The Science Show

Lab Notes: How Ozempic stops food cravings

24 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A weekly injection that stops that hankering for hot chips and donuts?Many people on Ozempic and similar medications report this phenomenon, saying t...

Celebrating Charles Todd and the overland telegraph

21 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The overland telegraph connecting Australia to the world was completed just over 150 years ago. It was built due to the dedication of a public servan...

Lab Notes: The tiny beetle ravaging Perth's trees

17 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's the size of a sesame seed, but it could cause unfathomable destruction to Australia's forests and urban canopy.A beetle called the polyphagous s...

Professor Roger Short, reproductive biologist

14 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Roger Short (1930-2021) discusses influences in his early life, and some of his research achievements including melatonin as a controller of circadia...

Lab Notes: What makes Sydney's cockies so clever?

10 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

First they learnt how to flip open wheelie bin lids. Now they're using water fountains.Masters of the urban landscape, sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cac...

Hang on – we’re about to enter a wormhole!

07 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Get ready for gravitons, dark photons and transition states. Kathryn Zurek takes us on a tour of the bewildering world of quantum physics.

Lab Notes: How microscopic algae can devastate ocean life

03 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A couple of months ago, a killer started mobilising off the South Australian shore — one that would wipe out marine life, make surfers feel sick, a...

Black white and green

31 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

People have been in the Australian wilderness for generations. But can people be considered part of the natural landscape or will they always have an...

Lab Notes: AI that outperforms humans is coming

27 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you were impressed by generative AI such as ChatGPT, then artificial general intelligence or AGI promises to really knock your socks off.Over the ...

Mary Somerville - Brilliant polymath, scientific genius triumphed against the odds

24 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

She could only read and write from age 10. She reared children and had a first unsupportive husband. But Mary Somerville was able to correct the work...

Lab Notes: Why a metre is a metre long

20 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The next time you pick up a bag of spuds from the supermarket or fill up the car with petrol, you can thank the Treaty of the Metre for the metric sy...

Evidence of oldest reptiles found in Victoria

17 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Amateur fossil hunters make a major discovery. And Marilyn Renfree describes the sophisticated reproduction of marsupials.

Lab Notes: The plight of the southern right whales

13 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) were named by whalers because their high oil content made them the "right" ones to kill.In the decades si...

Aging halted in fruit flies. How about humans?

10 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

David Walker at UCLA says he can halt aging in fruit flies. Can the same concepts be applied to humans? And two tertiary students and an artist descr...

Lab Notes: Why one man let deadly snakes bite him 200 times

06 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Cobras, taipans, black mambas — Tim Friede's been intentionally bitten more than 200 times by some of the most venomous snakes on Earth.And he surv...

A happy 99th birthday to a friend of The Science Show

03 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Mansi Kasliwal describes how she detects supernovae – the massive stellar explosions where elements are formed. We learn how dung beetles saved th...

Lab Notes: Where's my needle-free vaccine?

29 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hate getting needles? You're in good company — one in five people in Australia have needle fear.

The wonder of sharks surviving for 500 million years

26 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sharks have survived 500 million years while mass extinctions have wiped out other species. Now, sharks are under threat.

Lab Notes: Why did NASA spend a billion bucks on Lucy?

22 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Somewhere out past Mars in the early hours of Easter Monday, a space probe called Lucy whizzed by an asteroid named Donaldjohanson.Lucy then sent bac...

The power of palaeontology

19 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Palaeontology helps reveal why some animals are in desperate need of help while others thrive.

Lab Notes: Why sprinting sensation Gout Gout is so fast

15 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Gout Gout is fast becoming the face of Australian athletics, regularly clocking blisteringly quick times over 100- and 200-metre sprints.And he's onl...

New findings show how genetic mutations drive autoimmunity.

12 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A protein in the immune system, DECTIN-1 - primarily responsible for defending the body against fungal infections, has been found to control the seve...

Lab Notes: How to decommission a nuclear power plant

08 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We've been hearing a lot about a certain proposal to get nuclear power up and running in Australia, but little's been said about what happens when pl...

A new approach for democracy, tracing ancient dead stars and does the soil have a biome?

05 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Soils are too often neglected but caring for them brings many benefits for plant nutrition, human health and a boost for the farm economy.

Lab Notes: Should we be putting pig parts in people?

01 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hearts, kidneys and now livers — over the past couple of years, surgeons have taken all these from gene-edited pigs and put them in people.

Net zero carbon emissions – a review of progress

29 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Nick Rowley reviews out progress towards net zero carbon emissions, Jared Diamond proposes mining the sea floor, and California’s legacy of Albert ...

Lab Notes: Why have Saturn's rings 'vanished'?

25 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As far as planets go, they don't get much more iconic than Saturn. A huge golden ball encircled by gigantic rings.  But those distinctive rings —...

Landscape and islands

22 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Lord Howe Island may appear an island paradise, but its ecology has been under intense pressure from invasive species such as rats and pigs. Now bird...

