Ockham’s Razor

What does a natural landscape look like to you? Maybe you think of a dense forest, or a sparkling body of water. Somewhere untouched by humans, right? Maybe the word “wilderness” comes to mind.

Today we’re hearing from someone who wants you to think twice about this idea of wilderness.

Michael-Shawn Fletcher is a geographer and a descendant of the Wiradjuri – and he wants to challenge the idea that country that's untouched by humans is a good thing.

Do you have a favourite place that’s been affected by the extreme weather that’s hit Australia over these past couple of years?

This week on Ockham's Razor we’re hearing from Barbara Norman, who has her own special place that’s been hit hard by climate change.

But luckily, Barbara is an expert in urban and regional planning, and she has ideas on how we can plan better to adapt to climate change.

There are some moments you can look back on and go 'yep – that’s when I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.' The moment your ambition really crystallised.

This week, we’re hearing from Emily Finch about when that moment happened for her – on a family field trip to what she calls the “science donut”.

Priyanka Pillai combines computer science skills and a background in biomedical sciences to take on complex challenges in health data, particularly for pandemic preparedness research.

You know, just in case we ever need that sort of thing …

Sexual selection is a potent evolutionary force responsible for much of the weird and wonderful diversity of life on our planet. So what happens when it's disturbed by human-induced environmental change?

What’s Australia best known for? Venomous creatures? Football with weird rules? What about… space exploration?

Who’s the strongest person in the world? And how would you measure it? Today’s guest has a metric in mind.

Somewhere between the very, very big physics and the very, very little physics is ... condensed matter physics.

You might not have heard of it before, but it’s just as mindblowing – as today’s guest Elise Kenny will demonstrate.

If you’re not something straightforward like a lawyer or a teacher or an electrician, there’s a question you hate getting at dinner parties – what do you do?

And this week on Ockham’s Razor we're hearing from someone who particularly dreads this question.

But Johanna Nalau's job – and what it means for our future – is an important one to get your head around.

It’s no secret that Australia is home to many a venomous snake but this week’s guest wants to convince you that we should look at this as a blessing, not a curse.