The Laborastory

Dr. Gregory Crocetti worked for a decade as a microbial ecologist at the Universities of QLD and NSW – exploring bacteria from a range of environments, including mouse intestines, sponges, seaweed and sewage. On moving to Melbourne in 2007, Gregory shifted from science research to science education, working with CSIRO Education for several years and briefly with Friends of the Earth’s Emerging Technologies Project. Gregory also began a collaboration with artists Briony Barr and Jacqui Smith in the art-science collective, Scale Free Network. In this capacity, Gregory has developed and delivered a range of art-science projects, combining microscopes with drawing, molecules with sculpture and more. Gregory now co-authors and publishes the Small Friends book series – stories about symbiotic partnerships between microorganisms and larger forms of life.

You can hear all past stories online at http://thelaborastory.com/stories/

Recording by Giuseppe Geracitano http://www.eternal-websites.com/

Danny Stinson is a regular storyteller and comedian who reviews have described as equal parts terrifying and hilarious (yawp comedy mag). He is also a registered psychiatric nurse and loves the film "Point break".

You can hear all past stories online at http://thelaborastory.com/stories/

Recording by Giuseppe Geracitano http://www.eternal-websites.com/

Dr George Aranda is a Research Fellow at Deakin University, conducting research into science education, science communication and putting 3D printers into primary schools. He is President of the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Science Communicators and curator of the blog Science Book a Day.

You can hear all past stories online at http://thelaborastory.com/stories/

Recording by Giuseppe Geracitano http://www.eternal-websites.com/

Tom Lang is a science communicator and comedian, who's done shows in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Fringe Festival. In his spare time, he collects boardgames and doomsday scenarios.

You can hear all past stories online at http://thelaborastory.com/stories/

Recording by Giuseppe Geracitano http://www.eternal-websites.com/

Jacquie was an environmental scientist who specialised in botanical matters back in her home town of Perth. When she moved to Melbourne last year she left that behind but bought her passion for amateur astronomy with her. With twenty years of astronomy outreach behind her, most of that as a volunteer with Perth Observatory, and 6 years under the dome of the planetarium at Scitech in Perth, whom she still writes for, when she is asked how she got so interested in the night sky the best answer she can give is that she was born with it.

She shares the story of astronomer Graham Blow.

Tessa is a Science graduate with Honours from Monash and Deakin Universities. She is a plant, insect and rock lover who will always walk slowly because there is something interesting to look at.

She tells the story of botanist, physician and zoologist Carl Linnaeus.

Prasanna is a mechanical engineer and computational biomechanist at the University of Melbourne interested in the effects of neuro-musculoskeletal disorders on gait and posture. He is a Melbourne Storm tragic who loves triathlon and ultrarunning - and believes that joy is finding a little bit of cake in your beard 93km into a trail race.

He tells the story of engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette.

Dave Carmody is a psychiatry trainee with a fervent love of obscure world politics and boot polishing. He is hoping to one day write his memoir: how to lose your temper attaching a bag rail to a motorbike and 30 other moments of emotional lability.

Matthew is a PhD student in the Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group at RMIT where he is researching human behavior in social-ecological systems. Before being drawn to the dark arts of the social sciences Matthew worked on applied conservation and ecology projects in the US and West Africa.

Sean M Elliott is a science communicator and presenter who has worked for over a decade with such groups as CSIRO and Museum Victoria. He currently runs Rough Science which provides science presentations and activities to schools and community groups. He will soon be moving to Scotland for six months to work on the Edinburgh Science Festival. He tells the story of the English physicist Henry Moseley.