one minute. B...
I do not like green eggs and ham... or potatoes?
28 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Green potatoes — would you like them here or there? Would you like them anywhere?Well as Dr Karl taught us last week, potatoes contain a potentiall...
Potentially poisonous potato no small fry
21 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Given the right (or wrong) circumstances, the humble potato packs a punch. It contains a chemical that could kill if ingested in large amounts. The...
Of Mice and Milk
14 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What you eat or drink just after you finish pumping iron is crucial to laying down muscle. Dr Karl weighs up the best way to bulk up, in this archiv...
Avalanche under the sea
07 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The destructive force of a wall of snow is well known. Major avalanches can not only kill, they can also completely reshape a landscape. But it's...
A slip of the tongue
28 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There are plenty of reasons why a person might poke their tongue out. Sometimes it can be a rude or cute gesture. Maori warriors do it as a sign of ...
Speaking your mind—with AI
21 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In development is an amazing new technology which may, eventually, turn your thoughts into speech. It's being designed to help people who can’t sp...
Athlete deaths—and COVID vaccines
14 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Athletes are not just fit, they also attract a lot of media attention, especially if stories are put around that COVID vaccines are a cause of death ...
Neanderthal DNA kills superbugs
07 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2022 we found that Neanderthal DNA could kill superbugs. Wait, what ... didn't Neanderthals die out? Yes, but their hidden power could make them...
Why hangovers happen, Part 2
31 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Continuing the story about the effects of alcohol we arrive at the “drunchies”—short for the “drunken munchies”. They’re what occur afte...
Why hangovers happen, Part 1
24 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Alcohol in small quantities can make people sociable; but too much of it can mean hangovers and associated consumption of non-nutritional foodstuffs....
How to snap spaghetti: Pt 2
17 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For some snapping spaghetti is sacrilege — but for others it’s science.
How to snap spaghetti: Pt 1
10 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From spaghetti strands to trees to nanotubes — we need to know about the physics of rod-like structures.
Trees have senses too
03 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do trees face an incoming threat if they can't move, see, or hear?
Trees are made from air
27 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Trees are solid and dense. However, they're made from air. Wait, what?
Dark matter
20 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
About 95 per cent of the mass in the universe seems to be missing — what's going on!?
Elastin in our skin and body
13 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our skin is like a personal space suit protecting us from the outside world. Skin is best when you are a child—because of the elastic protein keepi...
The number of humans ever born
06 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An interesting demographics exercise is to add up the number of humans who've existed. This is different from how many people are in a population—...
Why we wear masks—and the N95 is a good one, Part 2
29 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
One might imagine that face masks work because the multiple layers will stop a virus getting through. But no, that's not it—they use a high-tech...
Why we wear masks—and the N95 is a good one, Part 1
22 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Nowadays we're pretty familiar with wearing a face mask to reduce infection rates, and that some masks are better than others.But understanding why ...
Nuclear war would be pointless
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Nuclear weapons carry enormous destructive power in a very small package. A nuclear weapon weighing about a quarter of a ton can release as much en...
Gamma ray bursters, Part 2
08 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The further adventures of some of the most powerful events in our Universe: Gamma Ray Bursts. The biggest one recorded was in October 2022, in a gal...
Gamma ray bursters, Part 1
01 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
First on the list of Most Energetic Events Ever in our universe is The Big Bang. No mean contender for top ranking is the "Gamma Ray Burst" - aka the...
Lifts and their new-fangled destination despatching
25 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The invention of the elevator made city-living possible. It made possible a rapid mixing of cultures and concepts, efficient use of energy—and ...
Dogs 101—your canine companion
18 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The first definite proof of a link between humans and dogs is a 15,000-year-old grave holding a dog, a man and a woman. Intensive breeding of dogs ...
Testes taste test
11 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 2013 the academic journal published an article called, “Taste perception: from the tongue to the testis”. It looked at some of the distinct ta...
Close encounters of the asteroid kind
04 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Earth's defence against the existential threat of extraterrestrial rocks has been bolstered. But is it really all that important for humanity to hav...
Why did Tonga's huge volcanic eruption affect Australia's surf?
27 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It wasn't the first, second or even third issue to come up in the wake of this year's huge undersea volcanic eruption in Tonga. But the eruption, a...
The Solar System Is Weird
20 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For a long time our home solar system was all we knew. But since we’ve gotten a better look at other systems near and far, it has become apparent.....
Doubling down — taking a second look at the mystery of doppelgängers
13 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Karl explains how artificial intelligence detects and distinguishes between look-alikes.
Look twice — why it's worth doing a double-take on your doppelgänger
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The term 'doppelgänger' goes back centuries, but in recent years the internet has made it much easier to find your look-alike
Can a coin falling from a great height be lethal?
