Brains Matter

Professor Ray Jayawardhana is the Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics and the Steacie Fellow at the University of Toronto. He has just written a book called Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien Planets and Life beyond Our Solar System, and he chatted to me about: – some of his background, and study areas […]

Today is the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gargarin’s first venture into outer space. Marion Anderson, a planetary geologist from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, presented a talk on the history and future of Manned Space Flight. Download MP3 of Ep 136 Please vote for this podcast this month at You can donate by clicking on […]

Why do people lie? And how easy is it to determine if people are being truthful or not? I talk to Dr Helen Paterson and Sadhana Raju in relation to these topics. We discuss: – What is a lie? – Why do people lie? – Is there an advantage to being deceitful? – Are humans […]

In our continuing series on Science Communication, I talk to Sydney science journalist, Ian Woolf. Topics we discuss include: – How Ian got into science communication – How well is science communicated in Australia? – Where does most of the communication come from in this country? – The government’s lack of valuing of education – […]

In todays episode I talk to Bec Crew, from Cosmos Magazine. Bec won the Australian Government’s National Science Week Big Blog Theory competition in the Blogging Category, and talked to me about science blogging, her blog, how it started and what got her interested in science communication. Bec also discusses what she thinks makes a […]

The Amazing Bodies Exhibition is an exhibition that showcases bodies of all shapes and sizes – from reptiles, to land mammals, to whales, and even humans. The exhibition premiered in Melbourne, and will tour Australia and New Zealand. One of the most interesting aspects of the exhibit is the use of the plastination technique to […]

Professor Richard Wassersug is from the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology from Dalhousie University in Canada. Much of his research and study was and is in the area of herpetology, or the study of amphibians. I talked to Professor Wassersug about herpetology, and the importance of understanding this area of biology. Topics discussed include: – […]

The Brains Matter Podcast and the Monash Science Centre have joined forces to bring to the public a special National Science Week event on Sunday the 15th of August. PhD student Corin Storkey will give a presentation on the Chocolate, brazil nuts, antioxidants and the fight against free radicals – you may know Corin from […]

In episode 119, I talk to Corin Storkey, a PhD student at the Bio21 Institute at the University of Melbourne, about some of the research he is doing into cancer drugs, and targeting the immune system such that it may be able to self-heal. – What is cancer? – How do current cancer drugs work? […]

I speak to Professor Patricia Vickers-Rich, the Director of the Monash Science Centre and Personal Chair of Palaeontology at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, about palaeontology. Topics we covered included: – What is palaeontology? – What areas of science does palaeontology cover? – If you’re interested in palaeontology, what should you consider learning? – Prof […]