The Cosmos Podcast

Today the Cosmos editorial team are giving us their take on the highlights of the more than 1500 stories they have published this year. From Covid and climate, to fat bears and swearing ducks, Dr Deborah Devis, Lauren Fuge and Ellen Phiddian take us on a 2021 recap.

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The much-anticipated 26th UN Conference of the Parties – COP26 – is over, and the response to its agreement is mixed. Some say the path to net zero is inexorable; others feel that much remains to be agreed. In Australia, a dominant theme is that private enterprise and state governments are taking the lead on the path to net zero in the absence of a clear national commitment. There are other notable ‘other than government’ initiatives at international level. What position will Australia and the wider world be in at the end of the decade?

Today, we have two guests to discuss the aftermath of COP26. John O’Brien is Partner, Energy Transition & Decarbonisation, at Deloitte Australia. He works with clients to translate their decarbonisation/energy transition ambitions into practical business plans. John attended COP26 in Glasgow, this year and his latest book, Stories from 2030 has just been published. Dr Linden Ashcroft is a climate scientist, academic and science communicator. She works at the University of Melbourne, where she lectures in climate science and her research focuses on Australia’s past climates. Ashcroft is a regular on broadcast media and was a Science and Technology Australia 2019–20 Superstar of STEM. Today’s interview is hosted by the Royal Institution of Australia Editor-in-Chief Ian Connellan

Find the science of everything at the Cosmos Magazine website 

Watch and listen to all our Cosmos Briefings

Subscribe to Cosmos Magazine (print) or the Cosmos Weekly. Special 10% discount on Cosmos magazine print subscriptions (1 or 2 year), or 1 year Cosmos Weekly subscriptions for Cosmos Briefing podcast listeners!  Use coupon code COSMOSPOD in our shop.

The Best Australian Science Writing is an annual collection of – that’s right – the nation’s best science writing. This year a mixture of experienced authors and newcomers have come together under the editorship of Eureka prizewinning-writer Dyani Lewis. Today Dyani talks to three of BASW 2021’s writers. Freelance science writer Bianca Nogrady, conservation ecologist Ella Loeffler, and the science editor at CNET.com, Jackson Ryan. We hear about their stories, why they write about science, and what they’re planning to report on in the future.

Find the science of everything at the Cosmos Magazine website 

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Today we have a special podcast that showcases a program initiated by the Royal Institution of Australia’s Education platform. In Class With is a series where we ask students from all over the country to ask eminent scientists questions.

Professor Fiona Wood, the inventor of spray-on-skin and a world-leading burns specialist, and speaking to you from Whadjuk Nyoongar land, will be answering their questions in this episode.

You can visit RiAus Education to learn more about our program – and head to Wild Dingo Press or any good bookstore to get your copy of Professor Fiona Wood’s Aussie STEM Stars book.

Find the science of everything at the Cosmos Magazine website 

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Distinguished Professor Chennupati Jagadish, based at ANU, has been named as the next president of the Australian Academy of Science. Jagadish is a world-renowned physicist and nanotechnology pioneer; he’s the first Australian of Indian heritage to lead the country’s premier science organisation. He was born in humble circumstances in Andhra Pradesh, south-eastern India. He moved to Australia with his family in 1990 to accept a position at ANU. Today Professor Jagadish talks to Royal Institution of Australia Editor-in-Chief Ian Connellan about his background and his thoughts on the future of Australian science.

Find the science of everything at the Cosmos Magazine website 

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Today we bring you a recording from the Nature Festival in Adelaide earlier this year where a panel of Bruce Pascoe, Aboriginal Australian writer of literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays and children's literature; Major "Moogy" Sumner, a world-renowned performer and Ngarrindjeri cultural ambassador; artist Sonya Rankine; writer and curator Jared Thomas; and Warndu co-founder Damien Coulthard, discussed how nature, food and kinship intersect in Aboriginal cultures. Your host is Rebecca Sullivan, herself the other co-founder of  Warndu.

