Our summer series continues with stories from past shows, this week Stu looks into the basic chemistry of alkaline water and why it isn't a panacea for anything much at all. And Chris talks about two historical female figures of scintific importance who may not be the household names they deserve to be.

Chris tells us about an amazing new discovery of dinosaur tracks in Britain, then we continue our replay of classic stories from the archive: Catriona shows what we can learn about love and affection from the hormones of monogamous prairie voles, and Chris shares the formula for the frequency of flapping wings to fly, and uses it to calculate how fast a human would need to flap their arms.

This week on Lost in Science, dive into our summer series as we revisit stories from the archives. Claire explores the impacts of bird flu on wild and domestic birds, while Catriona delves into the science of inverse vaccines and how they could help the body "forget" harmful immune responses.

This week on Lost in Science, it’s our final show of the year! Chris challenges the team—and you—to a 2024 science quiz. Have you been paying attention to the biggest science stories of the year? Plus, Claire discusses some of the weird and wonderful research from 2024 worth celebrating. Join us for fun, facts, and a celebration of the science that shaped 2024!

For our Christmas episode, Linden speculates what Santa may see on his journey, such as changes in rivers as described in a recent study; and Cat crunches the numbers on how many houses Santa may need to visit, and how. Dongmei Feng, Colin J. Gleason ,More flow upstream and less flow downstream: The changing form and function of global rivers. Science 386,1305-1311(2024).DOI:10.1126/science.adl5728

This week on the show, Chris dives into the groundbreaking discovery of Homo juluensis, a newly identified hominin species that’s shaking up the story of human evolution. Meanwhile, we delve int the archive to revisit fascinating research detailing the first documented case of an orangutan using medicine on its own wounds.

This week we welcome our new Lost in Science team member, climate scientist Linden Ashcroft, and learn all about her research compiling historical weather records to understand the patterns in our continent’s past (see lindenashcroft.com); and speaking of weather, Cat reveals some surprising ways to tell the weather, using crickets chirps, drying seaweed and moon haloes.

This week, Claire lets loose on flatulence, what we know, and how you can Chart Your Fart in a new CSIRO citizen science project, https://research.csiro.au/cshw/projects/chart-your-fart/ And Stu tells us about the so-called forever chemicals PFAS, and new research into how to get rid of them.

Cat explains why a changing climate might be changing peoples' allergies, and Chris unravels the reasons string theory has fallen out of favour

This week on Lost in Science, we’re all about good news! Join us for a feel-good episode as we explore some uplifting innovations. We’ll uncover tree bark microbes munching on methane, affordable e-waste metal recycling, and the incredible reboot of Voyager 1. Science bringing a dash of the positive to the news!