Science On Top

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall, Alayna Hansen. 00:00:58 We're hosting Dr. Pamela Gay for a talk, Q&A session and live show in Melbourne on Wednesday 10 October! Tickets $20 from scienceontop.com/live and all proceeds go to the non-profit Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 00:02:23 The government of Sierra Leone has announced the discovery of a new species of Ebola virus. Fortunately there's no indication that it's spread to humans yet, but that could be just a matter of time. 00:10:23 Hurricanes Irma and Maria wreaked havoc on the Caribbean, causing extensive damage and hundreds of deaths. But it did provide a rare opportunity for a team to study how natural disasters affect the evolution of some small tree-dwelling lizards. 00:16:52 Researchers are insisting that the hybrid cross of a melon-headed whale and a rough-toothed dolphin that was discovered in Hawaii is not a "wolphin". So of course, everyone's calling it a "wolphin". 00:23:08 For the first time physicists at the Large Hadr

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Professor Jonti Horner, Sarah de Garis 00:01:22 The longest lunar eclipse in 18 years gave viewers in much of the world a stunning spectacle - a blood red moon. 00:03:08 Radar data from the Mars Express probe has revealed a large lake of liquid water beneath the red planet's surface. 00:14:49 CRISPR is a defence mechanism used by bacteria against viruses. And it's pretty good - but it has one major weakness that viruses exploit. 00:22:22 Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Yale University have now made a significant breakthrough - by using gene editing to treat a genetic condition in utero. In mice. 00:30:15 Dr Jurgen Otto loves peacock spiders - a lot. And his passion has let him on a journey through southern Western Australia in search of a tiny (but cute) spider he saw 23 years ago. Check out his site: Peacockspider.org   This episode contains traces of Journalist Simone Boyce discussing the lunar eclipse with Dr. Jackie Faherty and Hanneke Weitering on NBC's

Hosts: Ed Brown, Lucas Randall, Dr. Carolyn de Graaf 00:01:04 It was one of the most incredible news stories of the year - the rescue of twelve kids and their soccer coach from the flooded Thai cave. Made even more remarkable that they all returned in relatively good health - especially considering all the diseases and illnesses they were at risk of catching. 00:10:48 Whether it's Ebola, Hendra, SARS, or rabies; bats are often blamed for the spread of viruses. But is that fair? Are bats more likely to host diseases that spread to humans? 00:17:34 While hunting for Planet Nine, astronomers accidentally discovered 12 new moons around Jupiter. One of them is on a collision course! 00:28:54 Scientists Australia have developed a blood test which, in a recent trial, was successful in detecting melanomas in 81.5% of cases.   Carolyn de Graaf is a geneticist from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.   This episode contains traces of astronaut Scott Kelly describing the creepiest thing he encountered on the ISS.

Hosts: Ed Brown, Lucas Randall, Daniel Midgely 00:01:18 Billed as having "mastered sign language", Koko The Gorilla has passed away. But was she all she was cracked up to be? Koko's First Interspecies Web Chat: Transcript Project Nim: the chimp who was brought up like a child Clever Hans It’s time to stop exposing people to the dangers of Facilitated Communication Sue Savage-Rumbaugh 00:29:43 An international team has discovered a galaxy unlike any other. Smaller than the Milky Way, the mysterious galaxy appears to have very little dark matter - possibly none at all. 00:41:00 Artificial Intelligence is becoming increasingly ubiquitous in our lives. But a Wall Street Journal report finds that many of the big tech companies are using humans where computer bots fall short.   This episode contains traces of a report about Koko's death on CBC News.   Daniel Midgley is a linguist at the University of Western Australia and presenter on the weekly podcast and radio show Talk the Talk.

