The Cosmos Podcast

With its low rate of COVID-19 vaccinations, Australia is in the rare position of being able to continue vaccine trials on unvaccinated people. This is especially necessary because even vaccines with high efficacy, such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca, have no guarantee of remaining effective as the virus mutates.  Today Cosmos journalist Ellen Phiddian talks to Adelaide’s Dr Chris Rook, fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners, who will be conducting a phase III clinical trial of a protein vaccine. But even though vaccine trials are necessary, it’s still a long process from conception to approval. So how do you run a vaccine trial in Australia?

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Back in the 1940s, South Australian geologist Reg Sprigg first discovered Ediacaran fossils on the north end of Nilpena Station, to the west of the Flinders Ranges, redefining the Earth’s history by adding in a whole new period.

The Department for Environment and Water in South Australia has recently teamed up with several non-profit organisations to purchase a chunk of Nilpena Station and turn it into the Nilpena Ediacaran National Park. They’re currently building trails, planning tours to the fossil site, and creating a visitor’s centre which will have an audiovisual experience bringing a fossil bed to life.

Today Cosmos journalist Lauren Fuge talks to Ross Fargher, the owner of Nilpena Station; Jason Irving, Manager of the National Parks and Protected Area Program for the Department for Environment and Water; and Mary Droser, Professor of Geology at the University of California, Riverside, USA. And if you want more on this, make sure you get the current issue of Cosmos Magazine, on sale now!

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The fledgling discipline of eco-acoustics has added a remarkable diagnostic tool to field biology: a valid and reliable way to prove the absence of our most secretive species. Where many species are incredibly hard to see, the needs of the genetic line still demand they reach out to potential mates. They do so through calling. Today, Royal Institution of Australia Editor-in-chief Ian Connellan talks to Professor David Watson from Charles Sturt University about the Australian Acoustic Observatory, and how acoustics will transform ecology.

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During the current pandemic, intensive care units in hospitals have had to manage a significant number of critically ill COVID-19 patients. So what is it like on the frontline that is ICU? 

We talk to Associate Professor Jai Darvall, an anaesthetist and intensive care specialist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where he’s co-leader of the perioperative medicine service within the Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Management. He holds dual appointments at the University of Melbourne in the departments of Critical Care and Medical Education. Darvall has clinical and research interests in frailty, perioperative medicine, and persistent critical illness; his PhD investigated the mechanisms and outcomes of frailty in older surgical and ICU patients. This interview is hosted by Royal Institution of Australia Editor-in-chief Ian Connellan.

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Today our expert panel is going to discuss a fairly simple proposition: whether science has played a role in the decline of truth. ‘Truth decay’ is a subject that’s been growing in visibility; the shift away from an accepted and agreed set of facts and data has been eroding trust in public institutions for many years. The trend may have been more profound in the United States (culminating as it did in the election of President Donald J. Trump), but Australia hasn’t been immune. The challenges presented over many years by climate change and more recently by COVID-19 have placed science firmly at the centre of debate about the veracity of information, and the qualifications of those dispensing it. Has science stood apart from the decline of truth, or has it played a role in widening the gap between fact and fantasy?

 Professor Caroline McMillen has been Chief Scientist of South Australia since 2018. She is a medical researcher, the chair or a member of multiple research and advisory boards, and she’s held academic leadership positions at multiple universities across Australia, including seven years as Vice Chancellor of the University of Newcastle; The Hon Michael Kirby served as a Justice of the High Court of Australia between 1996 and 2009, and was Acting Chief Justice on two occasions during the period. He’s had an extraordinarily long and distinguished judicial career – upon retirement from the High Court he was the country’s longest-serving judge – and he’s served on the governing bodies of universities and national and international bodies including the World Health Organisation; and Associate Professor Antony Eagle, a philosopher based at the University of Adelaide. His research has mainly been in ‘theoretical’ philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy of science, philosophy of logic and language, philosophy of probability, and philosophy of physics. He completed undergraduate studies at the University of Melbourne and did his higher degrees at Princeton University in the USA.

Today’s Cosmos Briefing is hosted by ABC Adelaide presenter Ali Clarke.

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Since COVID-19 hit, the science of modelling has moved into the spotlight. Today we’re talking about the reasons for the difference between two recently published examples from the Doherty Institute and a preprint from ANU. Professor Ivo Mueller, an epidemiologist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, working across population health and immunity, explains the assumptions inherent in each. At a time where modelling is so prevalent, it’s important to build modelling literacy and unpack the methodology of modelling, so we can all understand what they can and can’t do! Today’s interview is hosted by Cosmos Magazine editor Gail MacCallum.

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Today we talk with Adam Smith, Adjunct Associate Professor at James Cook University and managing director at Reef Ecologic, and Nathan Cook, a marine scientist at Reef Ecologic. In March this year they discovered the widest coral on the Great Barrier Reef. Happily, given the challenges the reef is facing, it is in good health. Monitoring these corals can have multiple scientific and climate related benefits.  This interview is hosted by Cosmos journalist Lauren Fuge. 

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Given location and area, Australia has an unlimited capacity in sustainable electricity, yet the country lags behind the rest of the world in electric vehicle purchase. EV new vehicles sales in Australia in 2020 were 0.6%. In Norway this number is 54%, with the aim to be 100% by 2025. Why is this the case and what’s being done to change it? To find out some answers we are talking today to Ben Warren, National Manager of Electrification, Nissan Australia, and Gail Broadbent, a PhD candidate from the. School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at UNSW. Today’s interview is hosted by Professor Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology astrophysicist and lead scientist of the Royal Institution of Australia.

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Today we talk with Ian McKeown, Head of High Performance at the Port Adelaide Football Club. Off the back of the Olympics, and now as we head towards the finals of the winter codes, maximising the performance of athletes in their chosen pursuits is front of mind. The role that sports science plays in improving performance continues to grow, as people such as Ian find new ways to train the human body. Today’s interview is hosted by Royal Institution of Australia Editor-in-chief Ian Connellan.

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 As the Australian Space Industry forges ahead, data gathered from space will connect farmers, land managers and emergency services with the real-time changes on Earth in minute detail. But the discoveries made don’t simply jump from lab to industry; they need to be translated into products and companies to reach national impact. So, what is impeding the connection between cutting-edge research and the people who can benefit from its use as a service? And who are the space entrepreneurs paving the way towards a connected Australia? 

Today we talk to Dr Ilana Feain, a commercialisation specialist of astronomy and space science and CSIRO, and director of Quasar Satellite Technologies Pty Ltd, a new Australian space start-up that is set to revolutionise space communication , and  Flavia Tata Nardini, the CEO and Cofounder of Adelaide-based Fleet Space Technologies, a space company connecting the internet of things across the world through a fleet of small, low-cost satellites, and Mission Chair of Seven Sisters Mission, The Australian lunar exploration mission to send nanosatellites and sensors to the Moon to search for accessible water. 

Today’s interview is hosted by Professor Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology astrophysicist and lead scientist of the Royal Institution of Australia.

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