Ockham's Razor Podcasts

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Thoughtful people have their say, without interruption, on important science-related topics. Primary Format : Science Language : Unknown Also Listed as: City : Unknown State/Province : Unknown Country : Australia Region : OC User Tags: User Votes: RSS Feed Website People found this Podcast Searching for: View this Podcast on a Google Map. Podcast iTunes Link Text Only listing of Ockham's Razor Podcasts Methings.com listings of Ockham's Razor Podcasts If you like this podcast, you might also like:

Problems with desalination plants According to journalist Ken Davidson from Melbourne, desalination plants are not only outrageously expensive, but also threaten the environment and our health. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Measures of leadership: Reflections on Robert S. McNamara Professor Mark Dodgson from the University of Queensland Business School, talks about the career and personality of Robert Strange McNamara, who also served as US Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nuclear power - exploding the myths Terry Krieg, a retired school teacher from Port Lincoln in South Australia, looks at some of the myths surrounding the use of nuclear power. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dirt Jill, Duchess of Hamilton, wonders why dirt has such a bad name and the word is often used in a derogatory and negative way. In this talk she puts in the good word for dirt. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website There's a quiet revolution going on in the social sciences Professor Ian Wilkinson from the University of Sydney Business School talks about building models, using a computer, to manage future possible events in science and the social sciences. The co-author of this talk is Dr David Earnest from the Old Dominion University in Virginia, USA. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ockham's Razor 18 December 2011 Dr John Kirk, a former CSIRO plant biochemist from New South Wales, asks what it is that science asks us to believe about the nature of physical and biological reality. Are there some beliefs which science tells us we should abandon? And is science, with its discoveries and resulting technologies, and its particular way of looking at the world, really - as some environmentalists seem to believe - the ultimate source of the environmental problems of the planet? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website I am a mutant Dr Alan Baxter from the Comparative Genomics Centre at James Cook University in Townsville, Northern Queensland, discusses his life as a mutant. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Science and communication in the information age Denis Cryle, who is Professor in Communication and Media Studies at Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, tells us how the technology of communication has changed over the years. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Apology for duplicate podcasts We have just upgraded to a new website, and the move has caused some podcast subscribers to download duplicate mp3s. We apologise for this issue and hope you continue to listen to Radio National podcasts in the future. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-11-27 A question of collaboration Sydney author Peter Macinnis is fascinated by the 19th century. Today he discusses the science and technology predictions of that era and tells us his vision of the future. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-11-20 Lathered up about CO2 Howard Morrison is an energy consultant, a hands on adviser to architects and engineers and today he joins the debate about how we can reduce our CO2 emissions. He also questions the efficiency of our energy system. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-11-13 Epileptic seizures - turmoil hidden from view Melbourne author Suzanne Yanko has written a self-published book called Epilepsy in the Family. She talks about different types of epilepsy, in particular, complex-partial seizures and how they often go unrecognised, despite the strange sensations experienced by those who have temporal lobe epilepsy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-11-06 Mulling up Cannabis and psychosis Psychiatrist Dr Matthew Large, Clinical Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales, responds to an earlier Ockham's Razor talk by author Dr John Jiggens, which was broadcast on 28 August, 2011. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-10-30 Ignoring gen Y while the world sleepwalks to catastrophe Fiona Heinrichs, who studies business administration at Macquarie University in Sydney, feels that her generation is largely ignored and not given a voice in the media. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-10-23 A scientific view of non-scientific beliefs Science communicator Dr Craig Cormick from Canberra discusses the fact that a large number of people believe in psychic powers, UFOs, magic and similar things. Apparently about 80% of Australians and Americans hold at least one paranormal belief. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-10-16 Heat Dr Jennifer Coopersmith is an Honorary Research Associate at La Trobe University in Bendigo, Victoria. She discusses the various theories that surrounded the mysteries of heat. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-10-09 Significant does not equal important: why we need the new statistics Professor Geoff Cumming from the Statistical Cognition Laboratory at La Trobe University in Melbourne looks at how we interpret statistics. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-10-02 Climate change debate? Pity about the science Barry Jones was Minister for Science in Bob Hawke's government and is a Fellow of all four of Australia's Learned Academies. Today he discusses the development and the debate of climate science over the years. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-09-25 Coal dependence and the renewables paradox Graham Palmer, who is an industrial engineer from Melbourne, discusses our dependence on coal. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-09-18 Not so high speed rail Frank Szanto is a mechanical engineer based in Sydney and has spent a lifetime working on the railways. Today he discusses the history and future of the Australian rail system. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-09-11 Mobile phones and cordless technology - are they safe? Lyn McLean is the Director of EMR Australia and former director of EMR Association of Australia. She is a community representative on several government and industry committees and has lobbied for precautions to protect the community against the harmful effects of electromagnetic radiation. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-09-04 Climate change and Australia's energy future Terry Krieg is a retired geography and geology teacher from Port Lincoln, in South Australia. He suggests that Australia should embrace nuclear power. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-08-28 New drug that maddens victims (Reefer Madness version 2.0) Dr John Jiggens is an author living in Brisbane. He is outraged by the type of media coverage linking marijuana and cannabis to mental illness. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-08-21 All is not quite right in the hallowed halls of academe Former Pro Vice Chancellor at the University of New South Wales, Adrian Lee, believes that universities are too focussed on research rather than teaching. Whilst research productivity increases the prestige of a university, it is critical that teaching excellence should not be ignored. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-08-14 Stroke - the hour that struck Emeritus Professor John Bradshaw from Monash University in Melbourne has been a regular contributor to this program for many years. Today he tells us how his life (and that of his wife Judy) has changed forever after his wife suffered a major stroke during a hiking trip in the Grampians in Victoria. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-08-07 Heart pacemakers Cardiologist Dr John England, who lives and works in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, has been living with a pacemaker for the last 35 years. He has also written a book which tells you everything you need to know about living with a pacemaker. It's called Kickstart. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-07-31 Compulsory imagination David Astle from Melbourne is a crossword maker and today he talks about the art of designing and solving crossword puzzles. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-07-24 Fire and humans Professor of Forest Ecology David Bowman from the University of Tasmania in Hobart, talks about human involvement with fire and its consequences. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-07-17 Adonis and Jesus Christ Today historian Jill, Duchess of Hamilton talks about the connection between Adonis and Jesus Christ and what Adonis has to do with Bethlehem. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-07-10 What's in a name? Dr Kevin Thiele is Curator at the Western Australian Herbarium in Perth and talks about the the naming of plants and flowers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-07-03 Early French influences in Australia Edward Duyker is Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the Australian Catholic University and Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of French Studies at Sydney University. Today he tells us about the French influence in Australia in the beginnings of European settlement. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-06-26 There's more to it than meets the eye: Unconscious perception Emeritus Professor John Bradshaw from Monash University in Melbourne discusses how we are open to suggestion and gives many examples of how our thinking can be influenced without us knowing it. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-06-19 Why Australian students should be travellers Dr John Aaskov from the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology, researches tropical medicine. During his work he spends a large amount of his time in South East Asia and today he tells us the story of Dr Alexandre Yersin, who spent almost his entire working life in Vietnam and who identified the causative agent of the plague. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-06-12 Tents, toilets and tipping points Jo Chandler is a senior writer for The Age in Melbourne. In this talk she tells us about her experiences when she accompanied scientists on field trips in Africa, Antarctica and a rainforest in Queensland's tropics. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-06-05 Deliberative democracy Professor Lyn Carson from the Centre for Citizenship and Public Policy at the University of Western Sydney talks about using deliberative democracy to solve the world's 'wicked problems'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-05-29 The celestial bed Medical historian Dr Jim Leavesley from Margaret River in WA tells us about the life and strange ideas of Dr James Graham, a medical entrepreneur and self-styled sex therapist. In 1773, after returning to England from the US, he embarked on a new career dedicated to marriage and fertility. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-05-22 Grammar and word plays Dallin D. Oaks is a Linguistics Professor at Brigham Young University in Utah, in the US. In this talk he focuses on the use of grammar in humour and advertising. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-05-15 The science and the art of language fieldwork Associate Professor Claire Bowern from the Department of Linguistics at Yale University, talks about the research work of linguists and the importance of field work in that area. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-05-08 Trouble with dentists Today Professor Emeritus John Bradshaw from Monash University talks about ghosts, miracles, religion and he also takes a light-hearted look at certain practical problems in theology. All this was inspired by a visit to a dentist. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-05-01 Man's best friend Social commentator Bettina Arndt has a look at the situation men with erection problems find themselves in when looking for help. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-04-24 The spirit of things Sydney engineer Frank Szanto looks at the influence the 17th century mathematician and philosopher Rene Descartes had on the way we view the world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-04-17 The Titanic disaster and global warming Arthur Marcel lectures at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane and in today's talk he compares the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the Titanic to issues surrounding global warming. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-04-10 War games and wildlife management: a parable of our times Perth forester and historian Roger Underwood looks back to 1989 when, as part of his participation in a wildlife conservation program on Barrow Island,in Western Australia, he had an unexpected encounter with a training exercise conducted by the army's Special Air Service. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-04-03 Parks, zoos and freezers Science writer Melvin Bolton from Yeppoon in Queensland looks at the problem of wildlife conservation and some of the battles that are being lost. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-03-27 Information management in business Robert Hillard is a partner at Deloitte Enterprise Information Management in Melbourne and the author of a book called Information-Driven Business. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-03-20 Half-pay pudding Bernadette Hince is at the ANU in Canberra and today she tackles the subject of waste, particularly food waste. Never before have we tossed so much left over food into our bins instead of finding ways to use it. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-03-13 Climate science and public debate Ian Enting is a Professorial Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems at the University of Melbourne. Both sides of the public debate over global warming effectively claim conspiracies and self-styled skeptics propose that the world's climate scientists are driven by a mix of motives. So, what are the central issues in this debates? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-03-06 Antarctica, Glossopteris and the sexual revolution We all know the story of Robert Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole, but what was the connection between Scott and palaeobotanist Marie Stopes, who later became famous in the arena of birth control and women's sexuality? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-02-27 Eucalypts, with the Duchess of Hamilton. Jill, Duchess of Hamilton, is an enigma, and expert on topics ranging from Napoleon's horse to the desert poets of World War One. And everything in between. Today, she enlightens us about eucalypts. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-02-20 The Kimberley: Australia's Last Great Wilderness Victoria Laurie tells stories from Australia's final wildlife frontier, the Kimberley. Her book on the subject is out now through UWA Press. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-02-13 Earth calling - SOS Dr Reese Halter spent several years studying at the University of Melbourne. He now resides in Los Angeles but has grave concerns about the fate of our world. In 2012 it is expected world population will exceed 7 billion people and how we source energy, feed ourselves, contend with global warming and protect the wild ecosystems will ultimately define the longevity of our species on Earth. And honeybees. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-02-06 Ornithology: A love affair Sue Taylor takes us on a journey of discovery and enlightenment, introducing us to all her feathered friends. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-01-30 Waiter, there's a climate sceptic in my soup! Andrew Herrick, a Melbourne writer, keeps a keen eye on the march of the Melbourne fly, and climate change. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-01-23 The history of species John Wilkins is a philosopher at the University of Sydney. His latest book is called Species - A History of the Idea, published by the University of California Press. Today he talks about how the complex idea of species has evolved over time, yet its meaning is far from resolved. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-01-16 Thoughts on innovation Dr Sarah Pearson from the Australian National University believes that the word 'innovation' is so over-used these days, that it somehow lost its edge. Many things which are called 'innovative' are neither useful or practical. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-01-09 The case of open science The need to share scientific knowledge has never been more urgent. The present global knowledge system is good at generating knowledge, but poor at sharing it. Science communicator and author Julian Cribb talks about the need for better communication of science in society. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-01-02 Is there a new scramble for the arctic? Dr Keith Suter is in the Department of Politics at Macquarie University in Sydney and asks the question if the Arctic is heading for a new era. It has been suggested that global warming will enable greater access to the Arctic's considerable resources, which might change the political complexity of that area. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-12-26 Modelling forests from space Dr Joe Landsberg, former Chief of the CSIRO Division of Forest Research, talks about the importance of forests for our environment. He's written a book with Dr Peter Sands from Tasmania: Physiological Ecology of Forest Production. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-12-19 The birth of modern genetics This year we celebrate 100 years since the beginning of modern genetics. Physiologist Dr Jack Carmody, who is at the University of Sydney, takes us through a fascinating historical journey. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-12-12 The occupational health of academics Professor Yasmin Haskell from the University of Western Australia discusses some of the ailments associated with the sedentary scholarly lifestyle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-12-05 Not your ordinary doctor Medical historian and author Dr Jim Leavesley from Western Australia looks at some of the famous and infamous men who trained as doctors and then went on to do other things. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-11-28 Small can be beautiful when it comes to minerals Victorian veterinarian Dr Peter Carter discusses the importance of minerals, not only in animals and plants, but also in humans. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-11-21 Darwin's shame and other strong emotions Senior Lecturer Tony Webb from the University of Western Sydney discusses Darwin's other less well known book on the expression of emotions in man and animals. This talk focuses on shame and its implications. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-11-14 Earthquakes and their prediction Earth scientist and author Peter James from Dunalley in Tasmania discusses the nature of earthquakes and the ability to predict them. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-11-07 Innovative cities Professor Mark Dodgson, Director of the Technology and Innovation Management Centre at the University of Queensland, has been exploring how innovation might deal with the problems of city living. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-10-31 Jatta Sydney author and illustrator Jenny Hale has written a fantasy novel in which its heroine, 14-year-old Jatta, discovers that she is a werewolf. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-10-24 Energy, the subtle concept Physicist Jennifer Coopersmith from La Trobe University in Bendigo, explains the difficult concept of energy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-10-17 Patentable subject matter Patent Attorney for ResMed,Paul Green, discusses the issue of what's patentable and who should be granted a patent. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-10-10 The spectacular practicalities of Florence Nightingale This year we celebrate the centenary of Florence Nightingale's death and Melbourne author Shirley Shackleton pays tribute to her life's work. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-10-03 Occupational health invention As a young man inventor Michael Gill worked with his father in a lead oxide factory during the holidays, with his face strapped inside a leaking, smelly and claustrophobic mask. This experience led him to invent the Gills Respiratory Protective System. