The Science Show - Separate stories podcast

These little spiders that live in the dark corner of your garage have a pretty crazy sex life. Researchers have known for a while that male redback spiders get eaten during sex — but not only that, they somersault themselves right onto the fangs of the female.Considering the ultimate aim of this process is to create more spiders , this seems pretty counterintuitive. So it begs the question: why do they do it?Jonathan Webb and Ellen Phiddian get caught up in the science of this act, discussing what researchers have uncovered in the genes of the redback spider and its relatives.You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science editor and presenter Jonathan Webb on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.Get in touch with us: [email protected]:Ellen Phiddian, science reporterFurther information:Male redback spider's dramatic death somersault during sex coded in its DNACrossing experiments suggest a simple genetic basis of complex male self-sacrifice phenotypes in widow spidersThis episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Ngunnawal and Ngambri people.

Who was the man who stole hundreds of rare butterfly specimens from Australian museums 70 years ago? And why on earth did he do it? Peter Bernhardt reviews a book that teases out the strange tale.

Back at the time of Charles Darwin in the 1800s, a pair of artists in Sydney were producing incredibly detailed and lifelike illustrations of insects and plants, some of which are still used by scientists today. These talented artists were the Scott sisters, Harriet and Helena, who managed to break into the male-dominated world of botany all those years ago.

It was thought Homo habilis, the ancient tool-using "handy man", gave rise to Homo erectus, which gave us Neanderthals in Europe and Homo sapiens in Africa. But that lineage has been called into question, and recent fossil discoveries have shown that our current way of naming ancient humans may no longer be fit for use. So which of our ancestors should be included in the genus Homo?

Rapidly rushing rivers scour the land, washing huge amounts of soil and other material out to sea. Adam Rose at Central Queensland University is looking for ways to slow these massive torrents.

A monsoon over summer provided some reprieve for the heat-stressed Great Barrier Reef but this effect was short-lived. Jennifer Matthews at UTS is looking for ways to fortify the reef in the long-term, and she and her team are seeking to understand coral health and nutrition to enhance their survival, growth and reproduction.

Right now, a high-stakes mission is underway to save NASA's Swift telescope before it falls back to Earth.There's just one problem… the rescue satellite has run into some issues. So who rescues the rescuer?Jonathan Webb and Dr Sara Webb launch into this issue to see what scientists are doing to get this satellite back on track, and whether it can save Swift in time.You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science editor and presenter Jonathan Webb on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.Editor's note: the day after this episode was published, Australian time, NASA announced that its plan to boost the Swift Observatory was being abandoned because of ongoing issues controlling the pointing of the LINK spacecraft. It will still test out "rendesvous and proximity operations" which might provide useful results for similar missions in the future, but will not attempt to grab and lift the telescope as planned.Get in touch with us: [email protected]:Dr Sara Webb, Swinburne University of TechnologyThis episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Ngunnawal and Ngambri people.

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's biggest particle physics laboratory. Located near Geneva on the border of France and Switzerland, it uses massive particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider to smash particles together near the speed of light revealing the composition of the universe. And now, the famous accelerator is being renewed to smash at even higher rates.Shelby Traynor visits CERN and meets several Australian scientists there doing frontline work on atomic particles. 

Peter Raven’s industry was staggering. He did a massive survey of plants in China; he advised several US presidents and the Dalai Lama; he rescued the Missouri Botanical Garden from neglect, bringing it world renown. His former student, Peter Bernhardt, sings his praises — in the interests of encouraging young people to study the vital discipline of botany.

Australia is home to around 20,000 flowering plants. But when did the first flowers emerge? Vera Korasidis at the University of Melbourne is a palynologist — a palaeontologist specialising in pollen and spores. She analyses ancient pollen and says the oldest-known pollen has been dated to 125 million years. Pollen grains are coated with an extremely hardy compound allowing them to be preserved in rocks for millions of years.

Some of the most beautiful Australian native plants have spring-loaded traps that move faster than the blink of an eye. Jo Birch, curator of the University of Melbourne Herbarium, shows Belinda Smith examples of plants with extremely quick-moving parts that target insects, some snarling them with sticky goo and others with vacuum-powered traps.

