The Science Show

Richard Fidler speaks to author Alison Bashford who has written about a hundred years of modern science and culture, told through a one family history.

Plastic is being eaten by seabirds. Some migratory birds can no longer fly. And micro amounts are entering the cells of other creatures. Including us.

The first Science Show was broadcast on 30th August 1975. This week’s program takes a suitably cosmic view of Australia, its origins and its future.

Discover how a new chemical reaction could revolutionize drug manufacturing by cutting down six production steps, leading to significant savings. Explore fascinating scientific inquiries, from the unique survival traits of whales to breakthroughs in gene editing with CRISPR. Learn about the challenges in delivering CRISPR into cells, and join discussions on the importance of Indigenous knowledge in marine conservation. The wonders of bacteria thriving in extreme conditions and the biodiversity of Australia’s underwater ecosystems also take center stage.

CRISPR is the most powerful means of gene editing ever developed. It led to Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier being awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2020. Jennifer Doudna speaks with Merlin Crossley about CRISPR, its capability, and the ethical questions which arise.

Drought in the Amazon has left the forest tinder dry and now burning out of control. Wilderness areas and national parks across north America are on fire. The effects of climate change are hitting hard with threats of major shifts to world weather patterns as shown by the tropical island of Yap in the western Pacific coming perilously close to running out of fresh water.

We go to the Scottish Highlands where biodiversity is being reintroduced to cleared fields, and a comic book explores biodiversity in our guts where bacteria perform essential services.

As temperatures rise, it is estimated one billion people will be displaced from their land.

The University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia are to be combined as one in 2026. So how do you start a new university? You could look at the most successful universities and see what makes them great. Stanford University, just south of San Francisco amid Silicon Valley in one of the great universities. Its graduates have created the high-tech companies which we all now rely on. But Stanford has a dark history with a veil of silence drawn over anyone speaking about the university’s past, or present operations. Sharon Carleton reports. 

The ocean depths may be out of sight, but they play an important role in climate and the cycling of nutrients.