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

Hosts: Ed Brown, Kirsten Banks

00:00:49 For the first time ever, astronomers have taken a photo of the silhouette of the event horizon of a black hole!
00:06:39 The Event Horizon Telescope captured 5 petabytes of data - which is a lot!
00:09:08 XKCD compared the size of the event horizon of M87 with the size of our solar system.
00:11:36 Veritasium expertly described how the photo was taken, and all the permutations that could have happened to give us different photos.
Kirsten Banks is an astronomer, science communicator and Physics student.
This episode contains traces of Alan Duffy "losing his mind" talking about the Black Hole image on ABC Breakfast News.

Direct download: SoT_0331.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:58pm AEDT

Hosts: Ed Brown, Dr. Kate Naughton, Peter Miller

00:00:40 An extraordinary must-read article in the New Yorker has an in-depth look at the few hours after a meteor hit the Yucatán Peninsula and probably wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs. It also follows an amazing discovery that could answer many questions about the appearance of dinosaurs and whether or not they were already dying out.
00:18:51 A study led by a team at the Duke University Clinical Research Institute has found that treatment recommendations that US doctors use when managing heart patients - less than 10 per cent of those recommendations are based on the best available evidence.
00:33:52 As computer graphics and robotics get more and more realistic, there's a point where an avatar or android is so close to real but not quite, and it's unsettling. That's the Uncanny Valley. But we don't often talk about it's auditory counterpart, and how there's an Uncanny Valley for artificial voices as well.
00:47:19 "Pumpkin toadlets" are tiny poisonous frogs in Brazil's Atlantic Forest. They're only about 15mm long, and their skeletons are fluorescent under a UV lamp!


This episode contains traces of Q, a 'genderless' artificial voice.

Direct download: SoT_0330.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:05pm AEDT

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Chris Curtain-Magee

00:01:22 In 450 B.C., the "Father of History", Herodotus, wrote a 23 line account of a type of Egyptian cargo vessel. This was widely thought to be a fabrication, but a discovery in an ancient Egyptian port city indicates the account was truthful.
00:08:03 The earliest undisputed evidence of humans in Australia comes from a rock shelter in northern Australia and dates back to 65,000 years ago. Now investigations at an ancient midden - a trashpile - in the country's South could potentially double that time-frame.
00:14:18 Lots of animals, from birds to turtles to fish, can detect magnetic fields. But until now we've never thought humans had that ability. A new study suggests that a small number of people may be able to register magnetic field changes, but on a subconscious level.
00:21:03 Science on Top
This episode contains traces of Mark Robinson narrating 'Why is Herodotus called "The Father of History'?" from Ted-Ed.

Direct download: SoT_0329.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:48am AEDT

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall

00:00:32 Some fish can survive the freezing cold waters of Antarctica thanks to a gene that makes anti-freeze. But how do fish in the Arctic, in the Northern hemisphere, also have the same gene?
00:08:33 Some people can smell when people are sick. Could these 'super-smellers' help diagnose Parkinson's Disease early on?
00:21:26 DNA is made of four nucleotides: G, A, T, and C. Now an interdisciplinary team of researchers has doubled that genetic code by creating synthetic DNA that uses eight letters.
00:27:55 NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is currently orbiting the asteroid 101955 Bennu. But it turns out Bennu is no ordinary asteroid... it spits!
 
This episode contains traces of 6abc Action News hosts Brian Taff and Jeannette Reyes discussing a cheesy Swiss experiment.

Direct download: 328.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:19pm AEDT

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