Nematodes are microscopic worms. They are everywhere. Up to 40,000 species have been described. There may be as many as one million discrete species. Some live independently, others are parasitic. Some impact humans, penetrating broken skin and finding their way to the stomach. Infection can be asymptomatic. But it may bring gastrointestinal pain, malnourishment, cognitive impairment, or death for people who are immunosuppressed. Elissa Hallem is investigating infection pathways including their attraction to smelly feet!

The famous British comedian, naturalist, and TV host Bill Oddie known for his lifelong passion for birds died in July 2026. After rising to fame in the 1970s comedy trio The Goodies, Bill Oddie became Britain's best-loved birder, presenting popular wildlife shows such as Birding with Bill Oddie and Springwatch to educate millions about ornithology and conservation. We hear a short extract from Bill Oddie’s appearance on The Science Show in 1992.

How can a university spinout become a world leader in battery technology? Tom Maschmeyer is trying to get his quick-charging Gelion batteries manufactured, but pandemic and war have slowed investment and technology rollout.

In an MRI machine at Swinburne University in Melbourne's inner east, a unique dark matter detector has started looking for signs of the mysterious material that makes up 85% of matter in the Universe. So far, all physicists know about dark matter is it has mass, and it doesn't interact with light (hence being dark). So how do they look for something they know almost nothing about?

Famed mathematician Pythagoras — he of the right-angled triangle theorem — discovered mathematical principles which J. S. Bach used in his compositions. Violinist and artistic director of Bach Akademie Australia Madeleine Easton, and composer and conductor Christopher Bowen describe how mathematical principles form the basis of western musical harmony and how J. S. Bach used mathematics in his compositions.

But would you want to stay there for 20 years off and on, as you discover — well, nothing! At least not dark matter accounting for 80 per cent of matter in the Universe. We join Canadian science reporter Dan Falk at a deep mine where finely tuned instruments try to catch particles zooming from space through the earth to perhaps one day reveal the missing mass of the Universe. Come to SNOLAB!

Alison Pouliot is a world-renowned expert on fungi. Her books on mushrooms and toadstools explore species which are all around us but which we hardly notice. Peter Bernhardt reviews Alison Pouliot’s book, which provides a species note for every hour of the day.

When we swim or dive, our senses are impaired. Our vision becomes blurry. Our hearing becomes a mess of indistinguishable sound. So how do animals that live both in and out of the sea cope? Well they cope very well! Adaptations allow their senses to work often better underwater than on land. Belinda Smith discovers how seals hear and penguins see so well underwater.

Maps have triggered territorial claims, saved fragile environments and brought home the fragility of the Great Barrier Reef in the face of climate change. In her book Plotting the Oceans: Stories of Powerful Maps and Their Makers, Sarah Hamylton tells the stories of five cartographers whose maps and ideas produced big results but in different ways. Charles Darwin mapped the world’s coral reefs to support a theory about how they formed, and in doing so developed insights that shaped his eventual theory of evolution. The trailblazing Marie Tharp, barred from ocean expeditions in the 1950s, created the first detailed map of the ocean floor, providing key evidence for the then radical idea of continental drift. In this discussion with Robyn Williams Sarah Hamylton describes geographer and academic David Stodardt who made maps of remote atolls and whose advocacy led to the saving of Aldabra Atoll in the western Indian Ocean. It is home to hundreds of thousands of giant tortoises but was once considered as the site for an Anglo/American military base. 

Cells are full of molecules. Some are very large, such as proteins and DNA. Studying specific molecules or organelles in isolation is challenging. Elizabeth New makes sensor molecules which allow specific cell contents to fluoresce when viewed with a microscope. The aim is to see the effects of diseases and drugs on cells. Her methods can be applied to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease, cancer and diabetes and show molecules which cause harm and bring on ageing. There are opportunities to look for predictors of disease and test drugs. Elizabeth New is speaking from the SESAME synchrotron in Allan, Jordan where she is on secondment.

With National Science Week coming up this month we are being asked to select favourite native flowers to celebrate. However, as Professor Darren Crayn at James Cook University in Cairns remarks, while enjoying some benefits of plant life in the moment, we are neglecting the larger field of botany – fewer courses are being taught at universities, sometimes as mere add-ons in biology courses. And yet plant life is so incredibly diverse in Australia that 150 new species are discovered every year.