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall, Dr. Brad McKay 00:01:55 The WHO calls "gaming disorder" a mental health condition - so what is it, how serious is it, and what can we do about it? 00:14:08 Satellites have found the coldest place on Earth and it could kill you! 00:18:20 Can parasites control animals they haven't physically infected? Probably not, but tapeworms infecting stickleback fish can indirectly influence other, noninfected fish. Remember to watch Ed Yong's parasite TED Talk! 00:28:24 A drawing of an Australasian cockatoo in a 13th century Vatican manuscript could spark a rethink about trade routes between Europe and Australia in medieval times. 00:36:23 The Australian National Skeptics Convention will be held October 13-15 in Sydney. Get your ticket today!   Dr Brad McKay is a General Practitioner, a writer and TV personality. Follow him on Twitter.   This episode contains traces of Fox Business Network's Stuart Varney talking with Dr. Marc Siegel about gaming disorder.

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall 00:01:05 A critically endangered frog lives underground in a remote mountainous region of Australia. Researchers are now trialling an adorable new method for finding and studying them. 00:07:15 Diabetes is a growing problem around the world, and now some researchers are looking to an odd-looking Australian icon for a potential new treatment. 00:16:07 A new paper published in Science has caused quite a buzz, by demonstrating that honeybees understand the concept of zero. 00:21:19 Every year, thousands of Giant Spider Crabs congregate in Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay, where they shed their hard shells. What happens after that, is a mystery.   This episode contains traces of Jet Black, Luke Edwards,and Jenny Gray from CEO Zoos Victoria lamenting the plight of the Baw Baw Frog.

Hosts: Ed Brown, Dr. Shayne Joseph, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall, Dr. Helen Maynard-Casely, Dr. Mick Vagg 00:03:26 The recent discovery of dunes on Pluto surprised planetary scientists. With very little atmosphere or wind, what could cause them? 00:11:48 A sample from Mars, analysed by the Curiosity rover, has found organic molecules - the building blocks of life. 00:18:25 One of the most famous psychology experiments, the Stanford marshmallow test, looked at delayed gratification in children back in the 1960s and 1970s. It's now been reproduced, a lot more rigorously, and the results are very different. 00:24:32 A proof-of-concept blood test can determine how far a long a woman is in her pregnancy, and how likely she is to give birth ahead of term. 00:28:22 An emerging field of diagnostics, liquid biopsy, is seeing impressive results. Recent studies correctly diagnosed people with ovarian and liver cancers 80 percent of the time. 00:31:51 Planet Nine is an exciting hypothesis that goes part of the way to

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall 00:01:04 Vitamania is stronger than ever, with more than half of Americans and nearly a third of Australians regularly taking vitamin supplements. But a new study finds that most vitamin supplements have little or no benefit, and some can even be doing harm. 00:10:03 If there's life elsewhere in the universe, there's a good chance it's bacteria or something much like it. Now astrobiologists are pushing for more attention to be paid to extra-terrestrial viruses, as viruses are the most common form of "life" on Earth. 00:18:24 Europe's oldest tree has been dated, which is a bit more complicated than counting growth rings. 00:24:40 Australian magpies that live near airports seem to be less afraid of aeroplanes. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen. This episode contains traces of an ad for Flintstones Vitamins.

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall 00:01:12 Jaundice, fairly common in newborn babies, could be an evolutionary advantage. 00:10:14 France is being invaded by giant, carnivorous, cloned flatworms. And it has been for more than two decades. 00:16:16 The rare birds native to the South Georgia islands, in the middle of nowhere, are no longer at risk from introduced rodents. They have been saved by a successful eradication project. 00:20:51 Asteroid 2015 BZ509 has mystified astronomers with it's retrograde orbit. A new theory suggests it could orbit the wrong way because it's an intruder from another solar system.   This episode contains traces of WCVB reporter Mary Saladna's story about a new restaurant in Boston.

