The Science Show

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May 10, 2025 • 53min

Aging halted in fruit flies. How about humans?

David Walker at UCLA says he can halt aging in fruit flies. Can the same concepts be applied to humans? And two tertiary students and an artist describe combining science and artistic pursuits.
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May 6, 2025 • 14min

Lab Notes: Why one man let deadly snakes bite him 200 times

Cobras, taipans, black mambas — Tim Friede's been intentionally bitten more than 200 times by some of the most venomous snakes on Earth.And he survived, mostly because years of self-injecting venom let him develop immunity to them.(Please do not try this yourself!)Now his blood's been used to make a broad-spectrum antivenom that researchers say may protect against nearly 20 deadly snakes.But this is not how antivenom is usually made. So how are snake antivenoms produced, and where are we with a "universal" version?
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May 3, 2025 • 54min

A happy 99th birthday to a friend of The Science Show

Mansi Kasliwal describes how she detects supernovae – the massive stellar explosions where elements are formed. We learn how dung beetles saved the Australian environment from the big problem, and David Attenborough shares his love for Birds-of-paradise.
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Apr 29, 2025 • 14min

Lab Notes: Where's my needle-free vaccine?

Hate getting needles? You're in good company — one in five people in Australia have needle fear.
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Apr 26, 2025 • 54min

The wonder of sharks surviving for 500 million years

Sharks have survived 500 million years while mass extinctions have wiped out other species. Now, sharks are under threat.
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Apr 22, 2025 • 13min

Lab Notes: Why did NASA spend a billion bucks on Lucy?

Somewhere out past Mars in the early hours of Easter Monday, a space probe called Lucy whizzed by an asteroid named Donaldjohanson.Lucy then sent back images showing Donaldjohanson is about five kilometres wide and shaped like a peanut.It's one of a handful of asteroids on Lucy's 12-year itinerary.So what does the billion-dollar mission hope to achieve?
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Apr 19, 2025 • 53min

The power of palaeontology

Palaeontology helps reveal why some animals are in desperate need of help while others thrive.
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Apr 15, 2025 • 13min

Lab Notes: Why sprinting sensation Gout Gout is so fast

Gout Gout is fast becoming the face of Australian athletics, regularly clocking blisteringly quick times over 100- and 200-metre sprints.And he's only 17. Many think the best is yet to come.So what is it about Gout that makes him such an impressive sprinter at such a young age?
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Apr 12, 2025 • 54min

New findings show how genetic mutations drive autoimmunity.

A protein in the immune system, DECTIN-1 - primarily responsible for defending the body against fungal infections, has been found to control the severity of autoimmune diseases such as irritable bowel disease (IBS), type 1 diabetes, eczema, and other chronic disorders.
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Apr 8, 2025 • 14min

Lab Notes: How to decommission a nuclear power plant

We've been hearing a lot about a certain proposal to get nuclear power up and running in Australia, but little's been said about what happens when plants reach the end of their life.Decommissioning a single nuclear power plant can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take decades.So what's involved, and why is the process so long and expensive?

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