Future Right Now is a book written by more than 40 young people about what matters to them. As foreshadowed in The Science Show last week a national event was held at The Australian Museum where young and old, including politicians, explored their hopes. The youngest, Annabelle Smith, just 10 years old appears in the book with her poem about Mountain Pygmy possums and her desire to keep them safe.  She reads her poem for us, and the editor of Future Right Now, Associate Professor Michelle Catanzaro reveals an analysis of the writers’ moods and concerns.

This year, scientists included a new potential threat in their decision to move the Doomsday Clock — a symbol for how close humanity is to destroying itself — closer to midnight. The threat is 'mirror life', a theoretical type of synthetic bacteria, that if made, could grow with almost no hindrance. But is stopping all mirror life research the right action? Ellen Phiddian reports.

Sabine Botha left her home in South Africa, rejecting its apartheid and studied at Oxford and in Germany, ending with a smorgasbord of subjects. This turned out to be ideal for her present position at Arizona State University, leading a team pioneering work in newly designed laboratories where vast lasers and X-rays are used to reveal the structures of drugs and new materials in the field of analysis.

Charles Todd was the force behind Australia’s first connection with the outside world – the Overland Telegraph. He came from a relatively ordinary background in England and surprised family and friends by deciding to sail to South Australia because he somehow foresaw astounding opportunities at the ‘Ends of the Earth’. Once in Adelaide he became a weather forecaster, an engineer, ran the central GPO and then planned and carried out the connection of Australia with the overseas telegraph. He led the expedition from Adelaide to Darwin thus connecting the wide brown land with the rest of the world. This month Sir Charles Todd would have turned 200 and his great-great-grandson Julian Todd celebrates his achievements, showing how a barely qualified young person can reach the highest levels and make a spectacular difference. 

This year has been one of the worst starts to the snow season since records began. And it's a trend that researchers say will only continue in the years to come. But what's causing this change? What's the outlook for the rest of this ski season, and should we all just be booking a holiday to Japan? Jonathan Webb goes off-piste with climate reporter Romy Stephens about what this all means. You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science editor and presenter Jonathan Webb on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.Get in touch with us: [email protected]:Romy Stephens, climate reporterFurther information:How snow machines have become the key ingredient for ski seasonsThis episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Ngunnawal and Ngambri people.

The Lemuroid ringtail possum (Hemibelideus lemuroides) is a species endemic to Far North Queensland and only found in old-growth rainforest. It is a high-elevation specialist that appears to be highly vulnerable to heatwaves, forest loss and disturbance. Just like polar bears, they are highly sensitive to extreme temperature change. The white possum was once abundant in cool rainforests on Mount Lewis in northern Queensland, but its population collapsed abruptly following a severe heatwave in 2005. Today, just a handful of individuals are left, another possible victim of our new extreme climate, according to Bill Laurance at James Cook University in Cairns.

Sujit Datta, head of Caltech's "Squishy Lab", describes how bacteria behave in fluid such as mucous and lead to infection.

Scientists will sometimes strike palaeontological gold and discover 'fossil graveyards', sites containing thousands or millions of animal bodies, which have fossilised allowing study today. Belinda Smith speaks to palaeontologists working at two very different types of fossil graveyard — one in Australia, the other in Canada — to find out what accumulated fossilised remains reveal about life on Earth before humans impacted the ecology and when climate was very different.

Gadgets, light from screens and other artificial light can interfere with our sleep. Despite this, technology, if used properly, can help rather than be a hindrance to those who struggle with sleep. In The Future of Sleep, futurist Catherine Ball examines the role technology can play in achieving restful sleep.

Dame Bridget Ogilvie, one of the world’s greatest leaders in research, died in April. A memorial was held to celebrate her achievements and among those paying tribute was former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Before any new therapy or medicine is placed on the shelves of a pharmacy, it needs to be tested in humans first.What does that process look like? And who are the people testing these new drugs?Jonathan Webb goes behind the curtain of clinical trials with health reporter Lauren Roberts to take a look at what happens in Australia.You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science editor and presenter Jonathan Webb on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.Get in touch with us: [email protected]:Lauren Roberts, health reporterFurther information:Richard Scolyer encouraged Australians to enrol in research. Here's how to get involvedAustralian Clinical TrialsThis episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Ngunnawal and Ngambri people.

