Science Friction

The second kind of impossible: Part 2 — the wild adventure (REPEAT)

22 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Lace up your boots. Get down and dirty. We're hunting the impossible.

The second kind of impossible: Part 1 — a maverick mind (REPEAT)

15 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Nature's rules are made to be broken. Paul Steinhardt just had to find a way.

Should Big Pharma profit from secret COVID-19 vaccine deals? Moderna responds

08 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Big Pharma has helped get life-saving COVID-19 vaccines into billions of arms. The profits are pouring in, but at what cost?

Feeling a bit hopeless? Primatologist Dr Jane Goodall is here for YOU

01 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Goodall wants you to gird your loins. What does that mean? Well ... for hope, push PLAY.

Scratch that itch! She of flamenco flair and molecular dances

24 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

By day, she's making molecules dance. By night, this vintage fashionista has a different dance on her mind.

AI ethics leader Timnit Gebru is changing it up after Google fired her

17 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Timnit Gebru was fired by Google in a cloud of controversy, now she's making waves beyond Big Tech's pervasive influence

World-first pig to human heart transplant. What happened?

10 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

You need a new organ. But there aren't enough to go around. Would you accept one from a pig? Hearts, kidneys, corneas ... xenotransplantation is here...

Scratch that itch! Meet the Sneaky Artist

03 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Indian-born engineer Nishant Jain flew in the face of expectations to radically reinvent himself as the Sneaky Artist

Escaping Russia's new Iron Curtain - superstar science podcaster Ilya Kolmanovsky

27 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ilya Kolmanovsky is a popular science superstar in Russia. Like so many anti-Putin activists, he’s just made the most wrenching decision of his ...

Foodies, why you should give a f*** about farming!

20 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Why are we so weirdly paradoxical about food? Food, farms, revolution with two women closer to it all than most.

The gun dealer’s defence — on nukes, fossil fuels, and Australia

13 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

If you sell the gun but don’t pull the trigger ... are you to blame?  

Breaking Buruli, part two

06 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After 25 years of painstaking research, could scientists be getting close to unlocking the mysteries of Buruli ulcer?

Breaking Buruli, part one

27 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When people from a small beach town on Phillip Island started developing severe skin lesions, scientists were left scratching their heads as to what ...

Masha and Dasha

20 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Despite being very different people, sisters Masha and Dasha spent their entire lives conjoined.

Twinning!

13 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A pair of twin girls is born in the late 1980s and their mother is told a series of ‘facts’ about them. But just how much of what she was told is...

Does Omicron spell the end of Covid-zero in China?

06 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Covid-zero was once a dream pursued by many countries, but the arrival of highly transmissible variants has brought an end to such aspirations for mo...

Science FAIL! A perilous story of why it's good to do (REPEAT)

30 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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

The Anthropocene radical: the scientist who saved the world (REPEAT)

23 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Few scientists can say they saved the planet. Paul Crutzen did. Legit. (RN Summer highlight)

Your right to know the universe! Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's disordered cosmos and Particles for Justice (REPEAT)

16 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dark Matter sleuth. #BlackinSTEM pioneer. Particles for Justice co-founder. This incredible physicist will change your sense of the universe and your...

Natasha tries taxidermy: the wild, wonderful world of the museum makers (REPEAT)

09 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Pass the scalpel - taxidermy is on the menu. (RN Summer highlight)

I grew up in a sect — top scientist's candid story of an Orange People childhood (REPEAT)

02 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This scientist's childhood in a cult was... wild. The light and dark of the path to enlightenment. (RN Summer highlight)

From wild idea to COVID vaccine – meet the mRNA pioneer who could win a Nobel (REPEAT)

26 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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

Science meets high vaudeville - who will win our 2021 quiz?

19 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Two teams. Scientists and science journalists. And your quiz mistress with a whip. Let the mischief begin.

Nature Fast, Nature Slow - ballistic mushrooms, moss piglets and more!

12 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Blink and you'll miss it. Eyes wide open and you can't comprehend it. Life beats to all kinds of pulses.

The Lost Family - how DNA testing is upending our lives

05 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Is the era of family secrets over? Is love deeper than DNA?

Two guys. Two kayaks. And 2500km to make the Murray River sing

28 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

If a controversial river could speak, what would it say? Climb aboard and be prepared to get wet.

Get me out of here! My life in medical research is on life support

21 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Frank, fearless stories of personal reinvention and career resuscitation. Are we giving young scientists false hope?