Lab Notes: The extreme conditions F1 drivers face in a race

18 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

They might be the epitome of cool, but Formula 1 race car drivers can get hot — really hot.An F1 cockpit can heat up to 60 degrees Celsius, and thi...

Your exposome, Kavli awards and more improbable research

15 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

80% of diseases are impacted by environment or lifestyle described as your exposome.  Thomas Hartung expects information from studying the exposome ...

Lab Notes: 1 in 3 women get this infection. To cure it, treat men

11 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For women who get bacterial vaginosis or BV, a common condition that can cause a fishy-smelling discharge, many will get it again (and again).Why som...

A crisis, an opera, and one of the greatest photos in history - The AAAS rides again.

08 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

America’s top research institutions face an uncertain future.

Lab Notes: How Ozempic stops food cravings

04 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A weekly injection that stops that hankering for hot chips and donuts?Many people on Ozempic and similar medications report this phenomenon, saying t...

Naomi Oreskes The Big Myth and a new theory for the origin of black holes

01 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Naomi Oreskes talks about Donald Trump and her latest book The Big Myth ahead of her visit to Australia in early March.

Lab Notes: Are we on the brink of another pandemic?

25 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The H5N1 strain of avian influenza is currently ripping through the US, infecting wild animals, livestock and people. One person has died, and around...

Scope for all as some cities leap ahead with green initiatives

22 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

San Antonio Texas has restored the San Antonio River encouraging plants and animals back to the city.

Lab Notes: What history can teach us about ‘city-killer’ asteroids

18 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

An asteroid dubbed 2024 YR4 is causing a stir among the space community and a frenzy in the media. It currently has a 2.3 per cent chance of crashing...

Vale Felicia Huppert

15 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Vale the Professor of Happiness Felicia Huppert

Lab Notes: Varroa is here but honey bees strike back

11 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Varroa is the parasite responsible for destroying bee colonies all around the world and is regarded as "the greatest biological threat to Australia's...

The wonder of Australia’s deserts

08 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Unlike other deserts, Australian deserts experience occasional high rainfall. It supports a unique ecology.

Lab Notes: Why the Australian sun has a real sting to it

04 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Australia's summer UV levels are high enough to cause sunburn in as little as 11 minutes.Yet the summer sun in the Northern Hemisphere rarely feels t...

Old rocks, old humans, old sharks, and links to today

01 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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.

Lab Notes: More than whale food — krill are climate heroes

28 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Science Show Summer - Australia’s “Indiana Jones” and the lost Age of Mammals

25 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Opalised fossils previously overlooked at the Australian Museum have overturned our understanding of the origin of mammals with the emergence of a wh...

Lab Notes: A debunked vaccine theory rears its ugly head — again

21 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 chi...

Micronesian community and scientists unite to protect remote Ulithi atoll

18 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Science Extra: Echoes of a tsunami

14 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Strewn throughout the sands of an island in the Great Barrier Reef, shards of pottery lay for thousands of years before an archaeologist quite litera...

Science Show Summer - Hedy Lamarr - actress, inventor, and amateur engineer

11 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 co...

Science Extra: The anatomy of a scam

07 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 so...

Science Show Summer - Merlin meets Dr Crispy

04 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

CRISPR is the most powerful means of gene editing ever developed. It led to Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier being awarded the Nobel Prize ...

Science Extra: March of the cane toads

31 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Science Show Summer - The Extremely Large Telescope

28 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Science Extra: Weight of the world

24 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 b...

Science Show Summer - A wire around the world

21 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Science Extra: More auroras in store?

17 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Science books for Christmas and a portrait of Matthew Bailes

14 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Mysterious signal and a mysterious place

07 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

PM’s Innovation Prize for childhood cancer drug

30 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Australia’s “Indiana Jones” and the lost Age of Mammals

23 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Opalised fossils previously overlooked at the Australian Museum have overturned our understanding of the origin of mammals with the emergence of a wh...

Prime Minister’s teaching prizes, platypuses with high PFAS and house bricks from sugar cane waste

16 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Big astronomical flash imminent and gay behaviour across the animal world

09 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Cheaper hydrogen, marine invertebrates and European wasps threaten biodiversity

02 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tianyi Ma at RMIT Melbourne has won the Prime Minister’s Physical Science Prize for his work producing cheaper hydrogen and using captured carbon d...

Stephen Hawking’s voice – and what he left behind!

26 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Bryde’s whales prolific in east coast Australian waters

19 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Nobel Prizes, Prime Minister's Science Prizes, unis under pressure, and remembering Mawson

12 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Surprise Hon Doc for Rose, but why did we forget Louise?

05 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Dark energy – not necessarily constant

28 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After more than twenty years of observations, Tamara Davis has revealed that dark energy, the mysterious force driving the expansion of the universe ...

The Extremely Large Telescope - under construction in Chile’s Atacama Desert.

