The Science Show

Retinoids are big business for reducing wrinkles and treating acne — but there's conflicting advice on their safety for pregnant women.

Should manufacturers of these skincare products be providing warnings? Or are the risks not that great?

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science editor and presenter Jonathan Webb 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:

• Caitlyn Davey, health reporter

Extra information:

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

Australia’s social media ban aims to protect young people from online threats, but it may also restrict their access to discussion of democracy and political systems.

AI seems to be absolutely everywhere at the moment. While we're still waiting for the productivity revolution — or the jobs apocalypse — the energy costs of AI are already staggering.

So how should we think about those environmental impacts of AI? And what can we learn from previous turns of the great technological wheel?

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science editor and presenter Jonathan Webb 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: 

• Dr Niraj Lal, renewables expert at the Australian National University 

Extra information: 

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

How did life begin? It may not have been on Earth, with asteroids carrying a range of organic molecules

Fire, insects and disease all pose a threat to Australia's forests but scientists are now seeing a rise in natural tree deaths right across the country. 

New research links this background mortality to higher average temperatures.

So what do these higher temperatures mean for our forests and the future of Australia's ecosystems? 

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science editor and presenter Jonathan Webb 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: 

• Professor Belinda Medlyn, plant ecologist from Western Sydney University

Extra information: 

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

Natasha Hurley-Walker considers what might explain a mysterious stellar object which shines every 18 minutes.

A faint orange hand stencil on the wall of a cave in Indonesia just became the oldest art known to science.   

The art, made by splattering ochre over a hand, had been painted over by subsequent generations and was only preserved because moisture combined with the limestone of the cave to form a protective layer on top. 

The finding strengthens the picture that humans migrated via Borneo, Sulawesi and Papua to reach Australia at least 65,000 years ago. 

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science editor and presenter Jonathan Webb 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: 

• Jacinta Bowler, ABC science reporter 

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Hand stencils discovered in an Indonesian cave are oldest-known rock art

Rock art from at least 67,800 years ago in Sulawesi

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

In the Swedish city of Kiruna, an entire community is being relocated to accommodate the expansion of the world's largest underground iron ore mine.

Australia's summer UV levels are high enough to cause sunburn in as little as 11 minutes.

Yet the summer sun in the Northern Hemisphere rarely feels that full on.

So why does our sunlight have that extra "bite"?

Spoiler: it's not the hole in the ozone layer.

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: 

• David Whiteman, medical epidemiologist and Cancer Control group leader at QIMR Berghofer

More information:

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

She became an expert on fleas and despite no formal education received honorary doctorates from both Oxford and Cambridge was elected a fellow of The Royal Society.