Find the science of everything at the Cosmos Magazine website 

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Soil carbon sequestration seems like a win for everyone: it improves soil quality, removes CO2 from the atmosphere, and provides an additional source of income for farmers via carbon credits. It forms a major part of the federal government’s plan to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050, with one official estimate suggesting that up to a fifth of our current yearly emissions could be negated with soil carbon. Is it really possible to put such a huge chunk of our emissions in the soil – and if so, how can we do it? What’s holding soil carbon farming back?

Today, Cosmos journalist Ellen Phiddian talks to two experts. Louise Kiely is the Director of Carbon Farmers of Australia, and Dr Michael Crawford is CEO at the Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils. Together, they provide an insight into both the science and legislation around carbon sequestration.

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What do your genes say about your risk of disease? We want to know what types of diseases we, and our children, are susceptible to so we can to our best to mitigate them. When we hear about our own risk of genetic disease, it can be frightening, but it may not mean what it seems.

In reality, genetic disease is highly complex, especially when multiple genes could contribute to any given trait. So, how do we collect this information and what does it mean?

Today, Cosmos journalist Dr Deborah Devis talk to two experts. First up you will hear Professor Michael Inouye. He is Director of the Cambridge Baker Systems Genomics Initiative, Director of Research in the Dept Public Health & Primary Care at the University of Cambridge, Munz Chair of Cardiovascular Prediction & Prevention at the Baker Heart & Diabetes Institute, and a Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute. Following the chat with Michael, Deborah talks to Dr Fayeza Khan, a Human Molecular Geneticist.

Find the science of everything at the Cosmos Magazine website 

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Special 10% discount on Cosmos magazine print subscriptions (1 or 2 year), or 1 year Cosmos Weekly subscriptions for Cosmos Briefing podcast listeners!  Use coupon code COSMOSPOD in our shop.

Australian palaeontologist Professor John Long has spent a lifetime expanding what we know about ancient animals, especially fish from the Devonian age, about 400 million years ago. John grew up in Victoria and was educated at Monash University. His fossil expeditions have taken him throughout Australia and to places as diverse as Vietnam, Iran and Antarctica. His ground-breaking discoveries include contributing to our understanding of how reproduction evolved, and the reasons behind global mass extinctions. Science outreach is an important part of John’s work and he’s written more than 20 popular science books. Recently the tide of authorship turned the other way, and John became the subject of a new book in the Aussie STEM stars series. We asked the book’s author, Dr Danielle Clode, who’s also a Cosmos contributor, to talk to John about his life and work.

Find the science of everything at the Cosmos Magazine website 

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Special 10% discount on Cosmos magazine print subscriptions (1 or 2 year), or 1 year Cosmos Weekly subscriptions for Cosmos Briefing podcast listeners!  Use coupon code COSMOSPOD in our shop.

Remote and wild, Antarctica is a spectacular place that most people on Earth won't ever get to. But it's a frontier for scientific research – and something we are very passionate about as The Royal Institution of Australian is the Australian Antarctic Division’s Education partner. Today Cosmos journalist Lauren Fuge speaks to Professor Nicole Webster, who took up the role as the chief scientist of the Australian Antarctic Division this year. Webster completed her PhD at James Cook University in Queensland, investigating the microbial ecology of a Great Barrier Reef sponge, before transitioning into Antarctic science, including studying microbial communities as indicators for human-induced stress in the Antarctic marine environment. In this discussion we learn about what kind of research is undertaken on this frozen continent, from the smallest krill to the largest ice sheets, and what it might teach us about our future on this planet.

Find the science of everything at the Cosmos Magazine website 

Subscribe to Cosmos Magazine (print) or the Cosmos Weekly

Watch and listen to all our Cosmos Briefings

Special 10% discount on Cosmos magazine print subscriptions (1 or 2 year), or 1 year Cosmos Weekly subscriptions for Cosmos Briefing podcast listeners!  Use coupon code COSMOSPOD in our shop.