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall, Alayna Hansen, and Peter Miller. 00:02:13 The internet blew up with the Yanny/Laurel audio illusion. Why do some people hear one thing, others hear another, and some people can hear both? 00:08:50 A new look at old data reveals signs of plumes of water coming from Jupiter's moon Europa. 00:13:35 Watching Europa is Peter's audio-visual artwork imagining life on Europa. 00:23:02 The chytrid fungus is devestating amphibian populations, but geneticists have finally traced its origins back to the pet trade, and East Asia in particular. 00:30:32 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. 00:36:55 Australian magpies appear to have learnt the calls of other birds - eavesdropping on their communications to learn of nearby predators.   This episode contains traces of Deep Look's video, "You've Heard of a

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Dr. Carolyn de Graaf 00:11:15 Harvard researchers have systematically profiled every cell in developing zebrafish and frog embryos, showing how one cell develops into an entire organism. 00:15:28 81-year-old James Harrison has saved millions of babies. His weekly blood donations have been used to create a treatment to protect unborn babies from the deadly Rhesus D Haemolytic Disease (HDN). 00:23:16 Experts from around the wold have signed a letter to the World Health Organisation calling for more action to fight the cancer-causing retrovirus HTLV-1. 00:29:36 Ancient tools found on Mediterranean islands could suggest that Neanderthals had at least rudimentary seafaring skills.   This episode contains traces of US congressman Mo Brooks grilling climate scientist Dr. Philip Duffy before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee about the causes of sea level rise.

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Sarah de Garis 00:01:25 A study by a team from University of Sussex shows that horses can not only distinguish human facial expressions, but they remember people's emotional states several hours later. 00:08:23 Male fruit flies enjoy sex. 00:17:07 There's a fungus that uses tiny crystals to sense gravity. And it can do that, because it stole genes from a bacteria. 00:21:06 Kids have a lot of energy - but in terms of endurance and recovery, they can even perform better than highly-trained adult endurance athletes.   This episode contains traces of Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos sharing his vision of a space-faring future.

Hosts: Ed Brown, Dr. Shayne Joseph, Lucas Randall 00:01:31 While studying the enzyme produced by a bacteria that eats plastic, an international team has accidentally made it even better. 00:08:57 NASA's new planet-hunding spacecraft has launched. TESS will study 85% of the sky, and will be able to study the mass, size, density and orbit of thousands of exoplanets. 00:23:37 Retrotransposons - elements of DNA that can spread to other species - are being found more and more often. And they're almost ubiquitous in marine animals, especially shellfish.   This episode contains traces of French President Emmanuel Macron speaking before the US Congress.

Hosts: Ed Brown, Lucas Randall, Peter Miller 00:01:13 The bowhead whale sings a different tune to the humpback whale. It's more jazz to the humpback's classical. 00:07:38 The closest star outside our solar system just did a big burp. And it wouldn't be good for any life on its planet. 00:21:57 The hottest chilli in the world was the Carolina Reaper. A competitive eater ate one, then regretted it.   This episode contains traces of Will Smith interviewing astronaut Drew Feustel on the International Space Station.

Hosts: Ed Brown, Dr. Shayne Joseph, Lucas Randall, Jo Benhamu. 00:01:00 New York researchers have detailled the "structure and distribution of an unrecognized interstitium in human tissues". Or as some are calling it, a brand new organ. 00:16:37 New evidence lends credibility to an old theory of how Vikings navigated the seas. They could have used 'sunstones' and polarised light to find the sun in cloudy conditions. 00:24:39 Thanks to gravitational lensing, astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have imaged the most distant star ever seen - 9 billion light years away. 00:29:28 Non-profit news service Kaiser Health News has launched a large database tracking pharmaceutical companies and where they spend their money. In one year drug companies spent $63 million on political lobbying activities but almost double that on Patient Advocacy Groups. 00:41:39 You probably didn't realise it, but the puffins have flourescent beaks. So why is this researcher making them wear sunglasses?   This episode contains

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall 00:01:06 The Draw-A-Scientist test has been a regular investigation of children's ideas about science. The proportion of women being drawn has risen sharply since the test was first done in the 1960s. 00:09:09 70,000 years ago a small red dwarf star hurtling through space came within a light-year of our sun. Scholtz's star is now about 20 light years away but it's likely responsible for the orbits of a lot of comets and asteroids in our solar system. 00:20:52 Newspapers are dying, especially local newspapers. But the decline in local news outlets has a big effect on epidemiology, as researchers try to track the spread of diseases that aren't recorded anywhere else.   This episode contains traces of CBS News correspondent Anna Werner describing a new Californian requirement for a cancer warning on coffee.

