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

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall, Sean M Elliott

00:01:11 Science educator, communicator and performer Sean M. Elliott has a new show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Tesla: Death Rays & Elephants!
00:11:00 For a long time it's been believed that having some potted plants around the house will help filter out pollutants and toxins. But now the evidence suggests that houseplants do very little or even nothing at all when it comes to cleaning the air.
00:17:56 There's around 200 billion stars in our galaxy alone, and probably least one planet orbiting each of them. But a new study suggests there could be an additional 50 billion rogue planets, that aren't orbiting any stars at all.
00:27:17 Our nearest big galactic neighbour, Andromeda, has long been thought to be the much larger and more massive than the Milky Way. Now, new data from the Gaia mission and the Hubble Space Telescope indicates the Milky Way could be significantly bigger than we thought.
00:39:48 A new study published in the journal Science finds that before agriculture, when humans were nomadic hunter gatherers, languages didn't have the same sounds that they do now - in fact some sounds just weren't even possible.


Sean M. Elliott is a science educator, communicator and performer with a new show starting this weekend at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Tesla: Death Rays & Elephants!


This episode contains traces of TMRO's Jade Kim giving yet another reason why space travel might not be such a great thing for humans.

Direct download: SoT_0327.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:57am AEDT

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall, Dr. Helen Maynard-Casely

00:01:16 NASA's InSight probe begins drilling into the Martian surface - and stops.
00:17:11 Twins are either identical (one egg splits into two copies) or fraternal (two eggs fertilised at the same time). But that's not always the case - as a mother in Queensland found out when she had sesquizygotic twins.
00:25:44 Timothy Ray Brown, who was known as The Berlin Patient, was the first person to be "cured" of HIV. Now a second man appears to have also been cured, using the same bone marrow transplant technique.
00:33:32 Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is also the only moon known to have a thick, dense atmosphere. But now, thanks to the Rosetta probe's studies of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the origins of Titan's atmosphere may have been revealed.

Dr. Helen Maynard-Casely is an instrument scientist for the WOMBAT high-intensity powder diffractometer at ANSTO, Australia's Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.


This episode contains traces of Loudwire's Toni Gonzalez reporting on an Australian study of people who listen to Death Metal.

Direct download: SoT_0326.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:16pm AEDT

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall

00:00:57 As the world becomes more and more urbanised, we hear a lot about the dangers to wildlife from humanity's sprawl. But new research finds Australia's koalas may actually be less stressed in cities - provided adequate green spaces are provided.
00:07:43 For the first time ever, a spacecraft built by a private company and designed to carry people has docked with the International Space Station. The success of SpaceX's "Crew Dragon" sets the stage for an alternative to the Russian-made Soyuz capsules.
00:19:54 Researchers have been looking at the family dynamics stressed meerkat mothers. They've found the daughters become more helpful - at their own expense - but the sons don't.
00:25:28 Two new papers provide even more weight to the Planet Nine hypothesis - that a large planet, more than ten times the mass of Earth, could be lurking on the distant edges of our solar system, well beyond the orbit of Pluto.


This episode contains traces of the NASA stream and enthusiastic commentary of the SpaceX Crew Dragon module being opened in space for the first time.

Direct download: SoT_0325.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:20pm AEDT

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall

00:01:18 Hyabusa 2, Japan's latest sample return mission, has briefly landed on the asteroid Ryugu. It's an ambitious mission looking at the building blocks of the solar system.
00:16:14 And what's the point of dragging samples all the way back to Earth, when we can send whole labs to celestial bodies?
00:20:59 Echidnas are cute but spiky Australian native animals, with rather strange mating habits. But they're in high demand on the illegal pet trade, so wildlife forensic scientists have developed a technique to track where they've been smuggled from.
00:28:34 The commercial arm of the Mars One plan to colonise the red planet has filed for bankruptcy. Was this an interplanetary Fyre Festival?
00:35:56 Australian scientists may have found a way of developing a universal flu vaccine, that would work against all strains and eliminating the need for yearly flu shots.


This episode contains traces of Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp answering questions in a company-produced interview back in 2015.

Direct download: SoT_0324_fixed.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:42am AEDT

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall, Dr Cameron Webb

00:00:58 A review study published in the journal Biological Conservation has found that over 40% of insect species are threatened with extinction.
00:29:06 Queensland has seen record-breaking floods this year, and everyone knows that mosquitoes love water. But what do floods mean for mosquito-borne diseases?
00:36:10 By studying sleepless flies, scientists have identified a gene that puts them to sleep when they need it the most. And interestingly, it doubles as part of their immune system.
00:42:32 From our immune system to taste and even our emotions - our guts have a big influence on our brains. And now new research shows that gut bacteria can affect our our mental health.
Dr. Cameron Webb is a medical entomologist from the University of Sydney and NSW Health Pathology primarily interested in mosquitoes, mosquito-borne disease management, insect repellents and wetland rehabilitation.


This episode contains traces of Abigail Fraeman, Mars Exploration Rover (MER) deputy project scientist at JPL.

Direct download: SoT_0323.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:55am AEDT

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