Science Friction
ABC listen
Science Friction's latest season is: Artificial Evolution. In 1996, Dolly the Sheep became the first ever cloned animal. Nearly 30 years later, genetic technology has reshaped the world around us. What exactly has happened, where are we headed, and are we OK about it?
In this series, environment reporter Peter de Kruijff tells the surprising stories of genetic engineering. Meet the scientists changing the food we eat and creating animals with organs we can use. Hear about the criminal conspiracy to clone a giant sheep, and the teams bringing extinct animals back from the dead.
Artificial Evolution traces the influence of genetic technology from Dolly into the future. It’s the latest series of Science Friction, an award-winning podcast from ABC Radio National.
Brain Rot (Season 3): How does being chronically online affect our brains? Technology reporter Ange Lavoipierre explores the wildest ways people are using tech — from falling in love with AI companions to data-dumping a life into a language model — and the big questions about our own screen use.
Cooked (Season 2): Why do some studies show ice cream is good for you? Why do some people say they feel good going carnivore, and do we really need as many electrolytes as the internet tells us? Food and nutrition scientist Dr Emma Beckett cuts through these confusing findings to explain how nutrition science works.
AI Overlords (Season 1): AI didn't come from nowhere, and its development hasn't been a smooth, straight line — it's been rife with drama, conflict and disagreement. Technology reporter James Purtill looks at where AI came from, who controls it and where it's heading.
In this series, environment reporter Peter de Kruijff tells the surprising stories of genetic engineering. Meet the scientists changing the food we eat and creating animals with organs we can use. Hear about the criminal conspiracy to clone a giant sheep, and the teams bringing extinct animals back from the dead.
Artificial Evolution traces the influence of genetic technology from Dolly into the future. It’s the latest series of Science Friction, an award-winning podcast from ABC Radio National.
Brain Rot (Season 3): How does being chronically online affect our brains? Technology reporter Ange Lavoipierre explores the wildest ways people are using tech — from falling in love with AI companions to data-dumping a life into a language model — and the big questions about our own screen use.
Cooked (Season 2): Why do some studies show ice cream is good for you? Why do some people say they feel good going carnivore, and do we really need as many electrolytes as the internet tells us? Food and nutrition scientist Dr Emma Beckett cuts through these confusing findings to explain how nutrition science works.
AI Overlords (Season 1): AI didn't come from nowhere, and its development hasn't been a smooth, straight line — it's been rife with drama, conflict and disagreement. Technology reporter James Purtill looks at where AI came from, who controls it and where it's heading.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jun 6, 2021 • 26min
The wattle war
Flower power, and the mighty battle that divided nations.
May 30, 2021 • 35min
The wild woman of Brooklyn, the Peabody bones, and science of tree climbing! [REPEAT]
A skeleton with a back story that's almost too bizarre to believe. What would Suzy think? [REPEAT]
May 23, 2021 • 33min
Lucy's Story - the chimp, the poet, and the interspecies experiment that went weird [REPEAT]
Psychotherapist Maurice Temerlin called Lucy his "daughter"...but then things got weird. [REPEAT]
May 16, 2021 • 26min
Troublemakers for truth — death threats for calling out bad COVID science
Death threats. Cyber harassment. Meet three dogged scientists on a mission ...
May 9, 2021 • 26min
The Anthropocene radical: the scientist who saved the world
Few scientists can say they saved the planet. Paul Crutzen did. Legit.
May 2, 2021 • 26min
Your right to know the universe! Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's disordered cosmos and Particles for Justice
Dark Matter sleuth. #BlackinSTEM pioneer. Particles for Justice co-founder. This incredible physicist will change your sense of the universe and your role in it.
Apr 25, 2021 • 26min
I grew up in a sect — top scientist's candid story of an Orange People childhood
This scientist's childhood in a cult was ... let's say ... wild. The light and dark of the path to enlightenment.
Apr 18, 2021 • 26min
Natasha tries taxidermy: the wild, wonderful world of the museum makers
Pass the scalpel - taxidermy is on the menu.
Apr 11, 2021 • 26min
The mystery of the flute boy bones: a child lost in time
Science Friction breathes life into the bones of an ancient medical curiosity...and investigates the story of a child lost in time.
Apr 4, 2021 • 26min
Artists on the loose at the Large Hadron Collider - Science Friction at the CERN (REPEAT)
88 metres underground, in the labyrinth of chambers and corridors of the world’s large particle accelerator, art and science collide in wild and wonderful ways.