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-09-26 The plague in Brisbane Author of scientific history, Dr Rosaleen Love from Victoria, discovered a report about an outbreak of the plague in Brisbane in 1900/1902 and realised that she knew nothing about this event, so she decided to investigate. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-09-19 Chicken pox or smallpox in the colony at Sydney Cove in April, 1789 It has been suggested that smallpox was deliberately introduced into the colony at Port Jackson in 1789 to kill many Aborigines. However, Dr Jack Carmody from the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Sydney, argues against this belief. He actually thinks that it wasn't smallpox at all, but chicken pox which killed many indigenous people and it wasn't deliberately introduced. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-09-12 Army food - army cooks, from flies to ice sculpture Melbourne author Shirley Videion takes a look at how the Australian army has been fed, starting with World War I to the present. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-09-05 The Mekong - a river under threat Dr Milton Osborne, Visiting Fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, discusses the detrimental effects of further dams being built on the mainstream of the Mekong River. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-08-29 Why 24 April matters: the story of the Armenian genocide Clinical Associate Professor Robert Kaplan is a forensic psychiatrist and historian from the University of Wollongong. Today he tells the story of the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians by the Turks, which is commemorated on April 24. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-08-22 No Ockham's Razor program today due to a post-election coverage Due to post-election coverage this morning Radio National will not broadcast an Ockham's Razor talk. However there will be a podcast on our website of a talk given by Emeritus Professor Sol Encel on 4th July, 2004, talking about working well into old age. Professor Encel passed away on 23rd July this year. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-08-15 Carbon offsets, ecosystems, climate change and bad politics Today we hear from Penny van Oosterzee, an ecologist working with Regional Bodies across Australia to aggregate terrestial carbon offsets across the landscape through the aggregation of good land management activities like avoided clearing and ecosystem restoration. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-08-08 Critical thinking Queensland teacher Peter Ellerton laments the fact that few educational institutions actively and explicitly teach the skills of critical thinking. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-08-01 Walking the path together Dr Anthony Hillin, statewide training co-ordinator for the NSW School-link training program at the New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry, makes a case for scientists and others who want to improve the wellbeing of Aboriginal people to undertake meaningful consultation with Aboriginal stakeholders. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-07-25 Worlds in transition Professor Jim Falk from the University of Melbourne discusses governance in a rapidly changing world. He has co-authored a book called Worlds in Transition: Evolving Governance Across a Stressed Planet with Professor Joseph Camilleri from La Trobe University. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-07-18 Diamonds Associate Professor James Rabeau from Macquarie University in Sydney takes a look at diamonds, particularly the synthetic diamond. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-07-11 Seabirds on the Southern Ocean Author and keen birdwatcher Sue Taylor from Melbourne tells us of her quest to sight albatrosses in Australian waters. Travelling south from Hobart into the Southern Ocean aboard a small yacht she endured rough seas and sea sickness. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-07-04 Electric junk Dr Trevor McAllister, a retired chemist from Melbourne, discusses our dependence on electricity. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-06-27 Retro revenge Melbourne author Andrew Herrick talks about the fact that most of us are obsessed with anything new on the market, can't wait to buy the latest gizmo and are only too ready to discard anything that's old. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-06-20 Memory and attention in health and disease Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at Monash University in Melbourne, John Bradshaw, illustrates clinical memory and attentional phenomena with examples from everyday life. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-06-13 Aristotle meets Ockham Aristotle believed that we learn by doing and, while teaching he constantly walked around his pupils, one of whom was Alexander the Great. Jennifer Riggs is an educator in Brisbane and she suggests that a major challenge today is how to teach the hard-to-reach students. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-06-06 The lawn Sydney-based science writer Peter Macinnis talks about the history and culture of lawn maintenance. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-05-30 Nuclear energy: a panacea for climate change? The argument that nuclear energy may be part of a solution to global warming has been voiced over the last few years. Dr Adam Lucas from the University of Wollongong has a look at the state of nuclear energy in the world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-05-23 Burrowing crayfish Dr Susan Lawler from Environmental Management and Ecology at La Trobe University in Wodonga talks about her research into burrowing crayfish. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-05-16 Nursing before Florence Nightingale Medical historian Dr Jim Leavesley from Margaret River in Western Australia tells us what nursing was like in England before Florence Nightingale. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-05-09 The importance of evidence The president of the Australian Skeptics, Eran Segev, talks about the importance of assessing what is true or false by evaluating the evidence. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-05-02 The peak of oil production is passed Dr Michael Lardelli from the University of Adelaide looks at how the bulk of the world's oil production comes from a relatively small number of very large fields discovered decades ago. The rate of world oil production has been maintained at current levels only by finding and bringing on line an increasing number of smaller fields, but the financial cost and the energy required to find and develop these new fields is constantly increasing. According to Dr Lardelli the so-called peak of oil ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-04-25 A jump into the future Gavin Gilchrist is the managing director of Big Switch Projects, a company set up ten years ago as an advisory group on energy efficiency and carbon management issues to business and government. In this program Gavin jumps into the future for a look at what life might be like five years from now, in a seriously carbon-constrained world. In 2015 Kevin Rudd's running the United Nations, Julia Gillard's prime minister and the National Climate Commission has taken some tough decisions. All shor ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-04-18 Bringing the 'wow' factor of science fiction into our classrooms Douglas E. Richards is a children's science fiction writer from San Diego, California. He talks about the importance of bringing science fiction into the classroom to stimulate children's interest in science. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-04-11 Should artificial colours be banned? Specialist dietitian Joan Breakey from Brisbane discusses artificial food colouring and allergies. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-04-04 Mother Nature speaks Ian Johnstone from the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, has always had a long standing interest in nature writing. For this talk he has given a fresh slant on Nature by seeing things from her point of view. It is an exercise in ecological empathy which is read by Jeremy Nash, who teaches Drama at the University of New England. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-03-28 The wise delinquency of decision makers Tim van Gelder, Principal Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Melbourne, discusses one of the most critical of all human activities - decision making. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-03-21 Healthy ageing Lucy Goodman, research assistant at the University of Auckland, talks about our changing body image as we age and she gives some good advice about healthy ageing. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-03-14 The parable of the wise ones Science writer Melvin Bolton from Yeppoon in Queensland tells us as a parable the tale of civilization which extends over three and a half million years to the present era of environmental destruction and waste. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-03-07 The man who taught Darwin beetles Emeritus Professor Anthony Larkum from Sydney University talks about what launched Charles Darwin into a scientific career at Cambridge and how he was given the opportunity to go on the HMS Beagle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-02-28 Non-invasive prenatal diagnosis Dr Caroline Wright, Head of Science at Population Health and Genomics in Cambridge, reports on progress being made into safer non-invasive procedures for prenatal diagnosis. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-02-21 Internet addiction Dr Glenn McLaren from Swinburne University in Melbourne focuses on the increasing obsession with the internet and he also laments the decline and increasing disappearance of Philosophy as an area of study in our education systems. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-02-14 Clothes pegs, sex, hobbies and allied obsessions John Bradshaw, Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at Monash University in Melbourne, discusses why people become obsessed with collecting things. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-02-07 The effect of a terminal illness on family life Psychiatrist Dr Jane Turner from the Mental Health Centre at the University of Queensland's School of Medicine talks about her research into the impact that parental cancer and subsequent death has on children. