University departments of geology and geophysics are getting smaller or closing. So how will we find new mineral deposits?

It looks like most of Australia is in for a warmer-than-usual summer this year.

That's according to the Bureau of Meteorology's long-range forecast, which was released in October.

So — without a crystal ball — how do meteorologists make weather predictions so far out, how accurate are they, and how is climate change affecting them?

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.

Get in touch with us: [email protected]

Featuring:

Karl Braganza, National Manager of Climate Services at the Bureau of Meteorology

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BOM's first long-range summer forecast shows increased chance of extreme heat

In just 75 years the Earth’s average temperature is predicted to be close to 3 degrees above pre-industrial levels. We are in the fast lane to a different world, one that will not be friendly to the current range of plants and animals, including humans. The race is on to cool our overheating planet.

Thanks in part to 18th-century nuns, we now know that having children and breastfeeding reduces a mum's risk of developing breast cancer for years, even until her kid is well into primary school.

Now Australian scientists have discovered how breastfeeding specifically enlists the immune system to protect against an aggressive and hard-to-treat type of breast cancer.

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.

Get in touch with us: [email protected]

Featuring:

• Sherene Loi, medical oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre 

Extra information:

Parity and lactation induce T cell mediated breast cancer protection

Having children and breastfeeding reduces breast cancer risk by triggering immune system, study finds

This episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Menang Noongar people.

Robyn Williams reports from the 2025 Prime Minister's Prizes for Science ceremony in Parliament House Canberra.

It's mid-afternoon and time for a treat! Do you choose a healthy piece of fruit, or do you head straight for the chocolate? 

It turns out that well before we consciously decide what we're going to eat, our brain has already weighed up our choices — and in a fraction of a second. 

Now a new study shows which food attributes are processed by our brain faster than others, and how this might influence our dietary decisions. 

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.

Get in touch with us: [email protected]

Featuring:

• Violet Chae, PhD student at the University of Melbourne 

More information:

Characterising the neural time-courses of food attribute representations

This episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Menang Noongar people.

We’ve built a picture of the evolution of biodiversity based on a few accessible fossils. But the real story may be very different.

We have a mysterious visitor to our little patch of the cosmos this week: A comet called 3I/ATLAS. 

This icy, rocky ball is only the third interstellar object we've discovered zooming past our Sun. 

There are scientists who think the comet may be alien technology sent from another solar system to invade Earth, but space agencies poured cold water on this idea. 

So how will we know if we truly find evidence of extraterrestrial life? 

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.

Get in touch with us: [email protected]

Featuring:

• Laura Driessen, radio astronomer at the University of Sydney 

Astronomers discover 3I/ATLAS — third interstellar object to visit our Solar System

This episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Menang Noongar people.

An additive in paint converts ultraviolet light into red light allowing plants to grow more producing higher yields, a boon for greenhouse agriculture.

Around 1.5 million years ago, in what's now Kenya, a human-like figure walked across the savannah. 

He was probably quite short by our standards, no taller than Danny DeVito. 

But unlike Danny DeVito, this ancient figure was not human. He was a long-extinct relative of ours called Paranthropus boisei. 

And now his fossilised hand bones are giving us never-before-seen insights into how he and his species lived. 

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.

Get in touch with us: [email protected]

Featuring: 

• Carrie Mongle, palaeoanthropologist at Stony Brook University and the Turkana Basin Institute 

More information: 

New fossils reveal the hand of Paranthropus boisei

Fossil hand bones hint that ancient human relative Paranthropus made tools 1.5 million years ago

This episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Menang Noongar people.