Brains Matter ©

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 the gentleman’s game. Topics we cover in this second part of our discussion include:

– Psychology and batsmen
– The psychology of Shane Warne
– The difference between on field and off field psychology
– Body language
– The usage of sports psychologists and counselling for the English team
– Life after a sporting career
– The similarities between professional sportsmen and retired soldiers
– Research into injuries and sports medicine
– Kinematic studies of the doosra and off-break deliveries
– Tracking the workload of cricketers using GPS
– A mathematical surprise about the statistics of the best batsmen in the game – Sachin Tendulkar, Don Bradman, and even Ricky Ponting! (in fact, the top 34 test run scoring batsmen) What is this revelation, and how could this revelation be true? Mathematics will show you the way…
– Is it harder to get Ricky Ponting out at 49 compared to 51?
– The longer a batsman stays at the crease, the harder it is to get him out, right? Wrong! Listen in and find out why…
– How does this relate to the exponential distribution and coin tosses?

Also featured in this episode is Listener of the episode, and listener feedback.

This is part 2 of a 2 part interview. Please listen in to episode 84 for the first part of the interview.

Download MP3 of Ep 85

You can read Marc’s articles at the following sites:

The Curse of the Duck
Psychology & Cricket

Please vote for this podcast this month at

You can donate by clicking on the button above, and subscribe by subscribing in iTunes

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 run during a century?
– How do batsmen know where the ball is going when their eyes can’t track the ball?
– The ways in which scientists make measurements of cricket players
– How does body language influence how good a batsman is?
– How much of the game is psychological?
– How can psychology be effective for a player?
– Mentally coping with new cricketing situations
– Using psychology to foster player development in the coaching process

Also featured in this episode is Listener of the episode, and listener feedback.

This is part 1 of a 2 part interview. Please listen in to episode 85 for the conclusion to the interview.

Download MP3 of Ep 84

Please vote for this podcast this month at

You can donate by clicking on the button above, and subscribe by subscribing in iTunes

I was lucky enough to provide this audio to the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast (Official Podcast of the International Astronomical Union) – it’s an extract of episodes 81 and 82 on the topic of astrobiology. If you’re interested in the 365 Days podcast, go to

http://www.365daysofastronomy.org

Download MP3 of Ep 83

This episode of Brains Matter is brought to you by Swinburne Astronomy Online

You can donate by clicking on the button above, and subscribe by subscribing in iTunes

In this episode, continue my talk with Dr Allie Ford of Monash University about Astrobiology. We cover the following topics:

– Extremophiles
– Could life exist deep inside the Jovian planets?
– Why would it be beneficial to find life elsewhere?
– Europa as a possible candidate for life
– How likely is it that life elsewhere may evolve as we see in science fiction shows?
– Why did we evolve the way we have?
– What is useful to know to understand astrobiology?
– How SETI fits into astrobiology
– The Drake Equation

This is part 2 of a 2 part interview – if you missed part 1, please go back and listen to episode 81. This episode also features some listener feedback, pin of the episode, and the brain teaser.

Download MP3 of Ep 82

This episode of Brains Matter is brought to you by Swinburne Astronomy Online

You can donate by clicking on the button above, and subscribe by subscribing in iTunes

In this episode, I talk to Dr Allie Ford of Monash University about Astrobiology. We cover the following questions:

– What is astrobiology?
– The Urey/Miller experiment
– Do amino acids lead to life?
– What is life anyway?
– What conditions are required for life?
– The possibility of life elsewhere in our solar system
– Could life have come to Earth from elsewhere?

This is part 1 of a 2 part interview – make sure you listen to episode 82 for part 2. This episode also features some listener feedback, pin of the episode, and the brain teaser.

Download MP3 of Ep 81

This episode of Brains Matter is brought to you by Swinburne Astronomy Online

You can donate by clicking on the button above, and subscribe by subscribing in iTunes

Hi all,

As I mentioned yesterday, google has purchased feedburner, and as a result, the RSS feed for Brains Matter will be changing. The new feed, thanks to the imaginative folks at google, is

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/BrainsMatter

So what does this mean for you? If you’re using iTunes, it should hopefully not make much of a difference. Those who manually use the RSS feed or obtain the show via other podcast sites may need to update their feed to that above.

I believe the old feed will work through February, but if at some point in February you find that the feed no longer works, please go to the “Subscribing” link on the web site, and use one of the buttons (or the feed URL in your podcatcher of choice) to get it going again.

Apologies for the inconvenience. I still have no idea why they wouldn’t use the same feed URL, given the new one is almost the same!

OG

Hi all,

Just letting you know, if you experience difficulties with the feed over the next couple of weeks, that is because feedburner and google are having a bit of fun and games at the expense of many podcasters (this isn’t the only podcast that has been affected). So bear with me while these issues get sorted out.

OG

Professor Tim Flannery is the author of the popular book “The Weather Makers” and is well known for his views on Climate Change. Professor Flannery was awarded Australian of the Year in 2007, and I attended a lecture he gave in September on Climate Change.

This is part 2 of a 2 part talk by Professor Flannery. Please listen to Part 1 in episode 79 first. Also included in this episode are questions presented to Prof. Flannery at the end of the lecture.

Thanks are due to Sarah Wall, Monash University 50th Anniversary Project Manager for permission to use the audio, courtesy of Monash University.

Download MP3 of Ep 80

Please vote for this podcast this month at

You can donate by clicking on the button above, and subscribe by subscribing in iTunes

Professor Tim Flannery is the author of the popular book “The Weather Makers” and is well known for his views on Climate Change. Professor Flannery was awarded Australian of the Year in 2007, and I attended a lecture he gave in September on Climate Change.

This is part 1 of a 2 part talk by Professor Flannery.
Thanks are due to Sarah Wall, Monash University 50th Anniversary Project Manager for permission to use the audio, courtesy of Monash University.

Download MP3 of Ep 79

Please vote for this podcast this month at

You can donate by clicking on the button above, and subscribe by subscribing in iTunes

In this episode, which is the final of a 2 part interview, I talk once again with Professor Roger Short, from the University of Melbourne on further topics regarding Asian elephants, and on saving them.

– elephant accents
– what happens when you play Asian elephant vocalisations to captive African elephants? Some surprising results!
– Potelemic time African elephants versus Asian elephants in Gaza (circa 100 BC)
– Infrasound communication, and how this may relate to their aquatic ancestry
– The distance of infrasound communication
– Gestation of elephants
– Elephant mating
– How do elephants produce infrasound?
– Do elephants and whales understand each other?
– The relationship between whale and elephant communications
– Elephant mahoots and what they were able to train elephants to do
– How many words can elephants understand?
– The intelligence of elephants in comparison to primates
– Prof Short’s circus experiences
– The knowledge of mahoots
– How can we communicate with elephants, and help save them?

Also featured on today’s episode is a discussion on elephants from Dr Roger Rassool from the University of Melbourne, from an Australian & New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science presentation which I attended.
– Dr Roger Rassool showing elephant behaviour with different elephant sounds from an ANZAAS presentation
– How do we know elephants are communicating?
– The experiment on getting the Melbourne elephants talking to the Perth elephants
– How was the recording done?
– The actual elephant sounds!

Download MP3 of Ep 78

Please vote for this podcast this month at

You can donate by clicking on the button above, and subscribe by subscribing in iTunes