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

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall, Alayna Hansen, and Peter Miller.

00:02:13 The internet blew up with the Yanny/Laurel audio illusion. Why do some people hear one thing, others hear another, and some people can hear both?

00:08:50 A new look at old data reveals signs of plumes of water coming from Jupiter's moon Europa.

00:13:35 Watching Europa is Peter's audio-visual artwork imagining life on Europa.

00:23:02 The chytrid fungus is devestating amphibian populations, but geneticists have finally traced its origins back to the pet trade, and East Asia in particular.

00:30:32 Ice cores have long been used to track global climate change, but a team from Oxford have studied ice cores for a more archaeological purpose - detailing the economic booms and busts of the ancient Roman empire.

00:36:55 Australian magpies appear to have learnt the calls of other birds - eavesdropping on their communications to learn of nearby predators.

 

This episode contains traces of Deep Look's video, "You've Heard of a Murder of Crows. How About a Crow Funeral?"

Direct download: SoT_0297.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:10pm AEDT

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Dr. Carolyn de Graaf

00:11:15 Harvard researchers have systematically profiled every cell in developing zebrafish and frog embryos, showing how one cell develops into an entire organism.

00:15:28 81-year-old James Harrison has saved millions of babies. His weekly blood donations have been used to create a treatment to protect unborn babies from the deadly Rhesus D Haemolytic Disease (HDN).

00:23:16 Experts from around the wold have signed a letter to the World Health Organisation calling for more action to fight the cancer-causing retrovirus HTLV-1.

00:29:36 Ancient tools found on Mediterranean islands could suggest that Neanderthals had at least rudimentary seafaring skills.

 

This episode contains traces of US congressman Mo Brooks grilling climate scientist Dr. Philip Duffy before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee about the causes of sea level rise.

Direct download: SoT_0296.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:18pm AEDT

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Sarah de Garis

00:01:25 A study by a team from University of Sussex shows that horses can not only distinguish human facial expressions, but they remember people's emotional states several hours later.

00:08:23 Male fruit flies enjoy sex.

00:17:07 There's a fungus that uses tiny crystals to sense gravity. And it can do that, because it stole genes from a bacteria.

00:21:06 Kids have a lot of energy - but in terms of endurance and recovery, they can even perform better than highly-trained adult endurance athletes.

 

This episode contains traces of Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos sharing his vision of a space-faring future.

Direct download: SoT_0295.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:42pm AEDT

Hosts: Ed Brown, Dr. Shayne Joseph, Lucas Randall

00:01:31 While studying the enzyme produced by a bacteria that eats plastic, an international team has accidentally made it even better.

00:08:57 NASA's new planet-hunding spacecraft has launched. TESS will study 85% of the sky, and will be able to study the mass, size, density and orbit of thousands of exoplanets.

00:23:37 Retrotransposons - elements of DNA that can spread to other species - are being found more and more often. And they're almost ubiquitous in marine animals, especially shellfish.

 

This episode contains traces of French President Emmanuel Macron speaking before the US Congress.

Direct download: SoT_0294.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:44pm AEDT

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