Carbon capture and storage – climate saviour or fantasy?

14 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Australian government wants to use technology to keep the fossil fuel dream alive. But will it work?

Net Zero by 2050 - is the Earth at the negotiating table at COP26?

07 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Crunch time at the COP26 Climate conference. Is Net Zero by 2050 a distraction? ABC Environment reporter Nick Kilvert joins Natasha and guests.

Sex cells! Are there just two biological sexes? [Part 2 of 2]

31 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sex is complicated. Oh yes indeed.

Simón(e) Sun - I knew I was trans because of science [Part 1]

24 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Science is way personal.

In deep: why mining is heading to the seafloor

17 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Is the key to a battery-powered future lying 4000 metres below the sea surface?

What's up Doc? Elmer Fudd meets biological warfare

10 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

12 rabbits that turned a nation crazy. Cue: a plague, the founder of immunology, a famous actress, and ten million dollars.

My Afghanistan escape - just a body, not a soul, or a heart (Part 2)

03 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A life and death mission. An extraordinary relationship.

What happens when your students join the Taliban? Afghan scientists in hiding (Part 1)

26 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

They were pursuing their dreams, now they're running for their lives. Afghan scholars speak. Will the world listen?

We've got cosmic vertigo!

19 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This deadly pair of scientists are smashing ... barriers.

The art of more - did maths create civilisation?

12 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

One, two, three ... and then ... more. When humans learnt how to count to more, then came mayhem and marvels. Bestselling science writer Dr Michael ...

The virus busters: how do you kill something that's not really alive?

05 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Raymond Schinazi has been fighting viruses his whole career, with some mighty wins against these molecular mischief makers. Can we learn from the pas...

What if Picasso's canvas was smaller than a human hair? (REPEAT)

29 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Two artists making the invisible visible. What does making nanoart reveal about us — gargantuans in a world of atoms? (REPEAT)

Science Week debate: You can't handle the (scientific) truth!

22 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Who will win? Spin and hope or raw, sobering reality?

Hunting the ghosts of pandemics past

15 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Two baby teeth and a whole world of secrets. Meet the DNA detectives hunting for the ghosts of pandemics past.

When fish are kin: Max Liboiron's anti-colonial science

08 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the windy, wet, wild world of the subarctic, science is done differently.

The long COVID doctors (Part 2 of 2)

01 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Don't mess with this virus. Extraordinary stories from the 3 UK doctors we first met a year ago, all living with 'long COVID'

The long COVID doctors (Part 1 of 2)

25 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Three UK doctors share their moving, eviscerating personal experiences of 'long COVID' [REPEAT]. And next episode, how are they nearly a year on as E...

The art and science of Deep Time travel

18 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Deep in the dirt are stories that need to be told ... by artists, scientists... and those damn (wonderful) ants.

Pain-free meat — is it possible?

11 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ouch, that hurts. But who will listen? Down on the farm, understanding the biology of pain could make a real difference.

Medicine listen up! Birthing on country makes the land shake

04 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Yolgnu women want to make the the land shake again. Why?

The second kind of impossible: Part 2 — the wild adventure

27 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Lace up your boots. Get down and dirty. We're hunting the impossible.

The second kind of impossible: Part 1 — a maverick mind

20 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Nature's rules are made to be broken. Paul Steinhardt just had to find a way.

14-day rule on human embryo research – why do scientists want it lifted?

13 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Research on human embryos has been very constrained. Will that change?

The wattle war

06 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Flower power, and the mighty battle that divided nations.

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

30 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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

The Anthropocene radical: the scientist who saved the world

09 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dark Matter sleuth. #BlackinSTEM pioneer. Particles for Justice co-founder. This incredible physicist will change your sense of the universe and your...

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

25 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Pass the scalpel - taxidermy is on the menu.

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

11 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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

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

28 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 sh...

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

21 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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

Carlo Rovelli: intellectual free spirit, quantum physicist, bestselling author

07 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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

DEMONS: be scared, very scared*

14 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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) ...

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

24 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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. ...

School gate racism, education reclaimed, and family found (Part 2)

17 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Three generations with powerful, personal stories of family lost and found, racism, and the right to education reclaimed. This is not your average Sc...

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

10 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 co...

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

03 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 highlig...

Mike's Miracle at Lightning Ridge

20 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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.

Two thousand flamingos & a war-torn island: controversy over Australian mine proposal

13 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A million migratory birds, a 26 year civil war...what's an Australian mining company got its eye on?

