Boiling Point Archives - Page 19 of 23

Plaque busting micro-robots and the gender disadvantage of a female twin.

Tonight’s dose of Boiling Point Science brought to you by Cat, Alex and our intern Francesca. Brushing teeth, a thing of the past? – micro-robots wiping out dental plaque may save your dental bill. Having a twin is fun? – Not if you are female with a male twin. Researchers found female twins highly disadvantaged. […]

Reanimating pig brains, plastic bag bans, and the psychology of break ups!

Chantelle, Tim and Nick had a chat about activity after “death” in pigs’ brains, the UK’s ban on plastic bags and questioned; is love the same as cocaine? Saving swine Tim started off with some ground-breaking research about apparently dead pigs’ brains showing signs of cellular life after being bathed in artificial fluid. 32 of […]

Education and Poverty, Black holes and the Event Horizon Telescope

Tonight, on Boiling Point, Nick, Jake and Tim stopped by the studio to talk about the educational impacts of poverty and the super exciting first imagine of a supermassive black hole. The correlation between poverty and a lack of education Despite Australia being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, the ACOSS Poverty in Australia report (2016) found […]

Coral spawning, David Suggett and a new GPS epoch

Tim, Chantelle and Jake are joined by David Suggett in this week’s dose of Boiling Point. How resilient is the Great Barrier Reef? Radical drop in coral spawning concerns scientists, with special guest and coral expert David Suggett We just had daylights savings end but did you know we’re in a new GPS epoch too? […]

Special Guest Manon Sabot; the role of vegetation in the climate equation

How do plants deal with extremes in a changing climate? Our special guest, Manon Sabot, climate scientist from the University of New South Wales discusses her research, the challenges modelling climate/vegetation relationships and why plants may not be responding the way initially predicted….. […]

Fractal rice paddies, the EDGE list and mathematics to the rescue

Chantelle, Alex and Danny are back with another dose of Boiling Point Science. Perfect greenery – What makes rice paddies so efficient? Endangered, but little known – unique and strange animals on the EDGE list Wobbly and unfixable? – Think again. Mathematicians teach us how to fix a wobbly chair. […]

Whale lice, genetic resistance to contraceptives and wolves vs dogs

Whales and their lice – they might be nasty and crawly, but they tell researchers the story of the whales’ social network Genes breaking down contraceptive hormones? A new hypothesis explores why the pill and other contraceptives might fail for a select few women Wolves versus dogs – can wolves collaborate with people like […]

Brain stew, super recognizers, and a world built for men

Another Boiling Point podcast is out! Brain stew – How many brain cells do we actually have? You can listen to a podcast on the topic here Super recognizer – Some people just have it in their genes A man’s world – how the world is built for men and how that puts women in […]

Insect special: Giant bees, Bogong moths and mathematical bees

This week on Boiling Point Chantelle, Jake and Nick are back for an amazing bug filled week. The six centimetre Megachile Pluto bee is back, having been spotted for first time in 37 years; the devastating consequences of the Bogong moth’s decline; and can bees really do maths? Sources: –https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-02-27/bogong-moth-decline-in-australian-alps/10850036 –https://theconversation.com/can-bees-do-maths-yes-new-research-shows-they-can-add-and-subtract-108074 –https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/21/world/giant-bee-megachile-pluto-found-trnd/index.html […]

Midday naps, horseshoe crab blood and Neptune’s new moon

Midday naps, horseshoe crab blood and Neptune’s new moon Nick finds out what good lunch time nap on the other does to our brain Horseshoe crabs and the amazing medical uses of their blue blood, put it at risk from over exploitation What the moon? It’s tiny and probably pretty young, Nick gets the low […]

Palaeontologist Liz Dowding and Horseshoe crabs

Palaeontologist Liz Dowding and the living fossil; Horseshoe crabs Special guest devonian palaeontologist and biogiographer, Elizabeth Dowding, talks with Cat about the contentious fish dominated Devonian period , plus the even more contentious ‘new’ continent Zealandia. Alex talks about the wonderful Horseshoe Crab, technically an arachnid and unchanged for millions of years […]

Fish pass the mirror test, upward lightning and teen tech use

Reef fish; brighter than you think, upward lightning and teens vs screens Tim brought us the bright and flashy: Lightning research and its newest advances. Check out this Amazing upward lightning on YouTube Jake saw something fishy: A fish that passes the classic mirror test of animal intelligence calls into question the traditional method of measuring […]