This week on Lost in Science, Claire dives headfirst into the evolutionary echidna-and-egg conundrum: which came first — the placental mammal or the mammalian egg of our humble monotreme cousins? Then Stu explores fascinating new research into how artificial intelligence might help bring people back from conspiracy theories — not by arguing louder, but by engaging directly with the evidence that convinced them in the first place. Can AI help untangle deeply held beliefs?

How can skiiers and ice skaters go so fast? It turns out, we're still not sure! And what ingredients are needed to see the northern or southern lights? Find out with Chris and Linden on this week's episode of Lost in Science. Additional show notes:To receive alerts from the Bureau of Meteorology's Space Weather Service, head to their Space Weather Service mailing list page.

Welcome back the team for a new year, and Stu talks to Professor Tim Stinear from the Doherty institute and Director of the WHO collaborative centre on Buruli ulcer about a project tracking the prevalence of the ulcer using environmental surveillance to assess presence and provenance of the bacteria.

Continuing our January tradition of playing highlights from the past year, Chris responds to media reports of possible over-diagnosis and over-medication of ADHD by looking at the data and current research and best practice; meanwhile Claire gets her teeth into a new, large longitudinal study that showed water fluoridation did not harm cognition or IQ.

This week Linden revisits two conversations from 2025 with champions of conservation: Professor Euan Ritchie from Deakin University and Clancy "The Bee Man" Lester. Euan and Linden discuss the 'de-extinction' of the dire wolf that was reported back in April 2025, and Clancy recounts his experiences exploring the Amazon looking for some insects to rival Australia's amazing creepy crawlies.

Our summer series continues this week with an interview with Ted Vanderfeen, a scientist who works on space faring robotics to help explore strange new worlds.

While we take a break we are revisiting some of our favourite stories and interviews in our summer series. This week we revisit the interview with Young Australian of the Year Dr Katrina Wruck, a groundbreaking green chemist working to break down harmful "forever chemicals." As the first Torres Strait Islander to receive an Australian of the Year award in any category, Dr Wruck shares her journey, the science behind her research and how she is working to improve environmental and health outcomes in remote Indigenous communities.

Is it 2026 already? We farewell the year just gone, by remembering famous scientists who died in 2025, plus Chris tests our memory with his annual quiz of unforgettable science stories.

In this Christmas episode (our last for 2025!) the team looks at some Christmas adjacent science. Chris brings us up to date with the latest on our interstellar visitor 3I Atlas (spoiler, it's not aliens), Claire turns up the heat on the real reason Christmas cookies taste so good (hint: it's science) and Stu bags up some realities of the neuroscience of Holiday sales and how to avoid spending too much.

This week Linden interviews Tammy Lee, PhD student at UWA in Perth who was crowned the winner of FameLab International in Switzerland in November. This means Australia is officially home to the world's best science communicator! Tammy talks through her research, as well as the process of taking part in one of the world's oldest science communication competitions. Watch the FameLab International final on the FameLab YouTube channel, see the Australian final at the channel of the Foundation for the WA Museum, and follow Tammy on Instagram, @testtubetammy.