Science On Top (general)
The Australian Podcast putting Science on Top of the agenda

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

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall

00:01:48 When researchers from the Max Planck Institute were looking at the teeth of an 11th or 12th century German woman they found tiny bright blue specks. This was a clue that illuminated the role women may have played in the history of book production.

00:09:19 What if plants could be trained just like pet dogs? Spoiler alert: they can! Sort of.

00:12:12 Also, plants can hear you with their ear-flowers.

00:21:29 For spiders, their webs are also sensory organs. And depending on their body position, they can tune their webs to specific vibrations.

00:28:29 No longer aimlessly drifting, the Earth's magnetic North Pole seems to be moving determinedly towards Siberia.

 

This episode contains traces of Harrison Ford addressing the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit.

Direct download: SoT_0322.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:39pm AEDT

2018 was a big year for science. Is saw the launch of the largest privately built reuseable rocket, the discovery a new organ, and understanding of the wombat's cubic poops. And we talked about all these stories and more on Science on Top. But not everything goes to plan, and this year was no exception! We had all sorts of Skype troubles, we forgot things, we were interrupted by dogs and phones… lots went wrong!

But instead of losing the hilarious moments of chaos, we’ve saved them all for our traditional end of year bloopers episode. All the rants, the tangents, the swearing and the brain farts all put together for one long blooper reel!

You must download or play the bloopers episode from our site: https://scienceontop.com/bloopers18 or on YouTube or Soundcloud!

Direct download: Bloopers_2018_announce.mp3.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:19pm AEDT

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Peter Miller

00:01:10 There's a planet orbiting star HD26965, exactly where Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry said Spock's homeworld Vulcan would be.

00:04:16 A fresh analysis of 10 year old data finds the best evidence yet of water vapor venting from Jupiter's fourth largest moon, Europa.

00:05:17 Watch Peter Miller's artistic imagining of life on Europa here.

00:06:11 The oldest example of abstract art, from 73,000 years ago, resembles a hashtag.

00:10:14 Scientific debate has erupted over what could possibly be the world's oldest fossils ever found - or they could be just rocks.

00:14:09 Eating a California Reaper is probably a bad idea, as one man found out when he tried what was then the world's hottest chili.

00:18:06 Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated the Caribbean, but they also provided a unique glimpse at evolution. The research involved a lot of measurements, some lizards, and a leaf blower.

00:21:16 This year, we found out how wombats make cubed poops.

00:25:02 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.

00:28:48 Geneticists around the world were shocked when Professor He Jiankui announced he'd created the world's first ever gene edited babies. His claims of HIV immune babies are extraordinary, but mired in contention amongst ethical and procedural controversy.

Direct download: SoT_0321.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:44am AEDT

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall

00:01:24 The giant tortoise Lonesome George, the last of his species, was possibly as old as 102 when he died in 2012. Now sequencing of his DNA has revealed a number of genes that could give us clues about human life expectancy and particularly cancer.

00:08:10 Research into epilepsy has accidentally led to some exciting new developments in the treatment of depression and mood disorders. This is a serendipitous line of inquiry that came from observations of electrical stimulation of areas of the brain.

00:16:01 When it comes to hormonal birth control, it's pretty much a ladies-only club. But for decades researchers have been trying to develop a male pill, and now a reasonably large-scale trial is about to get underway looking at a contraceptive gel.

00:23:39 It's one of the greatest cosmological mysteries of our time - what makes up 95% of the universe. But the "Dark Fluid" theory could potentially solve the questions of both dark matter and dark energy. Perhaps.

 

This episode contains traces of ABC10's "Geek Labs" segment playing sounds recorded by the Mars InSight lander.

Direct download: SoT_0320.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:38pm AEDT

Our latest episode, 319 - Number Five Is Alive, had a pretty major glitch in that Lucas' track wasn't there at all. I realised the mistake shortly after posting it, and thought I had replaced it with the correct version, but obviously it didn't replace the file.

I've re-uploaded it and tested it now, it definitely works! So if you had any trouble playing that episode - specifically if it sounds like Lucas is being rude and not talking - then you may have to re-download that file again.

Or, you can listen on our website, YouTube, Stitcher or SoundCloud.

 

This is what happens when you upload the podcast late on a Friday night after a few drinks... :-(

Direct download: 319_mistake.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:14am AEDT

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall, Jo Benhamu

00:02:27 NASA's InSight probe lands on Mars, with a slew of instruments to analyse what the red planet is made of.

00:17:43 Against all conventional knowledge, mitochondrial DNA is sometimes inherited from the father.

00:28:01 Professor He Jiankui announced he's created the world's first ever gene edited babies using the CRISPR-Cas9 technique. His claims of HIV immune babies are extraordinary, but mired in contention amongst ethical and procedural controversy.

 

Jo Benhamu is a Clinical Research Nurse with a Masters in Bioethics.

 

This episode contains traces of Sir David Attenborough speaking at the COP24 UN conference in Katowice, Poland.

Direct download: SoT_0319.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:14pm AEDT

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall

00:01:10 Wombats - the cute, pudgy marsupials in Australia, have cubic poops. Square, angular blocks of poop. But how and why? We may now have a better understanding.

00:08:25 HD186302 is a star 184 light-years from Earth. And it's so similar to our sun, it could be long lost twin.

00:16:49 A team of researchers have studied the genomes of a group of microbes called Hemimastigotes and found that they are so bizarre, they deserve their very own kingdom in the tree of life.

00:26:02 Using the Keck observatory telescopes in Hawaii, astronomers have detected water in the atmosphere of a planet 179 light years away.

 

This episode contains traces of WNYC's On The Media looking at CNN's coverage of the U.S. Global Change Research Program's National Climate Assessment.

Direct download: SoT_0318.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:05pm AEDT

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall

00:02:00 There's a stream of stars hurtling through our region of the Milky Way galaxy, and they're bringing with them a "dark matter hurricane". It's probably nothing to worry about, though.

00:12:16 For the first time since 1889, the kilogram has been redefined according to a natural constant, instead of a lump of metal in a vault in Paris. The actual mass, for all intents and purposes, remains the same.

00:23:51 Previous studies of Neanderthal skulls found high rates of head injuries leading experts to believe they were a violent, savage people. But a new study finds that our human ancestors had a similar injuries and might not have been much different.

 

This episode contains traces of Professor Brian Greene explaining Dark Matter to CNN's Fareed Zakaria.

Direct download: SoT_0317.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:57pm AEDT

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Mick Vagg

00:02:13 How serious is the opioid crisis in Australia? What's being done about it, and what new painkillers are on the horizon? Pain Specialist Professor Mick Vagg gives us the run down.

00:22:15 20 million years ago, dolphins had really long snouts - the question is why? What evolutionary pressures led to their evolution, and what caused them to become extinct?

00:28:11 Are chimpanzees selfish? Do they readily cooperate? A study on chimpanzees in the Republic of Congo found they often make decisions that benefit others faster than ones that help themselves.

 

Associate Professor Mick Vagg is Clinical Senior Lecturer at Deakin University School of Medicine, and Pain Specialist at Barwon Health.

 

This episode contains traces of John Oliver talking shady business practices which have contributed to the US Opioids Crisis.

 

Direct download: SoT_0316.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:11pm AEDT