Science Friction
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Science Friction
Science Friction's latest season is: Artificial Evolution. In 1996, Dolly the Sheep became the first ever cloned animal. Nearly 30 years later, genetic technology has reshaped the world around us. What exactly has happened, where are we headed, and are we OK about it? In this series, environment re...
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257 episodi
05 | Artificial Evolution: Gene-Edited Babies
In 2018, a Chinese scientist made an announcement that shocked the world — and landed him years in prison.
In a special episode of Artificial Ev...
A story of hope: How Jane Goodall changed the world
Dr Jane Goodall, a pioneer of ground-breaking chimpanzee field research, has died at the age of 91.
Her early work, published in 1963, transform...
04 | Artificial Evolution: Pig Parts for People?
Timothy Andrews has lived with a pig kidney in his body for eight months.
That makes him a record breaker — living longer with a gene-edited pig...
03 | Artificial Evolution: Yuck or Yum? Gene-Edited Meat
Gene-edited fish are on the market in Japan, and similar foods could soon be on Australian shelves. But will we want to eat them, how affordable will...
02 | Artificial Evolution: Genetically Modified Marsupials
Earlier this year, a US biotech company claimed it had brought back a long-extinct species - the dire wolf, which roamed ancient America thousands of...
01 | Artificial Evolution: Cloning Goes Mainstream
Last year, 81-year-old rancher Arthur 'Jack' Schubarth was sentenced to six months in prison.
His crime? An elaborate, multi-country conspiracy...
INTRODUCING — Artificial Evolution
In 1996, Dolly the Sheep became the first ever cloned animal. Nearly 30 years later, genetic technology has reshaped the world around us. What exactly...
05 | Brain Rot: Meet the people who ditched their smartphones. Is it worth it?
We’ve all dreamt of lobbing our smartphone into the ocean and going off grid.
So what happens when you follow through with it?
For our fi...
04 | Brain Rot: Is internet addiction real?
Plenty of people will say they are addicted to the internet. But how well-recognised, scientifically, is an addiction ... to your screen?
In epi...
03 | Brain Rot: Is tech making your memory better or worse?
We’re trusting tech with more tasks than ever — including the ones our brains once did.We’re Googling things we used to know, taking screenshots of th...
02 | Brain Rot: Is AI turning us off human relationships?
Whether it’s social media, the omnipresent smartphone or AI companions, in recent decades the way we relate to each other has been completely up-ended...
01 | Brain Rot: Is there any proof your phone is destroying your attention span?
Everyone seems to have a hunch that their phone is destroying their attention span, but is there any science to back it up?
In episode one of Br...
INTRODUCING — Brain Rot
For Science Friction, it's Brain Rot — a new series about the science of being chronically online and what it’s doing to our brains.
What's real...
06 | Cooked: Vitamin B3 ... and the media
For episode six of Cooked, we turn the lens on … science communication itself.
We’re looking at how information travels from a scientific study...
05 | Cooked: Electrolytes — who needs them?
Over the past few years, you might have heard advertisements in your podcast feed or on social media for electrolyte supplements.
If you haven’t...
04 | Cooked: A peculiar potato experiment
Why did a group of anonymous strangers on the internet try to eat almost nothing but potatoes for a month?
On Cooked this week, an unusual expe...
03 | Cooked: Mystery in the Mediterranean
It was one of the world's biggest nutrition trials. A study of thousands of people which found that following a Mediterranean diet could meaningfully...
02 | Cooked: All-meat eaters say they feel great - but why?
Diets like carnivore have been popping up all over the place. People who go carnivore aim to eat nothing but a select few animal products, like meat a...
01 | Cooked: Could ice cream actually be good for you?
Two decades ago, nutritional epidemiologists made a startling finding – that people eating more ice cream were less likely to develop diabetes.
...
00 | INTRODUCING — Cooked
For Science Friction, a new series — Cooked!