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-01-31 Black Saturday Geoff Hudson, inventor, author and computer programmer, lives in an area close to the devastating bushfires of last year. Today he looks at what went wrong with the warning system and suggests what could be done to prevent such a catastrophe happening again. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-01-24 Early language and reading skills in indigenous children in Australia Professor Margot Prior from the Department of Psychology at the University of Melbourne has been working in Aboriginal child health for over 10 years. In this program she talks about the terrible state of literacy in Aboriginal children and some of the reasons for it. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-01-17 Edison the organizational innovator Professor Mark Dodgson from the University of Queensland talks about the achievements of inventor Thomas Edison. He also tells us about some of the less pleasant aspects of Edison's life, i.e. his lack of personal hygiene, the harsh way he treated people who worked for him and his electrocution of animals. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-01-10 Is fructose the root of all evil? On 12th July last year lawyer and author David Gillespie presented an Ockham's Razor talk telling us that fructose is very bad for us. In this program nutritionist Chris Forbes-Ewan refutes some of the claims made by David Gillespie. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-01-03 Aboriginal astronomy Professor Ray Norris from the CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility, together with his wife Cilla, has written a book called Emu Dreaming - An Introduction to Australian Aboriginal Astronomy. In this talk he tells us about Aboriginal Australians' amazing depths of knowledge about the sky. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-12-27 A response to evangelical atheism Philip Ponder teaches chemistry at a High School in Melbourne. In this program he tackles the rise of what he calls aggressive atheism and tries to reconcile creationism and evolution by suggesting that every major religion was created or has evolved to answer four big questions. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-12-20 A short history of cell deaths Many cells in our bodies are programmed to die. In a human about one million cells divide in two every second. Professor David Vaux from La Trobe University in Melbourne looks at how cells function and behave. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-12-13 The coral reef crisis The former Chief Scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Dr Charlie Veron, discusses the situation of coral reefs and the environmental challenges ahead. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-12-06 Ching Chong China Girl - From fruitshop to foreign correspondent Helene Chung, author and former ABC Foreign Correspondent, wrote her biography: Ching Chong China Girl: From fruit shop to foreign correspondent. She recalls what it was like growing up Chinese in 1950s Tasmania and gives insights into her life as an adult. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-11-29 Look back with pride Emeritus Professor of Ethology at the University of Queensland, Glen McBride, gives us a different view of natural selection as we celebrate the birth of Charles Darwin 200 years ago and the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-11-22 A Gunn and two Hookers - Part two Last week Dr Jim Endersby, from the University of Sussex in the UK, told the tale of how Joseph Dalton Hooker met Tasmanian Ronald Gunn who, over the years, sent hundreds of carefully dried and preserved specimens of unknown flora to Kew, where Hooker named and classified his finds. Today Europe's museums and botanic gardens are full of dried plants, stuffed animals etc, as a result of the dedication of these men. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-11-15 A Gunn and two Hookers - Part one Dr Jim Endersby is a lecturer in British History at the University of Sussex in the UK and he's the author of a book called Imperial Nature - Joseph Hooker and the Practices of Victorian Science. Joseph Hooker was an internationally renowned botanist and a close friend and early supporter of Charles Darwin and he was one of the first British men of science to become a full-time professional. Dr Jim Endersby talks about Hooker's career and offers interesting insights into the 19th century na ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-11-08 The role of undergraduate education in Australia Michael Bradley is in his 4th year studying engineering at the University of Sydney. In this talk he discusses some interesting thoughts about the role of university education. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-11-01 The evolution of world peace In recent history we've seen numerous acts of global terrorism, invasions, genocides, wars and the growing threat of nuclear proliferation. Dr Scott Field is a lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of International Studies at the University of California Berkeley and he argues that we are on the path to eventual world peace. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-10-25 Women, science and politics Politics used to be known as 'a man's business'. However, the situation seems to be changing globally to some extent. Emeritus Professor Sol Encel from the University of New South Wales looks at female politicians, past and present, and found that a large number of them have a scientific background. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-10-18 Professor Ian Plimer replies to his critics In June this year Professor Kurt Lambeck, President of the Australian Academy of Science, discussed Professor Ian Plimer's book Heaven and Earth. Professor Plimer has been criticised in some circles about his views on climate change and in this talk he answers his critics. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-10-11 How T.H. Huxley helped me teach my students how to write Dr Susan Lawler is a teacher of evolution and genetics at the Albury/Wodonga campus of La Trobe University. The lack of writing skills in her students gave her the idea to correspond with her students as T.H. Huxley. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-10-04 Is our sustainability science racist? Dr Ariel Salleh is a sociologist in political economy at the University of Sydney and today she focuses on the ecological debt notched up by affluent societies as main contributors to global warming. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-09-27 The Coolibah story Paediatrican Dr John Boulton retired from the University of Newcastle in 2005 and now works part-time in Aboriginal Child Health in the Kimberley region in Western Australia. Recently he had an opportunity to glimpse the life of an Aboriginal man called Coolibah who was looking after his sick 3-year-old grandson, who was suffering with severe nephritis. So, what will it take for an Aboriginal child to have the same life chances for health as a white child? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dr Samuel Johnson's illnesses Medical historian Dr Jim Leavesley from Western Australia remembers Dr Samuel Johnson's illnesses on the 300th anniversary of his birth on 18 September 1709. Dr Johnson is famous for his dictionary, which was published in 1755, and he was plagued from birth by many illnesses. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What do we mean by species? Colin Groves, who's Professor of Biological Anthropology at the Australian National University, discusses the definition of a species. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-09-06 Science and religion revisited Author Larry Buttrose has just published a book called Tales of the Popes: From Eden to El Dorado which looks at the lives of the popes from the inception of the papacy up to the burning at the stake of the humanist philosopher Giordano Bruno in Rome in 1600. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-03-08 The Waddi tree On the fringes of the Simpson Desert, separated by hundreds of kilometres, are three stands of Waddi trees which are a miracle of arid zone botany. Today PhD candidate Jacqueline Hodder from the University of Melbourne tells the story of this remarkable tree which grows up to 18 metres. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-08-30 Fuel saving follies Author Gerard Ryle, while doing research for his book Firepower, discovered that Australian investors have long had a weakness for fuel saving devices. There have been many famous names involved in this endeavour, such as Peter Brock and Pro Hart. As it turns out, no one so far has come up with a genuine fuel-saving device and fortunes have been won and lost in this attempt to revolutionise the car industry. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-08-16 Water wars Will there be wars about water? Some people think so. Wendy Barnaby, who's a journalist and author from London, used to think so, but has changed her mind. In this talk she explains why. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-08-09 Language and prehistory Professor Claire Bowern from the Linguistics Department at Yale University in Connecticut, US, tells us of her research into the languages and history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-08-02 Preventing osteoporosis Professor Christopher Nordin from the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science in Adelaide has grave concerns that there is no primary prevention program for osteoporosis in Australia. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-07-26 Zen, the science of clean engines and bureaucracy Marcus Clayton from Melbourne outlines some of the bureaucratic obstacles he and his business partner have experienced in trying to get alternative technologies accepted. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-07-19 Dealing with complex health problems Emeritus Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales, Ian Webster, talks about the inadequacies of the health care system to deal properly with health problems of the homeless and mentally ill people. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-07-12 Fructose Author of Sweet Poison, David Gillespie,discusses the effect of fructose on our bodies. