Brains Matter

In this episode I talk to Professor Patricia Vickers-Rich and we talk about the Monash Science Centre.
- What is Professor Rich’s background?
- What inspired her to start up a Science Centre in Australia?
- What are the main aims of the MSC?
- When did the MSC open?
- What were some of the difficulties experienced in trying [...]

This episode is the audio of the first Brains Matter live show. The topic for this show is The Science of Attraction
- what is attraction?
- what attracts us to each other?
- how does this compare to the animal kingdom?
- how do physical features, and chemical signals play a role?
- what influences our view of [...]

A question that everyone asks at some point is - are we alone? We’ve all heard about the Drake Equation, and have had chats about our place in the universe with friends.
In this episode, Dr Allie Ford hosts a debate between Professor John Lattanzio and Ms Marion Anderson from Monash University on the topic [...]

It’s coming to the end of the year, and what a year of science, curiosities, and general knowledge it has been!
Let me know what your favourite episode of 2009 has been and why (in less than 50 words) - post it on this entry at the Brains Matter website, and at the end of the [...]

The 100th episode of Brains Matter coincides with National Science Week - and to celebrate both the 100th show and National Science week, in this episode, we cover a range of topics. There are two great new interviews, as well as highlights from previous shows. You can go to the original interviews by [...]

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I talk to Dr Seth Shostak, from the SETI Institute, on the topic of science and the movies. We cover:
- The portrayal and accuracy of science in entertainment
- Seth’s role as science adviser in the movie remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still”
- What does a science adviser in a movie do?
- Why [...]

Chemistry, biology, physics, climate change - the list of science topics are too numerous for me to mention them all here. And each subject has someone singing about it in some fashion. That’s right - the episode that a lot of you have been waiting for - the show on science songs. [...]

In this episode, I continue my discussion with science journalist Marc West. We talk about the psychology and science of sport - and the case study we use is cricket. The topics we talk about can apply to practically any team sport, but being the cricket fans we are, we relate it to [...]

I talk to science communicator and cricket tragic, Marc West, on the topic of cricket - and the science and psychology of the sport. Marc has published several articles on the science and mathematics of the game, and in this episode, discusses the following with me:
- How fit are cricketers?
- How far do batsmen [...]