Brains Matter ©

Professor Brian Schmidt won the Nobel Prize for physics for 2011, for his work in helping discover that the universe was accelerating in it’s expansion, which came as a huge surprise to the whole astronomical community.

I spoke to Brian about his work for the 24/5/2009 episode of Brains Matter – for those of you who missed that, and for those who didn’t, and would enjoy hearing it once more, here it is again!

Download Encore MP3 of Ep 92

“When you know where you are going you never invent anything new” – Brian Schmidt. I wonder how many politicians who believe in funding only for short-term outcome-based research will take note.

Amusingly, after the interview, I joked with Brian that the work was worth a Nobel, and he humbly laughed it off!

In this episode, I talk to Kellie Caught, Head of Climate Change for WWF Australia, about the Say Yes Campaign. Topics discussed include:

– Kellie’s background
– The background of the carbon price in Australia and worldwide
– Kyoto
– How long has the EU had Emissions Trading Schemes?
– What is the ‘say yes’ campaign?
– Who is involved?
– The community response to the carbon price
– Where is the money for the carbon price going?
– What is the reality of job losses?
– Job growth from the Minerals Council research
– What about other countries?
– Energy producers moving to new cleaner energy technologies
– The loss of Australia’s research leadership overseas
– The current worldwide research position of Australia for renewable energy
– How to help with Say Yes

Today’s listener of the episode is Julia Cooper from Wales.

Download MP3 of Ep 149

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In this episode, I speak to Michael Roache, the Program Manager for Threatened Species at the World Wildlife Fund – Australia. He spoke to me about:

– Michael’s background
– National Threatened Species Day
– How many threatened species do we have in Australia?
– What are macropods?
– The relationship between threatened species and the ecosystem
– Examples of successful action on threatened species
– What kind of macropods are more susceptible in Australia?
– The categories of being endangered
– The Ten Year Action Plan for Australian Macropods
– Why it was written
– Systematic approaches to recover threatened species
– How long do such efforts take?
– What is the financial cost of recoveries?
– How does this compare to other spending by governments?
– What are the flow on effects of threatened species?
– The goals of the action plan

The Action Plan can be viewed online here: http://www.wwf.org.au/news_resources/resource_library/?2940/The-action-plan-for-threatened-Australian-macropods-2011-2021

Today’s listener of the episode is Kathryn Aldridge from the US.

Download MP3 of Ep 148

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In today’s show, I speak to Marita Cheng, the founder of Robogals. Topics we discuss include:

– Marita’s background
– What inspired her to go into engineering?
– How did Robogals get started?
– What are the aims of Robogals?
– Who is it targeting?
– What does it do at schools?
– What is the international footprint of Robogals?
– The skills that Robogals teaches students and its own volunteers
– What are the statistics around females and studying technical courses?
– What other activities does Robogals provide?

Today’s listener of the episode is Brad Milne.

Download MP3 of Ep 147

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Today’s episode is a 5 year celebration of the podcast

– Listener feedback for the five year anniversary
– The five year anniversary competition winner

A discussion on science and society at the Brains Matter 5 year celebration where we discussed:
– education
– inspiration
– teachers
– governments and their inertia in pushing science education
– people’s perspective of science
– is the movement towards science getting better or worse?
– acceptance of science and ‘geek culture’

Thank you to everyone who has contributed, not just to this show, but to the show over the past five years as a whole.

Download MP3 of Ep 146

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

In today’s episode, I speak to Dr Rosemary Mardling from Monash University on the 3-body problem and the n-body problem.

– What is the 3-body problem? How does it relate to astronomy?
– How was it worked out in the early days?
– What was Newton’s approach to the problem?
– How does the 3-body problem differ from the 2-body problem?
– In our solar system, what effects does the 3 or n body scenario provide?
– Henri Poincare and his attempt at the problem
– The relationship between the n-body problem and chaos
– The n-body problem and how it relates to the formation of the solar system and collisions in during the formation process
– Do changes in masses change the behaviour of a 3-body system?
– Is Tattooine a reality?

Today’s listener of the episode is Richard Ogley from Victoria, Australia

Download MP3 of Ep 145

It’s also almost the 5 year anniversary of the podcast – drop me a line and let me know your favourite memory of the show!

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

This Friday signifies the 5 year anniversary of the podcast – thank you to everyone who has contributed to the show, been on the show, listened or recommended the show to others. The show is nothing without all of you.

Please send me through your favourite (or memorable!) moments from the show by Wednesday 14/9 – one random entry will win a prize!

In this episode, I talk to Dr Owen Carter, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer Control at Curtin University, on the topic of childhood obesity and the perceptions that surround it – some of the reality based on the research studies may surprise you!

Today’s listener of the episode is Gary Murphy from Queensland in Australia.

Download MP3 of Ep 144

It’s also almost the 5 year anniversary of the podcast – drop me a line and let me know your favourite memory of the show!

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

This episode is the audio from the National Science Week live show recorded at the Monash Science Centre. You can download the presentation and the lyrics to the song at the Brains Matter web site.

A live audience enjoyed hearing from the range of guests at the Brains Matter live show – first up was Professor Roger Short, one of the world’s leading experts on elephants. Roger spoke about the history of elephants, his research on elephants done over decades and in various countries, and his dedication to the creatures.

Research scientist Evan Bitter then spoke about his own work around Human Elephant Conflict, elephant vocalisations, and the work done in combining these two areas to help save both human and elephant lives.

The audience then heard from the A Future With Elephants organisation – how they started, what their aims are, and the projects they are currently undertaking in South East Asia to help the conservation effort to save the Asian Elephant.

Listen in to this fascinating and enjoyable discussion.

Download MP3 of Ep 143

You can download the presentation that is discussed in the talk at this link

Lyrics to The Elephant in the Room, written by Clive Richard Weeks for the show.

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Well, Saturday has come and gone, and fun was had all round. To celebrate Science Week, Brains Matter, with the support of the Monash Science Centre, hosted a live show on The World of the Elephant.

The first person to be interviewed was Professor Roger Short, a world leading expert on elephants, and he discussed many fascinating aspects of elephants that both he and others have discovered in their research over the years.

Following on from Roger, Evan Bittner, a research scientist, who flew in all the way from Adelaide only minutes before the show started, discussed his research.

This included his work on vocalisations and his aim to help with human-elephant conflict. He also gave some chilling statistics on current elephant populations in Asia.

This was followed up by music from Clive Weeks – who wrote a special song for the day.

A Future With Elephants, a conservation fund that was started by a Brains Matter listener, then discussed what their aims were and the type of projects and research they were doing in South East Asia to help the plight of the elephant.

All in all, a fascinating day with great information, and the feedback we had from attendees on the day was fantastic. So a big thank you to everyone who was involved, who helped out, and who attended.

The presentations for the day, the lyrics to Clive’s song, and the audio to the interviews/podcast will be up very soon. You can also find some extra photos on the AFWE facebook page

Once again, thank you to everyone involved!

The show is able to be done through the assistance of its listeners – if you’d like to help, check out the support page on the right hand side, or donate via paypal – all information is on the website.