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-07-05 The Chamberlen family - barber/surgeons 440 years ago Williams Chamberlen and his wife fled from religious persecution in France to Southampton in England.The Chamberlen family made history by using obstetrical forceps, which they managed to keep a secret within the family for about 125 years. Medical historian Dr Jim Leavesley has the story. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-06-28 Body integrity identity disorder Earlier this year the ABC TV Science program Catalyst featured the amazing story of Robert Vickers who, by the age of ten, felt that his left leg didn't belong to him. For 30 years he tried to damage his leg to force an amputation, without success. At 41 he froze the leg with dry ice which resulted in the desired amputation. This is his personal story. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-06-21 Group A streptococcus - the bacterium that links the heart and the throat Dr Melina Georgousakis from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research focuses her attention on Group A streptococcus, which is also responsible for rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-06-14 Thinking about memes, minds and cultural evolution Educationalist and commentator on educational issues, Don Tinkler from Melbourne pondered the question: Did culture determine learning or could learning determine culture? This led him to the need for research into the science of memetics and how this might be applied to educational theory and practice. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-06-07 Comments on Heaven and Earth: Global Warming: The Missing Science Today Professor Kurt Lambeck, president of the Australian Academy of Science, discusses Professor Ian Plimer's book Heaven and Earth. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-05-31 Science and Christianity: hand in glove Today we hear from Bill Hall, who has contributed many talks over the years. Bill died recently and in this talk, which he recorded not so long ago, he discusses how science and Christianity can complement each other. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-05-24 The trigger for the clathrate gun Melbourne computer specialist Geoff Hudson explains what clathrates are and the danger they pose to climate change. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-05-17 Corruption in our world - part two of two talks Last week Professor Adam Graycar, Head of the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers State University in New Jersey, talked about how corruption affects everybody. Today he suggests ways of controlling and combating corruption. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-05-10 Corruption in our world - part one of two talks Today Professor Adam Graycar, Head of the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers State University in New Jersey, discusses how corruption in our world affects everybody. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-05-03 Smallpox in Sydney: 1789 Historian Craig Mear from Coledale in New South Wales tells us about the appearance of smallpox in the Indigenous population living around Sydney Harbour in 1789. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-04-26 Pelican stories for the future Dr Libby Robin from the National Museum of Australia in Canberra is Senior Editor of a recently released book called Boom and Bust: Bird Stories for a Dry Country and today she ponders why pelicans fly inland after rain, even though they never saw it falling. How do they know there's water available in usually dry desert areas? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-04-19 Welcome to gravitational astronomy 101 Today's Ockham's Razor is set 50 years into the future with Professor David Blair from the School of Physics at the University of Western Australia welcoming students to a new course in astronomy. The threat of a cosmic bullet threatening life on earth is very real and a sound knowledge of graviational astronomy in 2059 will be crucial to our survival. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-03-22 A Darwin tourist, Shrewsbury, England, February 12, 2009 Charles Darwin had his 200th birthday on February 12th, 2009 and Professor Karl Flessa from the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona, made the pilgrimage to Shrewsbury, the village where Darwin was born. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-03-15 The Manhattan Project for climate change The Manhattan Project was established to develop nuclear bombs and today computer programmer Geoff Hudson from Melbourne suggests that a similar program should be introduced to combat climate change. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-03-01 A noun in your auricle Dr Rob Morrison from Flinders University in Adelaide discusses how errors of grammar, punctuation and inaccurate scientific terminology can be misleading and complicate important social issues. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-02-22 Tramlines Retired chemist Dr Trevor McAllister looks at the history of the tram, from the first horse-drawn service to the technology that has created the electric trams. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-02-15 Mirror neurons and empathy for pain Professor John Bradshaw from Monash University in Melbourne discusses how some people when observing distress and pain in others experience it themselves. Or why, when we see people yawn we are compelled to do the same thing. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-02-08 Economic fiction - how Homo Sapiens could stop climate change Melbourne author Valerie Yule looks at the problem of waste, which is anything that becomes useless rubbish before it need be. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-02-01 Clocks and watches Bill Hall from Adelaide, who writes about collectables with his wife Dorothy, tells us about collectable clocks and watches and how much that antique clock or watch in your bottom drawer or on the mantlepiece might be worth. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-01-25 A piece of my mind Professor Alan Baxter, an immunologist at James Cook University in Townsville, talks about the history of neurological complications of viral diseases that could affect the brain and spinal cord and the history of rabies vaccination. Louis Pasteur's vaccine for rabies was first used clinically in 1885 and, while there were no reported complications in the first two years of treatment, problems with the vaccine appeared after that time. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nursing in Australia and the UK Professor Linda Shields from Curtin University of Technology in Perth has written, together with Professor Roger Watson from the University of Sheffield in the UK, about the state of nursing in Australia and the UK. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Charles Darwin in Australia Charles Darwin arrived in Australia on 12 January, 1836, 173 years ago. He was on board a Royal Navy ship called the Beagle as a companion for Captain Robert FitzRoy. Emeritus Professor Frank Nicholas from the University of Sydney has written a book called Charles Darwin in Australia, in which he writes about Darwin's experiences while in this country. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lamarck's evolution Author Ross Honeywill has written a book called Lamarck's Evolution - Two Centuries of Genius and Jealousy. In 2009 we celebrate the birthday of evolution. Before Charles Darwin, Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck created the first theory of evolution in 1809. However, his theory was discredited by most in the scientific community once Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution, 50 years later. Ross Honeywill tells us this fascinating story. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website William of Ockham and the black death William of Ockham died of plague during the black death epidemic in a convent in Munich either in 1347 or 1349, the exact date is unknown. However, as the disease did not reach Munich until late 1348, the year of his death is more likely to have been 1349. Medical historian Dr Jim Leavesley from Margaret River in Western Australia, talks about this period and has set the time for this tribute half way between, to make this year the 660th anniversary of William of Ockham's death. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Resilient cities and the crash The financial crash has an enormous impact on the global situation and Australia is no exception. Our cities are places where the crash hurts deeply. Many cities with their urban sprawl, poorly designed buildings and inefficient transport systems consume enormous quantities of fossil fuels and emit high levels of greenhouse gases. Professor Peter Newman from Curtin University in Perth, has some suggestions for the future of our cities. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website An innovator for the ages Professor Mark Dodgson, director of the Technology and Innovation Management Centre at the University of Queensland, nominates Josiah Wedgwood, founder of the Wedgwood Company, as one of the greatest innovators of all time. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Anniversaries are what we make of them Honorary Associate Professor and President of the Medical Alumni Association at the University of Sydney, Paul Lancaster, tells us about the achievements of some of the past medical graduates from Sydney University. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Innovation today, not tomorrow Professor Kurt Lambeck, President of the Australian Academy of Science, assesses the Cutler Report and the Green Paper, an outcome of the Review of the National Innovation System. He suggests ways in which Australia must increase its investment in science and technology. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The meaning of life Dr Jack Carmody, who coordinates a postgraduate course in Medicine and Music at the University of Sydney, tells us amongst other things how hormones influence the brain, the march of DNA down generations and reproduction. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The return of the Osprey Ospreys are a bird of prey and are found in costal regions worldwide. Unfortunately, in the UK at the start of the 1800s these birds were high on the list of species to be destroyed. Today Bob Holderness-Roddam, Project Officer with Volunteering Tasmania, tells of his experiences as a volunteer in Scotland in the 1960s, protecting the nests of the few remaining breeding birds. