The Cosmos Podcast

Today we have a special podcast. Dr Deborah Devis is reading a story she wrote that featured in Cosmos Weekly, our online subscription-based deep dive into the biggest issues. She looks at the world of fracture testing, and a new device that is making the task of finding flaws in a thing – like every thing – a whole lot easier. 

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Today we talk with Journalist Earl Swift. Earl’s latest book, Across the Airless Wilds: The Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings, is the follow-up to his acclaimed New York Times bestseller Chesapeake Requiem. In it he investigates the final three Apollo Moon landings, arguing that these overlooked missions, distinguished by the use of the revolutionary Lunar Roving Vehicle, were the pinnacle of human exploration. Today’s interview is hosted by Royal Institution of Australia Editor-in-Chief Ian Connellan.

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Distinguished Professor of Theoretical Physics at ANU, Susan M. Scott, is a mathematical physicist working on fundamental theoretical aspects of gravitation and, general relativity theory in particular. She has been part of a team of international scientists who have, for the first time, detected the moment a black hole and a neutron star collided in space, not just once but twice. Today’s interview is hosted by Cosmos journalist Ellen Phiddian.

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James Brown is a marine biologist and pearl farmer from Broome WA, who was recently recognised as the 2020-21 Australian Farmer of the Year and winner of the Award for Excellence in Innovation for his innovative approach to farming, his support of industry research and development and his dedication to advancing Australian pearls as a premium product around the world. We talk to James about what it is like to farm oysters and pearls and how science is permeating the industry. Today’s interview is hosted by Cosmos Magazine editor Gail MacCallum

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There’s a lot more to a retail transaction – whether online or in-store – than there used to be. Information (data) about you and your shopping habits is collected just about every time you make a purchase. How is it used? How will it affect the future of retailing? 

Jonathan Reeve is GM APAC for Eagle Eye, a software as a service personalised digital loyalty and promotions platform. Clients include Loblaw, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, the Warehouse Group and Woolworths. Jonathan has worked with global retailers across three continents and is the author of Retail’s Last Mile: Why Online Shopping Will Exceed Our Wildest Predictions.

Neil Ridgway is the Chief Brand and Marketing Officer at Rip Curl International and part of the global senior leadership team reporting directly to Group CEO. He oversees all global eCommerce, advertising and marketing online and offline, content across all channels, Rip Curl Retail look and feel, wholesale sell-in, pro surf and snow team sponsorship and events. Prior to working with Rip Curl, Neil was a magazine publisher, editor and journalist.

They join our host, Professor Alan Duffy of The Royal Institution of Australia to discuss this key issue. 

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Cosmos journalist Ellen Phiddian speaks to Dr Karen Alt, Head of the Nano Theranostics Laboratory at the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases, Monash University, about medical imaging technology using nanoparticles, how it compares to current imaging like MRI, and where it could be seen in the future. 

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If they can’t be used second-hand, is it possible to recycle old clothes? What about recycling other fabrics and textiles? An Australian company, BlockTexx, has recently received funding to build a textile recovery facility in Queensland. Using technology developed by Queensland University of Technology researchers, the plant will take old textiles and turn them into raw materials that can be used by other industries.

One of the central problems with textiles is that they’re often a mix of completely different chemicals – such as cotton and polyester. This makes them very difficult to turn into new, high-quality products. The separation-of-fibre technology (S.O.F.T.) process developed by QUT, however, separates the polyester and cotton in textiles completely, allowing them to be used for other purposes.

Cosmos spoke to Robert Speight, a professor at QUT, and Adrian Jones, a co-founder of BlockTexx, about the technology and its environmental implications.

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Artificial intelligence technology brings the promise of improvements in many areas of life, but it’s not without problems. Near the top of the list of issues are ways in which it may embed prejudice, for instance through facial recognition, and surveillance. If AI’s to fulfil its potential, it needs to be safe, fair and reliable.

About three years ago, the Australian Human Rights Commission began compiling a report into the impacts of AI; the Human Rights and Technology Final Report was presented to the federal Attorney General in March, and tabled in parliament in early June.

Cosmos Editor-in-Chief Ian Connellan speaks to Australian Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow about the reasons for examining new technologies in a human rights framework, and about the key recommendations made.

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Remote and wild, Antarctica was once solely the domain of hardcore explorers. As the continent becomes more accessible, science and tourism are expanding – but does this come with an environmental cost? Should access to these fragile ecosystems be regulated, and who gets to decide?

Professor Steven L Chown FAA FRSsaf is Director of Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future, an Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative and Professor at Monash University. His Antarctic research covers many aspects of biodiversity variation and its conservation. Owing to his interest in the science-policy interface, for many years he represented the international Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), of which he was also President (2016-2021), at the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings, providing scientific advice on a broad range of environmental and science policy matters.

Dr Jaimie Cleeland is an early career scientist working on Southern Ocean fisheries at the Australian Antarctic Division. Her research directly contributes to the Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Living Marine Resources, where she represents Australia as an independent scientific delegate. Providing advice on the impact fishing has on bycatch species such as seabirds and deep-water skates and sharks, and ways that we can better manage fisheries around Antarctica to conserve non-target species.

Greg Mortimer OAM is best known as a mountaineer; he was one of the first two Australians to climb Mt Everest (1984) and the first Australian to climb Antarctica’s highest peak, Vinson Massif, in 1988. He later co-founded adventure cruise company Aurora Expeditions and has led over 80 expeditions to Antarctica. He trained as a geochemist and geologist has also previously worked for the New Zealand Antarctic Division.

They join our host, Professor Alan Duffy of The Royal Institution of Australia to discuss this key issue. 

Find the science of everything at cosmosmagazine.com

Lauren Fuge, a science journalist with the Royal Institution of Australia, talks to Brett Krause, the president and cofounder of Brettacorp Inc, a not-for-profit building forests in the Cassowary Coast region of Tropical North Queensland, Australia, about Brettacorp’s mission to revegetate degraded lands and rehabilitate habitat through conservation and preservation techniques.

Find the science of everything at cosmosmagazine.com