Phallacy! Life lessons from the animal penis

06 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Decorated, detachable, curly, spiked, thorny, hooks, claspers, valves, flaps, spirals...is it time to reconsider what makes a penis...a penis?

The BIG 20 Science Friction quiz! Wow or what!? moments in 21C science

29 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Two teams...science journalists...scientists...and twenty big years of big science to bone up on. Let the hilarity begin. Ready, set, go!

How do you solve a problem like Dark Matter? With poet Alicia Sometimes

22 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It's the cosmic glue that tethers us together in the universe, ever-present but invisible. Poet Alicia Sometimes meets Australia's dark matter detec...

Machines as kin or the new colonisers? Indigenous tech revolutionaries rethinking A.I

15 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

If we made machines our kin, our siblings, our children...would we think differently about their design? Why Indigenous thinking can change A.I...

Hacks turned quacks!

08 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Two seasoned journalists pick up stethoscopes to become doctors...in the middle of a global pandemic. And a punk band in the making.

Arson, evil and getting inside humanity's dark side: Dr Julia Shaw and Chloe Hooper

01 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How do you climb inside the mind of someone who commits an evil act?

Censorship, political interference, and COVID-19 chaos - should scientists take a position in USA Election?

25 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The showdown between Donald Trump and Joe Biden is on. Why are many scientists angry, frightened, and galvanised?

These doctors got COVID-19, now they're suffering the serious, mysterious symptoms of 'long COVID'

18 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The long haul of 'long COVID'. Are we facing another global pandemic...this one silent, confusing, and harder to understand?

The wild woman of Brooklyn, the Peabody bones, and science of tree climbing!

11 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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

Lucy's Story - the chimp, the poet, and the interspecies experiment that went weird

04 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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

Click-Sick: Part 3 Can 'wellness' make you...sick?

27 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When Jade was 21, she was charmed by a wellness influencer. Then she got a big shock.

Click-Sick: Part 2 The hidden political forces pushing pandemic conspiracies

20 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Kathrin's friends have been sending her a range of wild theories about the virus.

Click-Sick: Part 1 Why sharing isn't always caring. On the trail of COVID-19 misinformation

13 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Two families, two posts...and two stories of how seemingly benign shares on social media can turn bad.

The rise of vaccine nationalism – should we be worried?

06 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A vaccine arms race is on to get us out of this pandemic, but could we all lose out if we don’t do things differently?

Introducing... Patient Zero

01 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Even big diseases start small...PATIENT ZERO is a new podcast that tells the stories of disease outbreaks: where they begin, why they happen and how ...

This river is a Person – Maori knowing meets Western science

30 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When Whanganui River in New Zealand was declared a legal person, Maori scientists knew exactly what they meant. But how do you unearth the science hi...

The In/justices of A.I

23 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The algorithms are out to get you and to protect you. Meet the directors of two films that will shock, surprise and move you, Welcome to Chechnya and...

The Leadership film - Do Women Scientists Lead Differently?

16 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Seventy-six women and a boatload of spin and soul-searching on the way to Antarctica. What happened next?

Was Einstein's wife the hidden contributor on his most famous works? Part 2 (Repeat)

09 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How much did Einstein’s first wife contribute to his work? Mileva's supporters and skeptics go head to head over the evidence in Part 2 of this Sci...

Who was Einstein’s first wife? Part 1 - Debate heats up over Mileva's role in Albert’s science (Repeat)

02 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Who was Einstein’s first wife? Muse or collaborator? The plot thickens. The battlelines are drawn.

Medical misinformation, COVID-19, Big Data and Black Lives Matter

26 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

COVID-19 is a pandemic of medical misinformation. But could it also provoke a revolt in ivory tower culture? Two scientists talk big data, big vision...

Climate in the Courtroom Part 3: Big Energy, big typhoons and a big fight for justice

19 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Artist A.G. survived. Now the fossil fuel industry is in the cross-hairs. Correction: The President of the Philippines in 2013 was Benigno Aquino III...

Climate in the Courtroom Part 2: A fossil fuel company is sued. Now it speaks.

12 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A giant energy company is being sued. Now it speaks. So does the scientist who's become a thorn in their side over fossil fuels. Is the courtroom the...

Climate in the Courtroom Part 1: Why is this Peruvian farmer suing Germany's largest power company RWE?

05 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this playground of adventurers and mountain home to Peruvians, they don't know if or when it will happen. But they want fossil fuel companies to p...