The Science Show

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.

Jonathan Porritt’ recent book, Love, Anger and Betrayal charts the lives of young British climate campaigners. Meanwhile in Australia under-16s are about to be banned from using social media.

Few astronomical wonders are as spectacular as a total solar eclipse, when the Moon fully covers the Sun, plunging us into daytime darkness. 

If we're lucky, we can see this epic phenomenon as it happens — through special glasses, of course. But our preoccupation with looking at the sky means we may not notice what's happening to the animals around us. 

When it comes to birds, many of which rely on the Sun to tell them when to sing a dawn chorus, how does a solar eclipse change how they behave? And what are the wider implications in this artificially lit world? 

 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:

• Liz Aguilar, PhD student in bird reproductive behaviour at Indiana University Bloomington

More information:

Total solar eclipse triggers dawn behavior in birds: Insights from acoustic recordings and community science

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

Richard Robson from the University of Melbourne has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, the nation’s first Chemistry Nobel in 50 years.

This has been a bumper year for whale-watching on Australia's east coast, with thousands of humpbacks spotted cruising along their annual migration route.  

This population was almost wiped out by whalers last century but has bounced back — and then some. A new estimate suggests there are now more of these humpbacks than in pre-whaling times. 

So why are the eastern Australian humpbacks going gangbusters while other populations aren't doing nearly as well? 

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:

• Wally Franklin, marine scientist at Southern Cross University and the Oceania Project 

More information:

Boom to bust? Implications for the continued rapid growth of the eastern Australian humpback whale population despite recovery

The Oceania Project

If you want to hear about how other Australian whales are going, check out The plight of the southern right whales. 

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

The BA, as it was known, established in 1831, was set up to advance science in the interest of the people, old and young, professional and lay. So, how well is it doing now amid international turmoil.

For decades, climate scientists have been tracking a curious phenomenon. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are steadily increasing overall but they also rise and fall in an annual rhythm — like the planet is breathing.

Each spring, in the southern hemisphere, carbon dioxide levels start to plateau or maybe even drop slightly before shooting up again after summer.

So what's driving these seasonal changes?

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:

• Nick Deutscher, atmospheric chemist at the University of Wollongong

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

Iconic jellyfish in saltwater lakes are disappearing.