21 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

The Huxleys – a scientific dynasty

14 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Fidler speaks to author Alison Bashford who has written about a hundred years of modern science and culture, told through a one family histor...

Seabirds have stomachs full of plastic

07 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Plastic is being eaten by seabirds. Some migratory birds can no longer fly. And micro amounts are entering the cells of other creatures. Including us...

The Science Show celebrates 49 years

31 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The first Science Show was broadcast on 30th August 1975. This week’s program takes a suitably cosmic view of Australia, its origins and its future...

New chemical reaction promises to slash price of some pharmaceuticals

24 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A new chemical reaction eliminates 6 steps in the manufacture of some drugs promising big savings of time and money.

Merlin meets Dr Crispy

17 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

CRISPR is the most powerful means of gene editing ever developed. It led to Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier being awarded the Nobel Prize ...

Fire destroying the Amazon, northern hemisphere forests and a tropical island suffers drought.

10 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Drought in the Amazon has left the forest tinder dry and now burning out of control. Wilderness areas and national parks across north America are on ...

Biodiversity crucial on land, in rivers and in our guts

03 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We go to the Scottish Highlands where biodiversity is being reintroduced to cleared fields, and a comic book explores biodiversity in our guts where ...

One billion people at risk as temperatures rise, sex genes, Shackleton VR and tennis

27 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As temperatures rise, it is estimated one billion people will be displaced from their land.

Stanford University: the great university with a dark side

20 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia are to be combined as one in 2026. So how do you start a new university? You could...

The deep dark ocean – Exploring the abyss

13 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The ocean depths may be out of sight, but they play an important role in climate and the cycling of nutrients.

The world's largest underground lab and the hunt for dark matter

06 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From deep within a mountain in Italy, scientists hope increasingly sophisticated experiments are closing in on the hidden matter of the universe.

The hunt for a crucial update to Einstein's revolutionary theories

29 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For the next big steps in physics many believe it's time for a shake-up of the field's core theories - including those proposed by Einstein himself.

The lab listening to Earth's mysterious seismic rumbles

22 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Deep in an abandoned silver mine in Germany, seismometres monitor the song of the Earth - including its most mysterious rumbles.

Molecules with their own fingerprint

15 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Just as DNA is unique, it turns out other molecules may also be unique. 

Paul Ehrlich - memoir traces science, activism and concerns for the planet

08 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Ehrlich has released a memoir. It covers his decades of science and activism. There have been some improvements. But mostly his concerns are eve...

Age of Monotremes including three new genera

01 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I00 million years ago, there were more species of monotreme, the egg-laying mammals such as today’s platypus and echidna at Lightning Ridge in nort...

Are our tall forests really being saved?

25 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

David Lindenmayer reveals the ugly truth and what’s really happening in our magnificent tall forests.

Big savings possible for the world’s ships

18 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ships which hitch a ride on small ocean currents could make big savings on fuel and reduce emissions.

Charcoal reveals secrets of first humans in Australia

11 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There are no bone fragments or similar clues. But the structure of cells of ancient plants captured in charcoal is revealing the diet and lifestyle o...

Getting serious about energy storage. But is it too late as wildfires rage?

04 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Large scale energy storage will allow users to rely on renewable energy alone. The US Department of Energy is funding research to make it a happen.

Scientists protest in Adelaide

27 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Scientists fear research will be hit in proposed changes at the South Australian Museum

Two inspirational books and new powers for Parkes dish

20 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Two inspirational books for younger readers show an intruiging world and the thrill of chasing a dream.

The science of friendship

13 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Friendship led ancient humans to cooperate and gain an edge over predators. Compassion is seen among 25 primates and other animals. Today we explore ...

The amazing world of alpine plants

05 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today we meet the people at the forefront of studying alpine plants - including how trees and plants survive in deep snow and ferocious winds. We vi...

Meet the man who changed the world forever

29 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sir Mark Oliphant of Adelaide was the main person missing from the film Oppenheimer. It was Sir Mark who carried the letter from European scientists...

Big things

23 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Iter Tokamak nuclear fusion reactor is due for completion next year. In the US, a smaller cheaper reactor is also gearing up.

US National Center for Atmospheric Research

16 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Join Robyn Williams and meet scientists at one of the world’s centres for the study of climate and weather.

Microorganisms support all life, and plastic in creatures’ guts

09 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Microplastics are everywhere and impacting ecosystems.

Supernova!

02 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A supernova has been observed in great detail just 3.5 light years from Earth… and that’s close!

The Science Show

24 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

They’ve lived since the time of the dinosaurs. But the outlook is grim for Tasmania’s Maugean skate.

How Chinese science was revealed to the world

17 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A great range of scientific and technical achievements were made in China hundreds of years earlier than in Europe.

Improved photosynthesis may increase crop yields

10 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

More efficient molecules inside plants could bring a big increase in crop yields.