The Science Briefing

A mysterious substance was brought to a pill testing clinic in Canberra, and they couldn’t figure out what it was.

Pill testing is for people who choose to take illegal drugs and want a better idea of what they’re taking, but it’s not always easy to figure that out. 

Dr Sophie Calabretto talks to Cosmos Magazine journalist Ellen Phiddian about where this mystery substance could have come from and the lengthy chemical processes to uncover what it is.

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In many parts of the world, a mosquito bite can be deadly, as it could be carrying malaria. 

But mosquitoes are just vessels, it’s actually an infectious parasite that’s at the root of transmitting the disease to humans. 

While treatments and prevention programs have eradicated the disease in many countries around the world, malaria is still an incredibly scary reality for many. 

Dr Sophie Calabretto talks to Cosmos Magazine journalist Jacinta Bowler about the defences we have against malaria and whether or not we can globally eradicate the disease. 

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How many more fossils are we yet to discover? 

You might not be aware, but there’s a stretch of land in outback Queensland that’s a hotspot for some really old dinosaur remains. And it’s keeping paleontologists busy! 

Every living thing that’s ever existed could leave a fossil and advances in technology mean we’re starting to discover a whole lot more of them.  

Dr Sophie Calabretto talks to Cosmos Magazine journalist Evrim Yazgin about uncovering fossils in 2022 and the farmers, to this day, stumbling over dinosaur bones in outback Australia. 

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Keen to spend a few hours in a spa bath and catch some ultraviolet rays? 

No, we're not talking about a spa day... but rather, volunteering to test a new sunscreen mixture to see if it’s ready to hit the supermarket shelves. 

Dr Sophie Calabretto talks to Cosmos Magazine journalist Ellen Phiddian about sunscreen testing and why getting sunburnt for science is the best way to ensure it'll keep us safe from the sun.

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Nearly two decades of Alzheimer’s research could be based on a paper that lied about its findings.  

A six-month investigation doubts the legitimacy of a pivotal Alzheimer’s study and has called into question the process of making sure published science is credible and reliable. 

Dr Sophie Calabretto talks to Cosmos Magazine journalist Clare Kenyon about how serious these allegations are and exactly where in the scientific process things may have fallen apart.

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They're not just furry and lovable companions, but dogs have an incredible sense of smell – far superior to our own.  

Incredibly, dogs can smell in parts per trillion and even sniff out a single dirty sock in a pile of 2 million clean ones. 

Dr Sophie Calabretto talks to Cosmos Magazine journalist Imma Perfetto about the power in dogs nostrils and how they can potentially smell when you’re sick or even stressed.

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One in five fish caught every year is fished illegally or comes from unregulated sources.  

If those numbers are hard to swallow, determining just how much illicit seafood enters Australian markets and winds up on your plate is even harder. 

Dr Sophie Calabretto talks to Cosmos Magazine journalist Ellen Phiddian about tackling seafood fraud and why there’s no guarantee that what’s on your plate is what the label says it is.

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For every drug or treatment out there, someone has had it tested on them to get it approved. 

So what actually happens in clinical trials?

Some clinical drug trials can go on for months with participants receiving hundreds, or even thousands of dollars. But they don’t all end well.  

Dr Sophie Calabretto talks to Cosmos Magazine journalist Jacinta Bowler about why clinical trials are still the best process we have, how they can go wrong and why so many drugs fail to make it to market.

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The Sun is spitting out more and more solar flares and it’s starting to get dangerous.  

Satellites fell from the sky in February after flares caused a geomagnetic storm and last month, they knocked out communications technology in Africa and the Middle East for over an hour.  

Dr Sophie Calabretto talks to Cosmos Magazine journalist Evrim Yazgin about the hazards of increasing solar flares and why the Sun’s temper is flaring up.

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An artificial intelligence program recently won a prestigious art prize and people were not happy. 

AI are typically thought of as virtual assistants, like Siri and Alexa, or for doing basic admin jobs and feeding your social media algorithms.  

But some are programming AI to get creative and churn out artworks – some of the results rival human art, others not so much.  

Dr Sophie Calabretto talks to Cosmos Magazine journalist Evrim Yazgin about whether a machine can be an artist and the shortfalls of promising a Picasso from a program.

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