Hosts: Ed Brown, Dr. Shayne Joseph, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall 00:01:15 Stephen Hawking led a remarkable life, and a brilliant career in theoretical physics and cosmology. His genius will be sorely missed. 00:08:53 Contrary to many news reports, NASA's twin experiment did NOT find that 7% of astronaut Scott Kelly's DNA was changed by space travel. There were some health effects, but he definitely remained human. 00:15:58 Some media outlets, such as LiveScience, issued corrections. 00:17:56 The long-billed corella is a parrot may have become a pest to many farmers in Australia, but not so long ago their numbers were very low. 00:22:27 There's a Chinese space station that's hurtling out of control towards Earth. We don't know when it will hit, where it will hit, how much will burn up in the atmosphere or what toxic substances may still be on board. But you'll probably be fine. 00:29:37 NASA's super-successful planet-hunting spacecraft, Kepler, is running out of fuel.   This episode contains traces of St

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Dr. Helen Maynard-Casely 00:02:37 The Juno spacecraft has returned extraordinary new data about Jupiter's cloud system and interior. 00:14:51 Diabetes, which affects about 415 million people around the world, has conventionally been categorised into three types - Type 1, Type 2 and gestational diabetes. But a new study indicates that there may in fact be 6 different types of diabetes. 00:20:39 Using satellite and drone technology, researchers have found a new supercolony of more than 1.5 million Adélie penguins. 00:25:54 A tribe of people that lived in Southern Africa nearly a thousand years ago have unintentionally left a legacy that is now a new source of information about the Earth's magnetic field.   Dr. Helen Maynard-Casely is an instrument scientist for the WOMBAT high-intensity powder diffractometer at the Bragg Institute. She writes “The Shores of Titan” column on The Conversation. Her most recent scientific paper, The Acetylene-Ammonia Co-crystal on Titan, is publi

Hosts: Ed Brown, Dr. Shayne Joseph, Penny Dumsday 00:01:04 In April 2015, unusually heavy thunderstorms flooded Chile's Atacama desert, the second driest region in the world. This messed up the plans of researchers there to study life in the Mars-like desert, but it also told them more about how life can survive in long periods of drought. 00:09:27 Two Dutch researchers have looked at more than 100 examples of dice from the last 2,000 years. This huge collection can give us some clues about how people have thought about chance, fate and probability over the centuries. 00:16:23 The crickets on the Hawaiian island of Kawaii have gone quiet. They're still there, they're still trying to chirp, but they're not making any sound]. 00:22:53 There are 167 known species of tardigrades - the virtually indestructible eight-legged micro-animals. But the recently discovered 168th has unusual eggs. 00:26:31 And speaking of tardigrades, Shayne has some feels about Star Trek: Discovery.   This episode contains traces of t

Hosts: Ed Brown, Dr. Shayne Joseph, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall 00:01:06 SpaceX successfully launched the most powerful operational rocket in the world, sending a car into space. 00:12:34 An invasive species of crayfish has been tracked back to single animal, which reproduces by cloning itself. 00:19:50 Researchers have found a surprising amount of bacteria-eating viruses in an unlikely place - women's bladders. 00:27:16 DNA analysis and facial reconstruction techniques have revealed a surprising portrait of a Cheddar Man, a human who lived in England 9,100 years ago. 00:31:41 Palaeontologists have found spectacularly well preserved proto-spiders suspended in amber. The ancient arachnids had tails longer than their tiny bodies.   This episode contains traces of "Starman" being deployed into space to the music of David Bowie, and the celebrations of engineers at SpaceX.