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website I wish I had become a scientist The Managing Director of Centurion Enterprise Management Services in Victoria, Dr Ron Harper, wonders what might have been if he had chosen a career as a scientist. However, he chose a career in management and today tells us what makes a good and efficient manager. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kidney disease amongst Aboriginal people Health Director of the Jimmy Little Foundation and film maker Don Palmer tells us that kidney disease amongst Aboriginal people in Central Australia runs somewhere between 30 to 50 times the national average. Nearly 200 people are receiving dialysis treatment in this area alone. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Under the hammer If you worry that 'Big Brother' is everywhere, watching us via CCTV or other devices, imagine a future that's even worse. Melbourne author Andrew Herrick delves into the not too distant future to tell us what can happen, and it's a very worrying picture which, according to the author, is not all science fiction. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Arithmetic for adults According to an international survey 70% of the Australian adult population doesn't adequately understand how numbers work. Retired psychologist Valerie Yule discusses how simple arithmetic helps with everyday tasks and understanding the world around us. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Science and technology in 1859 Next year we celebrate two famous men's 200th birthdays - Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln. In this talk Sydney science writer Peter Macinnis tells us of the many scientific and technological discoveries of that time. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Good bugs gone bad Science journalist Dr Peter Lavelle from ABC Health Online looks at the history of disease and some of the terrible epidemics that have swept through societies throughout history. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What is at the bottom of Sydney Harbour and why might it matter? Dr Stuart Taylor is an environmental scientist and Director of Geochemical Assessments in Sydney. He investigated what is really at the bottom of Sydney Harbour and what he found wasn't pretty. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Commissural connectivity Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology, John Bradshaw, from Monash University, talks about experiments he undertook when investigating the brain's right and left hemispheres. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mid 20th century home Bill Hall from Adelaide is a professional writer for the antiques and collectables trade. According to him the mid 20th century now appeals very much to collectors. He visits a home of that era and summarises some of the technical highlights and manufacturing breakthroughs that are now making that period so collectable. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Let your immune system fly Professor Alan Baxter from James Cook University in Townsville talks about the complexity of our immune system and how things can go wrong. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rising sea levels The CEO of Green Cross Australia, Mara Bun, reports on what will happen if sea levels continue to rise. According to scientists we could experience an 88cm rise by the end of the century if greenhouse emissions keep increasing and this will have catastrophic effects on vast populations globally. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hearing impairment - a personal story Nineteen-year-old Sarahjane Thompson is a double degree student at the University of New South Wales and has had a hearing impairment for as long as she can remember. She talks about her experiences living with a hearing disability. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Culture change Professor Jane Goodall from the University of Western Sydney is fascinated by the dramatic unpredictability of culture change. Today she focuses on the debates surrounding climate change. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Wallace-Darwin papers on biological evolution - 150 years ago One hundred and fifty years ago Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace made a joint presentation to the Linnean Society of London of their views on biological evolution. But who was Alfred Wallace? Emeritus Professor Tony Larkum from Sydney University relates the story of this unsung man. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The last environmental taboo Today Richard Begbie from Canberra looks at the environmental cost of air travel. Airplanes add around 750 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year to the atmosphere and in the process burn 250 million tonnes of a non-renewable resource. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Peak oil - the trigger for global sustainability Ian Dunlop is Deputy Convener of the Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil and warns that the oil supply will eventually run out and with that and the global warming issue in mind, we need to look for alternatives. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dr W.G. Grace - Last match 1908 Medical historian Dr Jim Leavesley from Margaret River in Western Australia, talks about Dr W.G. Grace, medicine's greatest gift to cricket, whose last match was in 1908 when he was 59 years old. Apparently he was much better at cricket than at medicine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website H. floresiensis - where are we now? In October 2004 a new species of hominin, less scientifically called The Hobbit, was discovered on the island of Flores in Indonesie. Today PhD candidate Debbie Argue from the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra discusses the controversy that erupted after this discovery was announced. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Can science teach us anything about morality? Are we born with a sense of good and evil? Science writer Tim Dean reports on findings made by an increasing number of scientists. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Speed cleaning for your soul Melbourne writer Rosaleen Love has some suggestions on how to clear the clutter in our mind space. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website How many reports do we need? There have been many reports into the state of school science over the last decades. However, former President of the Australian Science Teachers Association Ruth Dircks says that despite these reports and recommendations nothing has been achieved and she has some suggestions of her own. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The public's perception of potable water Emma Pratt is a science student at the University of New South Wales and her passion is water and how we're running out of it. Here she talks about how the public perceives the use of recycled water. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Abrolhos birds Discovered by Portuguese Commander de Houtman in 1619, the Abrolhos Islands are 60 kilometers off Geraldton on the Western Australian coast. This was where the second oldest shipwreck in Australia, the Batavia, came to grief in 1629. Today author and keen birdwatcher Sue Taylor from Melbourne takes us on a tour of these islands in her quest to see nesting seabirds, some of which she has never seen before. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website There's something odd happening in the minds of the Australian public Craig Cormick, Manager of Public Awareness, Biotechnology Australia, looks at recent public attitude studies towards biotechnology that showed some really significant changes in the way people think about themselves, technology and the state of the planet. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website On failing successfully Professor Mark Dodgson, Director of the Technology and Innovation Management Centre at the University of Queensland, suggests that failure doesn't get the credit it deserves. He points out the positive side of failing. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The global warming debate - Professor Stephen Schneider's response to Professor Don Aitkin Recently Professor Don Aitkin presented a two part series on the challenges to global warming orthodoxies and today Professor Stephen Schneider, a climatologist from Stanford University, responds to these talks. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Secrets of the immune system To mark World Day of Immunology, which is held on April 29 each year, Professor Alan Baxter, President of the Australasian Society for Immunology, explains how our immune system works. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A challenge to global warming orthodoxies - part two In part two of his talk about global warming Professor Don Aitkin explores why the issue of global warming is such a difficult one. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A challenge to global warming orthodoxies - part one Professor Don Aitkin, former Vice Chancellor at the University of Canberra, delves into the question of global warming to see what's at the heart of it. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ventriloquism, lip reading and left and right As a young child Professor John Bradshaw from the Department of Psychology at Monash University, was fascinated by the Punch and Judy puppet plays and the very convincing ventriloquistic effects. This later led him to research how we hear - is it the left side of the brain or the right side that dominates our auditory signals? And do mouth movement asymmetries impact on our ability to lip read? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Schizophrenia and the origin of human nature This year is the centenary of the naming of the illness known as schizophrenia. Forensic Psychiatrist Dr Robert Kaplan from Wollongong talks about the history of schizophrenia. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The plea of the Great Barrier Reef Former Chief Scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science and author of A Reef in Time, Dr J.E.N. (Charlie) Veron, draws urgent attention to the devastation waiting in the wings for our beautiful Great Barrier Reef. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cooking with hominids Journalist Dr Peter Lavelle from ABC Health Online in Sydney discusses the evolution of food and the history of cooking. