The Science Show

A huge net, weighed down by heavy chains, swiftly sweeps across the ocean floor, scooping up everything in its path. 

This type of fishing, called bottom trawling, was illuminated in a new documentary, Ocean with David Attenborough. 

Bottom trawling is known for indiscriminately gathering all sorts of marine species, as well as damaging the sea floor. 

But with the practice producing around a quarter of the world’s wild-caught seafood, are there ways to make it more sustainable? 

In an electrifying episode of the Science Show, find out how getting struck by a bolt from the heavens can help at least one species of tall tree not only survive, but thrive. 

Then step back in time to solve a tool-making mystery in Samoa and discover hidden treasures in centuries-old books — including a bubonic plague flea.

In the three years since the James Webb Space Telescope sent back its first images, it's pulled back the veil on a whole bunch of mind-blowing cosmic phenomena. So how has this $13 billion bit of kit shaped what we know about the Universe — and what is yet to come?

We hear from scientists who push the boundaries of creation, whether that's building wild and wacky snack flavours (successfully) or cloning extinct tropical frogs (unsuccessfully … so far). 

And since President Donald Trump retook office, the state of health and science research in the US has been precarious for many who work in those areas. 

But there is a silver lining. Other countries such as Australia are implementing programs to recruit US researchers looking to relocate.

We often hear about places where the air quality is bad, even dangerous, but what about where the air is the cleanest on Earth?

That air can be found blowing onto the north-west tip of Tasmania at Kennaook/Cape Grim, where an air pollution station has quietly been keeping track of how humans have changed the makeup of our atmosphere for 50 years.

So what does the world's cleanest air tell us?

Karl Popper (1902-1994) is regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the twentieth century. Alan Saunders presented this portrait of Karl Popper for The Science Show in January 2001.

A weekly injection that stops that hankering for hot chips and donuts?

Many people on Ozempic and similar medications report this phenomenon, saying they no longer have incessant thoughts about sweets and fried food.

So how do these drugs, known as GLP-1 agonists, work in the brain to dial down "food noise" and help people lose weight?

The overland telegraph connecting Australia to the world was completed just over 150 years ago. It was built due to the dedication of a public servant, Charles Todd.

It's the size of a sesame seed, but it could cause unfathomable destruction to Australia's forests and urban canopy.

A beetle called the polyphagous shot-hole borer (Euwallacea fornicatus) is silently spreading through Perth and its surrounds, forcing councils to chop and chip hundreds of trees — even century-old Moreton Bay figs.

So how does the tiny pest cause such massive problems?

Roger Short (1930-2021) discusses influences in his early life, and some of his research achievements including melatonin as a controller of circadian rhythms, and aspects of reproductive biology across the animal world.