Science On Top
The Australian Podcast putting Science on Top of the agenda

More communication with the recently awoken Philae probe on Comet 67P.

New techniques to treat depression, and Sean's fascinating story of being part of a clinical trial.

Tech startup OneWeb has announced that Airbus will be manufacturing 900 communications satellites to launch in 2018 in what will be the largest satellite internet network by far.

A new blood test can determine all the viruses that we know of that a patient has ever been exposed to.

The holes in Swiss cheese – called 'eyes' – are made by “carbon-dioxide-burping microbes”.

Direct download: SoT_0191.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:45pm AEDT

The New Horizons spacecraft is one month away from Pluto, but it's already giving us some fuzzy photos.

And new findings from the Hubble telescope give some insights into the complex orbits and interactions of Pluto's moons.

In the last month around 120,000 Saiga antelopes have died in Kazakhstan, and nobody knows why.

Breaking news while we recorded this show - the Philae lander has awoken on Comet 67P after a seven month sleep.

The first stage of The Planetary Society's LightSail project has been successfully completed. The small craft unfurled its large solar sail, which uses sunlight for propulsion.

Direct download: SoT_0190.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:18am AEDT

The International Institute for Species Exploration has selected it's "Top 10 New Species" from the approximately 18,000 new species named during 2014. The list includes cartwheeling spiders, feathered dinosaurs and strange multicellular organisms that could be an entirely new phylum - a new branch on the tree of life.

Two separate studies have explored how octopuses and squid change their skin colour to rapidly camouflage themselves. They found that the skin (on squid and cuttlefish) and tiny hairs called cilia (on octopuses) have cells that are used in vision.

In 2013 some research suggested that the blood from young mice can rejuvenate older mice. Well new findings cast doubt on those results, and things are a little more complicated.

British and US scientists have published the first comprehensive map of genetic mutations linked to different strains of prostate cancer. They describe the map as "prostate cancer’s Rosetta stone" and say it will guide future treatments and trials.

Direct download: SoT_0189.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:23pm AEDT

The Opah, or moonfish, is the only warm-blooded fish that we know of. And it looks like "a big startled frisbee, with thin red fins stuck on as an afterthought."

A new epidemiological study suggests the measles vaccine does more than just protect you from measles, but also a number of other infections for up to five years.

Scientists have discovered a new state of matter, called 'Jahn-Teller metals', that could be the first step towards one of the biggest goals in physics - high-temperature superconductors.

A group of scientists investigating the evolution of the beak now report they have found a way to turn the beaks of chicken embryos back into dinosaur-like snouts.

This year the Australian Skeptics' National Convention will be held in Brisbane, with a host of interesting speakers including Nobel prize winner Brian Schmidt.

Direct download: SoT_0188.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:03pm AEDT

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