30 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There's a precise science behind the impact of small, falling objects. Some can be deadly. Others don't pack much of a punch.
Earth is accelerating, Pt 3
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The final installment of why the Earth is suddenly speeding up—after more than a billion years of slowing down. How do we measure the rate of the...
Earth is accelerating, Pt 2
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Part 2 of the explanation about the accelerating spin of the Earth - which is against the trend of the last one-and-a-half billion years.
Earth is accelerating, Pt 1
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Part 1 about how the Earth is unexpectedly speeding up, and has recorded its shortest day ever – 1.59 milliseconds shorter than the standard 86,400...
Electric battery = car + house
02 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Electricity supply is shifting to renewables, so batteries are important. It might even be cheaper to power your house with the battery from your el...
Adventures in nose-picking
26 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Nose-picking is something that people find disgusting—yet we still do it. And how about the gunk that’s in your nose—is it ok to eat that?
The number of humans between dawn and dusk
19 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Brain hotter than body
12 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The highest standard for measuring body temperature is via a heart sensor—after that, it's from inside a body cavity; and you can do it from inside...
What happens when you get winded?
05 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever been winded? You suddenly lose the ability to do something you've done 15 times each minute of your life. It's one part anatomy, one pa...
Dogs tilt their heads
28 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dogs tend to hang around humans but do they really love us—and what’s with the head tilt? Their affability might be due to two genes known to...
Measles erases immune system memory
21 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Measles is a nasty infection that you don't want to get. It can cause death and, what's more, it can also erase your immune system's memory. Only rel...
Anticipation
14 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Anticipation is a strange experience. It can take you all the way from hope and trust, to anxiety and fear. But there’s a happy balancing point whe...
Drunk animals
07 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Who’d’ve thought that one of the most sober animals is the humble hamster. They love alcohol but it doesn’t affect them. And who’d’ve thou...
The washing of bed sheets
31 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The average recommendation is to wash your bed sheets at least every two weeks. This is because every day you shed a mix of dead skin cells, sweat, g...
Atmospheric rivers, part 2
24 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Very long and very widebut only a few kilometres thick, atmospheric rivers carry water from the tropics towards the poles – and they shift huge amo...
Atmospheric rivers, part 1
17 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A discovery in weather in the 1990s was the Atmospheric River. They've been around for pretty much ever though - one of them bankrupted California i...
Why are whales so big?
10 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Whales are the giants of the marine realm, and here's why they get that way.This episode was originally published in May 2018
Most distant star ever found
03 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The star Earendel came into existence a long time ago, and is now famous as the most distant single star that astronomers have been able to obtain an...
Grasshopper can turn into locust
26 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Koran, the Bible, the Sanskrit Mahabharata, and the Greek Illiad all mention plagues of locusts, and they're seen as carvings in ancient Egyptian...
Ivermectin and COVID—Part 2 of 2
19 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The drug ivermectin is really good for treating worms; unfortunately it was falsely promoted as a COVID cure due to data errors, drug trial anomalies...
Ivermectin and COVID
12 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There are many cases of drugs being repurposed once a new aspect of them is discovered—their new use is often very beneficial. One such drug is ive...
The swing of bowling
05 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ball games were happening 3,500 years ago, and ever since then we’ve bounced and batted in all sorts of fun ways. We're especially interested in th...
Antarctic fiery flush
29 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
At Australia's Antarctic base they do lots of cool science stuff, and aim to create as little waste as possible—including the toilets. There's actu...
Wood for the future
22 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Wood has a loads of potential—from it we can make semi-conductors, batteries, steel, concrete, even plastics. It does need a lot of processing but ...
Sydney smallpox epidemic
15 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We're now quite familiar with terms like 'herd immunity' and 'epidemic', and that when separate groups of people—with separate germs—meet for the...
Worm blobs
08 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When digging the compost pile into the garden, Dr Karl noticed a ball of entangled shape-shifting worms. You might think 'yuck'—but there's a 'wow'...
Black holes bared
01 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The final piece about why the 100 million or so black holes in our Milky Way galaxy are missing.
Black hole buddies
22 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
More on the almost-emptiness that is black holes. Because they're invisible, they're difficult to find—but sometimes get discovered because they gi...
Black hole basics
15 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Even though it sounds totally crazy, astronomers are very confident that black holes exist. Our galazy is really old, it should carry at least 100 mi...
Fartology 101—common scents
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There's really no 'genteel' way to say it, this week we're... passing wind. But even though it's totally natural, it can be embarrassing.
COVID-19—the petering pandemic
01 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It used to be thought that a pathogen (or germ) and its host develop in a 'mutually benign relationship'—this was called the 'Law of Declining Viru...
Power steering kills steering
25 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Power steering on a car involves various rods of steel moving relative to one another. How the rods connect is why mechanics are dealing with an unex...
