Boiling Point is Eastside Radio’s 30-minute foray into the scientific world. The BP crew discuss obscure scientific facts, recent developments and play tunes with a tenuous connection to their topics of choice!
What happens when you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere for two years? Perhaps you awaken your passion for researching invasive parasites? Perhaps you discover a new species? This week’s episode is a show of adventure, mystery, surprise, and invasion. I, Anastasia, am sitting down with UNSW PhD Candidate Harry Eyck to chat about the […]
Many of us loved them as a kid and still secretly love them today. I am talking about dinosaurs. What’s much less known is how they were first discovered, what consequences this huge discovery had for science and how dinosaurs inspired the myth of dragons. Let’s go back in time to answer these questions. In […]
Australia is among the world leaders of successful organ transplants. However, nearly 2,000 people are on the transplant waiting list at any one time. There are just not enough organs and tissues for everyone who needs them. Wouldn’t it be handy if we could just make organs from scratch? Sounds crazy, but our guest is […]
Pint of Science brings scientists and non-scientists together and provides a platform for scientists to present their work in a jargon-free and easily accessible way. Pint of Science Australia is presented to you at 11 different locations around Australia this year. Grab a beer and listen to brilliant minds and how they are planning to […]
Read More… from Pint of Science 2022 in Sydney: How do animals deal with climate change?
Rats, pigeons, cockroaches and starlings, they all have in common to be extremely adaptable and resilient when it comes to adjusting to new environments. But how do they do it? Our guest strove to uncover the secrets in their genetic codes. And she got some answers. Cat and Anastasia chat with Kat Stuart, PhD candidate […]
Scientists are trying to communicate their research all the time to the general public, sometimes with great success, but sometimes the research can come across as difficult to understand, difficult to relate to, or difficult to convey its importance. But what if there was another way to not only communicate your research but also make […]
‘I am surprised they don’t attack us more often’. Andrew Fox’ reply might seem surprising. But indeed, when we enter the ocean, we automatically become part of the sharks’ world and hence part of the marine food chain. Andrew Fox is the son of Australia’s famous champion spearfisherman and shark bite-victim Rodney Fox. Rodney invented […]
Being social is essential for dolphins in Shark Bay, WA. Especially the male dolphins form lifelong friendships. Our guest, the behavioural ecologist, Dr Livia Gerber, from the University of New South Wales Sydney, wondered why the male dolphins spend so much time nurturing their relationships. Eventually she found, reported in a freshly published paper, that […]
Read More… from No friends means no offspring – the tough life of male dolphins
Sydney’s underwater world has a lot to offer. There are the sponge gardens, the very rare and yet docile grey nurse sharks and the playful and always hungry blue gropers, so basically a whole world to explore. Our guest helps Sydneysiders to do exactly that, to feel at home underwater and to always keep up […]
PFAS or per- and polyfluorinated substances are everywhere, in rivers, the ocean and they have even made their way to the most remote places like the arctic. Polar bears show similar PFAS levels as people working at a PFAS production plant. The problem: PFAS are man-made chemicals that stay in the environment and our body […]
Read More… from PFAS and polar bears – chemical pollution in the Arctic
Are you afraid of spiders? Our guest, Dr Samantha Nixon, certainly was very afraid before she started studying spiders. By now, she is a venom scientist and regularly handles spiders to milk them for their venom. Spider venom has turned out to be very useful for a number of medical purposes. For instance, they appear […]
Read More… from Fighting creepy with crawly: Spider venom in drug discovery
Cat interviews koala researcher and geneticist, Dr Katrin Hohweiler, about her work on population genetics of the popular Australian animal. On the east coast of Australia the population has been reduced by 80 % since the 1980s. One of the main reasons is habitat loss. Koalas have more and more only small pockets of gum […]