The Science Show
The Science Show gives Australians unique insights into the latest scientific research and debate, from the physics of cricket to prime ministerial biorhythms.
- Update frequency
- every 3 days
- Average duration
- 48 minutes
- Episodes
- 271
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
The trees that harness lightning to kill their rivals
In an electrifying episode of the Science Show, find out how getting struck by a bolt from the heavens can help at least one species of tall tree not only survive, but thrive.
Then step back in tim…
00:42:07 |
Sat 12 Jul 2025
Lab Notes: The telescope redefining the Universe
In the three years since the James Webb Space Telescope sent back its first images, it's pulled back the veil on a whole bunch of mind-blowing cosmic phenomena. So how has this $13 billion bit of kit…
00:12:50 |
Tue 08 Jul 2025
What does it take to bring back an extinct animal?
We hear from scientists who push the boundaries of creation, whether that's building wild and wacky snack flavours (successfully) or cloning extinct tropical frogs (unsuccessfully … so far).
And si…
00:40:47 |
Sat 05 Jul 2025
Lab Notes: What we can learn from the world’s cleanest air
We often hear about places where the air quality is bad, even dangerous, but what about where the air is the cleanest on Earth?
That air can be found blowing onto the north-west tip of Tasmania at K…
00:13:51 |
Tue 01 Jul 2025
A portrait of philosopher Karl Popper
Karl Popper (1902-1994) is regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the twentieth century. Alan Saunders presented this portrait of Karl Popper for The Science Show in January 2001.
00:54:07 |
Sat 28 Jun 2025
Lab Notes: How Ozempic stops food cravings
A weekly injection that stops that hankering for hot chips and donuts?
Many people on Ozempic and similar medications report this phenomenon, saying they no longer have incessant thoughts about swee…
00:11:52 |
Tue 24 Jun 2025
Celebrating Charles Todd and the overland telegraph
The overland telegraph connecting Australia to the world was completed just over 150 years ago. It was built due to the dedication of a public servant, Charles Todd.
00:54:07 |
Sat 21 Jun 2025
Lab Notes: The tiny beetle ravaging Perth's trees
It's the size of a sesame seed, but it could cause unfathomable destruction to Australia's forests and urban canopy.
A beetle called the polyphagous shot-hole borer (Euwallacea fornicatus) is silent…
00:14:49 |
Tue 17 Jun 2025
Professor Roger Short, reproductive biologist
Roger Short (1930-2021) discusses influences in his early life, and some of his research achievements including melatonin as a controller of circadian rhythms, and aspects of reproductive biology acr…
00:54:07 |
Sat 14 Jun 2025
Lab Notes: What makes Sydney's cockies so clever?
First they learnt how to flip open wheelie bin lids. Now they're using water fountains.
Masters of the urban landscape, sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita) are more than capable of some qui…
00:14:35 |
Tue 10 Jun 2025
Hang on – we’re about to enter a wormhole!
Get ready for gravitons, dark photons and transition states. Kathryn Zurek takes us on a tour of the bewildering world of quantum physics.
00:53:57 |
Sat 07 Jun 2025
Lab Notes: How microscopic algae can devastate ocean life
A couple of months ago, a killer started mobilising off the South Australian shore — one that would wipe out marine life, make surfers feel sick, and smother picturesque beaches in thick foam.
The c…
00:13:34 |
Tue 03 Jun 2025
Black white and green
People have been in the Australian wilderness for generations. But can people be considered part of the natural landscape or will they always have an impact?
00:54:36 |
Sat 31 May 2025
Lab Notes: AI that outperforms humans is coming
If you were impressed by generative AI such as ChatGPT, then artificial general intelligence or AGI promises to really knock your socks off.
Over the past couple of decades, tech companies have been…
00:14:41 |
Tue 27 May 2025
Mary Somerville - Brilliant polymath, scientific genius triumphed against the odds
She could only read and write from age 10. She reared children and had a first unsupportive husband. But Mary Somerville was able to correct the work of Isaac Newton, help discover Neptune, and write…
00:54:51 |
Sat 24 May 2025
Lab Notes: Why a metre is a metre long
The next time you pick up a bag of spuds from the supermarket or fill up the car with petrol, you can thank the Treaty of the Metre for the metric system that underpins daily life.
The treaty was si…
00:13:03 |
Tue 20 May 2025
Evidence of oldest reptiles found in Victoria
Amateur fossil hunters make a major discovery. And Marilyn Renfree describes the sophisticated reproduction of marsupials.
00:53:03 |
Sat 17 May 2025
Lab Notes: The plight of the southern right whales
Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) were named by whalers because their high oil content made them the "right" ones to kill.
In the decades since whaling was banned, southern right numbers i…
00:13:46 |
Tue 13 May 2025
Aging halted in fruit flies. How about humans?
David Walker at UCLA says he can halt aging in fruit flies. Can the same concepts be applied to humans? And two tertiary students and an artist describe combining science and artistic pursuits.
00:53:02 |
Sat 10 May 2025
Lab Notes: Why one man let deadly snakes bite him 200 times
Cobras, taipans, black mambas — Tim Friede's been intentionally bitten more than 200 times by some of the most venomous snakes on Earth.
And he survived, mostly because years of self-injecting venom…
00:14:05 |
Tue 06 May 2025
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