DJ bats double the Doppler
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Thanks to some fuzzy-looking photos, bat echolocation just got more amazing.This program was originally published on 3 September 2019
Brain freeze
11 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why do some people get headaches from eating ice-cream or drinking something very cold.This program was originally published on 19 February 2019
Bacteria of champions
04 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's not just their ability to run 42 kilometres that separates marathon runners from the rest of us. They've got a secret energy source in their gut...
The end of the internal combustion engine?
28 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Combustion engines are marvels of engineering and power, but will they feature in the cars of the future?This program was originally published on 8 O...
Balloon popping
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When a balloon pops, sometimes it leaves lots of small fragments of rubber, and sometimes it leaves just a couple of larger pieces. What's going on?...
Bird brains - dense, not dumb
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Some birds, especially parrots, songbirds and the entire crow family, are surprisingly intelligent - and not just compared with other birds.
The colour of bird poo
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bird poo is usually coloured white—because of the way birds excrete excess nitrogen. But the poo can sometimes be a different colour—because of t...
What to know about sunscreens
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Australia is very sunny, and because of that it's a skin cancer hotspot. UV light triggers skin cancer but sunscreen blocks UV light—so is it bette...
How the earth is round
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Even in this day and age there are people who think that the earth is flat. The educated people of ancient Greece - about two and a half thousand yea...
More about the body when free diving
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When diving to very great depths the body has mechanisms to cope - on the way down, and then back to the surface.
The body and free diving
09 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Free diving has a current world record of around 214 m straight down—that's greater than the height of 50-storey building. For thousands of years ...
Probiotics and Pre-biotics
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The benefits of natural foods have always been a big deal. And there really is a tiny nugget of truth in the proclamations—but it's been greatly hy...
Longest powered flight
26 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve been flying planes with engines for over a century, so have a guess at the record for the longest duration of powered flight - more than two ...
Infertility and COVID-19 vaccines Part 2
19 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Further intel on a mistruth being spread by social media - that COVID-19 vaccines can cause both male and female infertility. With males, the COVID d...
Infertility and COVID-19 vaccines Part 1
12 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We have several pretty good COVID-19 vaccines. They have enormously reduced the risks against getting sick, or dying from COVID. So why are people sa...
Hidden Figures: the extraordinary women in science
05 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Science is meant to be about data and logic, and yet that doesn't always stop it from being discriminatory. Women in science don't always get the rec...
How equal is an equinox?
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If an equinox is truly equal, it should fall on a day when there's just as much darkness as there is daylight. But that's not always exactly the case...
Cosmic cannibalism
21 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when two stars eat each other to death? And does one get the last laugh in this tale of cosmic cannibalism?
Reaction Faster Than Action
14 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wondered how in Western gunfights, the person who is first to draw their gun is the first to get shot? It turns out that under threat, our muscl...
Metabolism Mysteries
07 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Our long-held beliefs about metabolism - you know that thing supposedly responsible for making you put on weight with age - might be wrong.
Wing Walking: a sport not for the faint-hearted
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For most of us, travelling by plane means boarding and buckling in. But Wing Walkers don't stop there - they venture outside of the plane too.
Our Sixth Sense: the Sick Sense
24 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Can you tell someone is sick just by looking at them? It turns out many of us can.
The Muon Magnetic Anomaly: The Land of the Unknown Unknowns
17 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There are mysteries all around us, but here's one that might just be the next Big Breakthrough of Physics! The Muon Magnetic Anomaly.
Muon Mystery Part 2: The 'Jewel of Physics' becomes a duel with physics
10 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There are mysteries all around us, but here's one that might just be the next Big Breakthrough of Physics! The Muon Magnetic Anomaly.
The Muon Magnetic Anomaly: A Quantum Mystery!
03 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There are mysteries all around us, but here's one that might just be the next Big Breakthrough of Physics! The Muon Magnetic Anomaly.
The Dirt On Food
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Is it true that Big Agriculture has totally ruined our soil, and used up practically all of its goodness, so there’s barely any nutrition left in o...
Collagen Pt 2: a complex and wonderous protein
20 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There's a lot of claims out there about the benefits of taking collagen supplements. Last week we spoke about the structure of collagen and what it d...
Collagen Pt 1: can you really eat or drink your way to smoother skin?
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
One thing that we are quite confident about is that collagen is part-and-parcel of having healthy and glowing skin. But what about the claim that if ...
What happens when a black hole eats a neutron star?
06 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Astronomers have measured something amazing – a black hole eating a neutron star. In fact, they found this happening twice in just 10 days.We have ...
The Mighty Water Bear
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What creature has survived five mass extinctions, can do just as well in space as on earth, withstand temperatures as hot and cold as you can imagine...