On Cooked, we dig into the nuance of nutrition. Why are studies showing that ice cream could be goo...
06 | Is super-intelligent AI around the corner?
Behind the rise of AI there's big questions about where this technology is going.
Is it going to be super intelligent — and if that happens — is...
05 | The year the world woke up to AI with a bang
2023 was the year powerful new AI technology went mainstream, with image generators and tools like ChatGPT.
And people quickly started wondering...
04 | If you control AI, you control the world
AI is often portrayed as being all about technology. But it is also about money and control. Because those who control AI, may control the world.
03 | The bumpy history of driverless cars and their AI brains
When you think about a driverless car future, perhaps your mind goes to being driven around, watching movies from the backseat and drinking martinis.<...
02 | Locked up by AI for a crime he didn't commit
As ChatGPT shows us, AI can do some amazing stuff. But it does some creepy stuff as well. And it's already been responsible for locking up innocent pe...
01 | The day modern AI toppled humanity's champion
The world is experiencing a boom in artificial intelligence (AI). It's everywhere. In just a few years, computers have learned to paint a picture, wri...
I for one welcome... Hello AI Overlords!
2023 has been the breakout year of artificial intelligence. After decades of investment and improvement, the technology suddenly went mainstream. For...
REAL WILD CHILD (Part 4) — The Lost Boys
Two groups of boys on a camp in the wilds of America are pitted against each other. But the camp leaders have only one thing on their minds. Science....
What family secrets hide inside your cells? Epigenetics, trauma, and ancestry
What family secrets lie deep inside your cells? A story of survival against the odds, hope after the Holocaust, and the eye-opening new science of epi...
Robbie and the DNA Detectives
At the heart of this moving and extraordinary medical mystery is Robbie, a man in a genetic lottery. Two rare mutations made his life uniquely interes...
REAL WILD CHILD (Part 3) — The superstar of Tai Asks Why
Tai Poole is a self-described scientist and the teenage star of multi-award-winning podcast Tai Asks Why. Love, climate change, death, dreaming…there...
REAL WILD CHILD (Part 2) — I grew up in a cult
When pioneering Australian RNA biologist Archa Fox was a child, her parents were drawn into the orbit of the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Her family...
REAL WILD CHILD (Part 1) — The nuclear boy scouts
Nuclear weapons are not toys. But what happens when children get their hands on nuclear know-how? Two explosive stories of two smart kids — both with...
Thanks for the fun! Science Friction's Natasha Mitchell has some news
Natasha Mitchell, presenter and co-producer of Science Friction, has some special news she wants to share with you. Listen in.
(Spoiler alert: Y...
The fantastical world of fusion – The Expanse's Ty Franck and futurist Karl Schroeder (Part 2)
How has fusion inspired the imaginations of science fiction writers? In The Expanse blockbuster book and TV series, fusion energy has changed the cour...
Nuclear disruption — will starry-eyed startups win the nuclear fusion race? (Part 1)
The promise of nuclear fusion is clean, limitless energy for all. But why do start-up entrepreneurs think they can solve a problem that's perplexed sc...
The unexpected lives of Lab Shenanigans and The Scholar Diaries
It started with one post on Instagram. What followed was unimaginable. Scientists turned social media giants Darrion Nguyen (aka Lab Shenanigans) and...
Out of jail, is the CRISPR-baby scandal scientist at it again?
Chinese scientist Dr Jiankui He flouted the law and bioethics basics to create the world's first CRISPR gene edited babies. Now out of jail, he's back...
Science is political — Australia's science minister Ed Husic
Science is political. So let's go straight to the heart of political power in Australia. 10 months into role, the Federal Minister for Industry and Sc...
Quantum bullsh*t — how (not) to ruin your life with advice from quantum physics
Self-proclaimed TikTok mystics, healers, wellness influencers are increasingly turning to quantum physics to give their claims credibility, with poten...