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Public policy: It's so obvious Dr Adam Graycar is Dean and Professor at the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. Before that he was a senior bureaucrat, as head of the Cabinet Office in South Australia. In this talk he suggests that sometimes obvious problems could be solved if government departments would work together, instead of working in their own jurisdiction without sufficient communications with other sections. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Protecting the world's cultural heritage Director of Studies with the International Law Association, Keith Suter, discusses how cultural property is often targeted in wars and draws attention to one of the world's most significant places for archaeology - Iraq. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What is killing the frogs? - A reply to last week's talk Last week on this program Barrie Oldfield looked at the decline of frog populations and suggested that electro magnetic radiation and mobile phones may play a role in their demise. Today, Professor Rodney Croft, Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Radiofrequency Bioeffects Research, responds to last week's talk and tells us of his research in this area. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Why frogs don't like mobile phones Barrie Oldfield is a member and past president of the Western Australian branch of Men of the Trees and he discusses the decline of frog populations in this International Year of the Frog. He suggests that maybe electro magnetic radiation may be the reasons for this calamity. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wretched or contented? The politics of past lives Dr Richard Eckersley, Visiting Fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the ANU in Canberra and Founding Director of Australia 21, asks whether we really do have a better life than our hunter/gatherer ancestors. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Peace technology Sydney author Andrew Greig has written a book called Taming War: Culture and Technology for Peace and suggests that the problems of war may be solved by technology. His hope is that we can turn our technological skills away from war and focus on technologies for peace. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Abraham Lincoln revisited Twenty-six years ago medical historian Dr Jim Leavesley gave his first talk in this time-slot, and today he revisits the same subject, which dealt with the ailments of President Abraham Lincoln. Over the years opinions have changed. It was believed that the president suffered from Marfan's Disease, but did he? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Is the book as we know it dead? Many people have predicted the death of the book as we know it, claiming that text will be stored in digital form. However, Sydney science writer Peter Macinnis disagrees. He has just published a book called Australia's Pioneers, Heroes and Fools and talks about his use of technology to research this work. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Silver and gold collectables Bill Hall from Adelaide is a collector and professional writer for the antiques and collectables trade. Today he discusses the collection and value of precious metal antiques. Many people believe that they are too expensive, however there are bargains available in many bric-a-brac shops. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Is it really me? A question of bodily integration and identity Professor John Bradshaw, a neuropsychologist from Monash University in Melbourne, has a neurological explanation for a not uncommon phenomenon, that of experiencing the powerful and disturbing sensation of someone watching us or standing behind us, whether or not there is really someone there. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Science curriculum in British schools Science teacher Dr Berry Billingsley from Windsor in the UK tells us about the new science curriculum in British schools, which is designed to make science seem more relevant and more exciting for the students. It aims to show the students by examples that science is alive and happening in the present. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The world's tallest tree There was a report in the media last year that Nelson's column in London had been re-measured and to general surprise, the monument is nearly 5 metres shorter than had always been believed. This is not the first time this sort of thing has occurred, as Perth forester Roger Underwood recalls in this story about his encounter with the world's tallest tree. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Applied imagination In this talk retired psychologist Val Yule from Melbourne talks about the power of imagination. 'Applied imagination is the ability to consider what may be possible in the real world, not only in fantasy'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Science and religion Dr Richard Eckersley researches progress and well-being and is a Visiting Fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the ANU in Canberra. In this talk he ponders the question whether there is a road to peace in the war between science and religion. Dr Eckersley suggests that science and religion can co-exist, but both sides need to give ground. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bodysurfing Surf Life Saving Australia is celebrating its centenary this year and Emeritus Professor of Mathematics Neville de Mestre, who is the Australian and World Masters surf race champion in the over 65 group, talks about the science of bodysurfing. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Science and philosophy: Making time for each other Philosopher Dr Heather Dyke from the University of Otago in New Zealand ponders the question of time and how it is perceived. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Language and the human story Dr David Rose from the Department of Linguistics at Sydney University looks at where we came from and the development of language. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Vitamin D Dr Jenny Gunton, an endocrinologist working in the area of diabetes and beta cell function at the Garvan Institute in Sydney, discusses the importance of vitamin D and health problems which can result from not having a sufficient vitamin D level in our bodies. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The enigma of Raymond Dart, the Australian discoverer of man's African origins Robin Derricourt is a Visiting Fellow in History at the University of New South Wales, as well as a writer and publisher. In this talk he tells the story of Australian scientist Raymond Dart who's made one of the world's great scientific discoveries. But his work also raises questions about his scientific methods and way of thinking. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Museum Sydney author Ashley Hay has just published a book called Museum, which is a showcase of Australia's natural history. In it she writes about the Mackleays and their collection of Australian specimen. In the book the collection is beautifully illustrated by Robyn Stacey. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Savonarola at the stake: the rise and fall of Professor Sir Roy Meadow Forensic psychiatrist Dr Robert Kaplan from Wollongong talks about the case of Professor Sir Roy Meadow who was the leading British doctor who pursued mothers and fathers who abused their children, particularly those suffering from Munchhausen's Syndrome by Proxy, a condition where mothers of children kept visiting doctors claiming that their children were ill and who were found to harm them to maintain illness symptoms. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The trouble with Harry Science teacher Dr Berry Billingsley from Windsor in the UK talks about her life with Harry, her nine-year-old son who has Asperger's syndrome. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website It's the economy stupid This was the famous remark made by former US President Bill Clinton. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The pharmaceutical industry and doctors' prescribing habits Professor Christopher Nordin, AO, who is Visiting Professor at the University of Adelaide and a consultant physician at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, discusses the influence the pharmaceutical industry has on doctors' prescribing habits. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Overseas trained doctors Emeritus Professor of General Practice at the University of Western Australia, Max Kamien, looks at the history of overseas trained doctors in Australia and the difficulties they faced, and still face to some extent, to be able to practice medicine in this country. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Decline of bush birds in Victorian grey box woodlands Author and keen birdwatcher Sue Taylor from Melbourne reports from her parents' property in north central Victoria, which once had a prolific birdlife. On a recent visit she was alarmed to discover so many species have disappeared. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 500th anniversary of an outbreak of sweating fever Medical Historian Dr Jim Leavesley from Margaret River, Western Australia, talks about the history of the epidemic of sweating fever, from the first outbreak in 1507 to the last one in 1551. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The great global warming debate For about 20 years a significant section of the scientific community has been engaged in the global warming debate with some disagreement to the orthodox view. Dr Bob Hunter is the National President of Scientists for Global Responsibility and takes a closer look at the current debate. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website King Kong, Charles Darwin and the Irish Fenians Professor Simon Adams from the University of Notre Dame in Perth, talks about how gorillas have been misused and misinterpreted throughout history. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Maralinga - Australia's nuclear waste cover-up Alan Parkinson is a mechanical and nuclear engineer who lives in Canberra. He has just written a book about the clean up of the British atomic bomb test site at Maralinga in South Australia. In April 2000 a $108 million clean up of the site was declared a success. However, leaked documents and some experts do not agree and suggest that the legacy of that failed clean up will affect the Australian population for many years to come. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Through a glass lightly Retired chemist Trevor McAllister from Melbourne talks about the history of stained glass windows and takes us on a tour of various places where they can be found. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Carl Linnaeus In this talk Dr John Carmody, a physiologist from the University of New South Wales, pays tribute to Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist who was born 300 years ago. He also remembers Daniel Solander, a former student of Linnaeus. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Great Artesian Basin pipe Dr Geoff Hudson is a computer programmer with a degree in physics. In this talk he draws out attention to the plight of farmers during the drought. He suggests that we could make use of the Great Artesian Basin to provide water forirrigation in drought stricken areas. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Abolishing weapons of terror August 6th is the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Dr Tilman Ruff, President of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War reminds us that far from getting rid of nuclear weapons, many countries not only plan to keep them indefinitely, but are investing in new ones. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wonderful wanderers Science journalist and author James Woodford tells the tale of the wandering albatross, having been introduced to these magnificent birds by members of the Southern Ocean Seabird Study Association. At Bellambi, on the south coast near Wollongong, wanderers and other seabird species arrive annually to feat on dead cuttlefish, giving the perfect opportunity to band and measure them. It is thought that the lifespan of the albatross could be in excess of 60 years, but unfortunately these B52s o ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A thousand flowers blooming at the international stem cell conference in Cairns Science writer Elizabeth Finkel from Melbourne reports from the International Society for Stem Cell Research conference, which was held in Cairns on 17th June. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A personal solution Accountant Sue Williams from Melbourne used to be a marine scientist with a special interest in sea slugs. In this talk she tries to explain her career change from science to working in accounting. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The sound of a $ 10,000,000 violin Composer and violinist Jon Rose questions if a violin is worth millions of dollars and asks if the quality of sound warrants this type of price tag. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Research - the first of the four Rs Brisbane educator Jennifer Riggs looks at how children from a very young age onwards are doing their own research into the world around them and makes suggestions how the education system should foster the naturally inquisitive minds of children. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The eyes have it: A lost practical education in Graduate School Emeritus Professor John Bradshaw from Monash University in Melbourne tells us about a PhD project he undertook about 40 years ago. He wanted to find out what happens to the physiology of people while they're lying and how good some people are at telling fibs. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Human brain: future upgrades Dr Peter Lavelle writes for the ABC's Health on Line and today tackles the stuff of many a sci fi movie: computers versus humankind. Will the computer eventually be able to think faster than the human brain and take over? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Humour as medicine Emeritus Professor Roger Rees from Disability and Research at Flinders University discusses the importance of humour for people with disabilities and illnesses. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website William Harvey - on the tercentenary of his death Medical historian Dr Jim Leavesley from Margaret River in Western Australia celebrates the life of William Harvey who died 350 years ago and whose work in circulation opened up the understanding of the internal workings of the body and heralded the beginning of modern science. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pottery Bill Hall from Adelaide is a professional writer for the antiques and collectables trade. Today he talks about the history of pottery and the different techniques used by potters. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Science and the public's perception of water recycling Visiting Scholar Dr June Marks from the Department of Sociology at Flinders University in Adelaide talks about recycling water for use in households and industry. She focuses on the public's perception when it comes to recycling water for household use and thinks that with the right information and consultation people will be more positive about using recycled water. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Communicating science Science writer and broadcaster Len Fisher from the University of Bristol asks why so many people are ignorant about science and why it is regarded as such a hard subject in school and in daily life. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Those who have ears Brisbane educator Jennifer Riggs discusses children who have serious problems with auditory processing. Studies have shown that a third of us are strongly visual-spatial learners and many children cannot learn through being talked at, but will learn better by seeing and doing. The fundamentals of learning are the five senses, but how many of them do we use in teaching? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Mekong and all that Visiting Fellow at the Lowy Institute, Dr Milton Osborne, spoke on this program about seven years ago about changes to the Mekong River, which is Southeast Asia's longest river, but is also a Chinese river. Today he voices more concerns about developments to the Mekong and other rivers in Asia which tend to threaten the environment. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Chemical weapons Retired Reader in Chemistry at Monash University in Melbourne, Dr Frank Eastwood looks at the historical use of chemical weapons in warfare and draws our attention to the vast stockpiles of war gases still remaining to be destroyed. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kidofspeed Dr Rosaleen Love from Monash University looks at the Chernobyl disaster and tells the story of Elena Filatova who visited the area. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Postmodernism reconsidered Stephen Gregory is an Honorary Research Fellow from the University of New South Wales, School of Modern Language Studies. In this talk he responds to an earlier Ockham's Razor program about postmodern theory, which was broadcast in November last year, and puts his own ideas forward. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Golden Road: Inspiration and chance in the two cultures Emeritus Professor John Bradshaw from Monash University in Melbourne looks at the history of science, literature and the arts in the Middle East and speaks of personal experiences encountered while travelling to countries in that area about 40 years ago. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Brain drain or brain gain? There has been much talk about a brain drain from which Australia is supposedly suffering. Emeritus Professor Sol Encel from the University of New South Wales looks at myths, perception and reality of this so-called brain drain. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Man's role in changing the face of the earth Retired geographer and federal politician, Dr Robert Solomon, points out that many of the environmental problems facing us today were under discussion almost a century ago. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A rationalist's view of religious intolerance Peter James is a geologist living in Hobart, Tasmania. In this talk he takes us on a historical excursion in an attempt to understand how faith is so rooted in our psyche. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The struggle for existence: Darwin to Hitler In his last talk, a few weeks ago, historian Tony Barta from La Trobe University in Melbourne told us that whenever white colonialists set foot on foreign soil, genocide reared its ugly head. In this talk he draws a line from Charles Darwin to Hitler and how he used some of Darwin's thinking for his own ends. One of the theses Hitler expressed was that it was the right of a superior population to displace an inferior one. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nothing is the new something Shelley Gare is the author of a book called The Triumph of the Airheads - and the Retreat from Commonsense, published by Park Street Press. In today's program she talks about how many resources are wasted on services which are really quite unproductive. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Crisis of human energy Valerie Yule, an education consultant from Melbourne, thinks that people have become mentally and physically lazy and offers suggestions to overcome this crisis of human energy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-08-23 Two killer factors Dr John Reid from Monash University, School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, looks at two factors responsible for perhaps the great majority of car crashes - young drivers with immature brains and sleepiness. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-04-12 Literary predictions Janice McAdam from Sydney has degrees in physics and children's literature and calls herself a 'lapsed physicist'. Today she talks about the genre of science fiction as a prediction into the future. A transcript of this talk will be available by midday on Tuesday, 14th April. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-04-05 Koala Dr Ann Moyal from Canberra has written a book called Koala, a historical biography. She tells us about the history of the koala, when it was first discovered by white colonialists and its treatment and mistreatment since white settlement in Australia. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-03-29 Lost explorers Ed Wright from Newcastle in New South Wales is the author of Lost Explorers. In this talk he tells the story of some of the early explorers/adventurers who came to a grizzly end and explores some of the possible reasons for their downfall. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website