Past winners Maisie Morrison, Joseph Solina and Ruby Tarman tell Amy Briggs how their outlook has changed since writing their essays.

Kat Cermelj describes how to bake gluten-free goodies that taste as good as the real thing.

Warmer ocean water is leading to faster melting of Antarctic glaciers.

A creation story of the Boandik people of the south-eastern coastal region of South Australia and western Victoria provides a timeline for Australia’s geological history.

AI chatbots are helping to crack long-standing mathematical problems, including some of the famous Paul Erdős conjectures that have remained unsolved for nearly 80 years. It's not just researchers finding these solutions, either: it's also amateur mathematicians armed with off-the-shelf ChatGPT.Jonathan Webb wheels out the chalkboard with Dr Melissa Lee to discuss how AI is shaping the field of mathematics, and if anyone can be a mathematician these days.You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science editor and presenter Jonathan Webb on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.Get in touch with us: [email protected]:Dr Melissa Lee, Senior Lecturer Monash UniversityFurther information:An AI solution to an 80‑year‑old problem has shocked mathematiciansLeiden Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and MathematicsThis episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Ngunnawal and Ngambri people.

Professor of neurobiology Carlos Lois at the California Institute of Technology describes experiments using Australian zebra finches to investigate how memory is stored in the brain.

Amy Briggs takes us to Mulligans Flat, a wildlife sanctuary north of Canberra to see preparations to quarantine a threatened marsupial, the eastern quoll.

The Science Show offers views on education from student Chloe Kwan, Superstar of STEM Jennifer Baker and indigenous rights campaigner Noel Pearson.

Ian Lowe is co-president of the Australian Peace and Security Forum and has many ideas about peaceful alternatives - beyond what is dismissed as ‘woke’.

Old satellites and bits of space junk regularly fall back to Earth, burning up as they pass through the atmosphere.All this burning metal causes a chain reaction and ultimately destroys ozone molecules, which keep us safe from most of the Sun's harmful UVB rays. Could a new era of satellite "megaconstellations", like the one run by SpaceX's internet company Starlink, undo humanity's hard work repairing the ozone layer?‌Jonathan Webb launches into this issue with Dr Alice Gorman (AKA Dr Space Junk), taking stock of just how many satellites are burning up and what can be done to solve the problem.You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science editor and presenter Jonathan Webb on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.Get in touch with us: [email protected]:Dr Alice Gorman, Flinders UniversityThis episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Ngunnawal and Ngambri people.

In 1926, the organisation now known as Family Planning Australia was created, and eugenics played a role alongside feminism in the birth control movement.

Dan Falk takes us 2Km underground to SNOLAB, the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in northern Ontario, a Canadian science laboratory specialising in neutrino and dark matter physics sitting in a working nickel mine.

Australian mathematician Terence Tao, now a professor at the University of California Los Angeles, was awarded the AC – The Companion of the Order of Australia on 8th June 2026.

Australian zebra finches are being used to understand how human brains work and answer fundamental questions such as where memories are stored.

A deadly variant of H5N1 avian influenza has finally reached mainland Australia: the last continent without it. Although the risk to human health remains low, this virus has spread through many different species overseas — and not just birds. So are our animals vulnerable? Jonathan Webb speaks with Dr Tiggy Grillo about which animals could be at risk, and what is being done to protect them.You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science editor and presenter Jonathan Webb on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.Get in touch with us: [email protected]:Dr Tiggy Grillo, Chief Operating Officer of Wildlife Health AustraliaFurther information:Animal disease hotline: 1800 675 888What we know about how H5N1 bird flu got here and where it may appear nextWhy bird flu poses a high risk to many Australian native mammalsFor more on avian influenza and humans, have a listen to the latest Health Report bonus episode.This episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Ngunnawal and Ngambri people.

The coloured lights in the sky at the poles are produced by charged particles exciting molecules in the atmosphere. And not only on Earth.

James Cook University in Cairns hosts Australia’s tropical herbarium.