Side of Science

It’s all about good humour and not a drop of bad blood as Stacey and Clinton pour out the science of the red and white cells pumping through our bodies. They pass on the Cheerios and head straight into a heart pumping oxygenated orchestra of transportation, regulation, communication and protection. From how blood moves through our veins, arteries, and capillaries, the process of plasma leakage, tissue fluid exchange, and the ...

Stacey brings in a special guest to dive into the human side of science. Ali isn’t just living with Huntington’s, he grew up in a Huntington’s family, watching the disease echo through generations. Ali shares the moment a DNA test turned 'maybe' into certainty and the tight-rope walk between hope and honesty when a partner asks, “Do we try for kids?”.  It’s human, nuanced, and a powerful ins...

Talk about twisted deoxyribose family drama! The story of Lydia Fairchild and her mysteriously non-DNA related children gives Stacey cause for a double take on some unique science. The chimera chaos leads the team to wander the streets of DNA snips and ancestral alleles that makes us unique. From coding and non-coding DNA to epigenetics, nuclear tides and cloning. Plus, the influence of Sonic the Hedgehog on our own human uniquenes...

The ancient Egyptians, Sistine Chapel, Van Gogh’ s Starry night and Dr Frankenstein have some eye-opening chemistry in common, and it all has to do with colour. Starting from lapis skies and cerulean waves, Stacey and Clinton shine a light on how and why we see colour, the visible light spectrum, additive and subtractive colour and changes to colour underwater. The science of colour is never black and white, from Monet's ultr...

Scrolling Instagram triggers a deep dive into the world of the Greenland shark, and has Stacey and Clinton exploring the massive world of animal sizes, aging, and even cancer. From the largest animal on Earth, to elephants with super-powered tumour-suppressing genes, they dive into Peto's Paradox and question why bigger isn't always more cancerous. Get ready for mind-bending concepts like hyper tumours and learn why some animals ge...

Stacey’s friend has posed an unusual question: Why don’t Flake chocolate bars melt? Turns out, dark, milk, or amorphous solid, there is some decadent science behind the every day chocolate bar. From the 6 crystal structures, the art of tempering, and why some chocolate achieves that perfect snap while others crumble. Then it’s back to Year 7 science for Clinton with a recap on the states of matter and a sweet link...

A near miss with a tiger snake on Clinton's morning run sparks a deep dive into the world of nature’s chemical weaponry. First used for defence and hunting millions of years ago, these substances are now unlocking new medical breakthroughs. Clinton and Stacey explore the science behind venoms, poisons, and toxins, from the neurotoxins of tiger snakes to the lethal dose (LD50) of poison dart frogs. From the role of horses in a...

What's the one thing Ant is most excited about for his upcoming trip to Japan? Taking the shinkansen, or Japanese bullet train, from Tokyo to Osaka. First launched in 1964 and travelling today at 320 km/h, it's a feat of modern science. Ant and Stacey take a whistle stop tour of the science of biomimicry, examining how nature has influenced the bullet train and other modern technologies. From kingfishers and owls, to sharkskin and ...

It's summer holidays in Australia, which for some means jumping on a plane and heading overseas. Depending on the destination, that next beachside cocktail might be best avoided. Prompted by recent media stories of holiday makers being poisoned by methanol, Stacey distils the chemistry of alcohol and shakes lose the science behind a fatal beverage. Plus why is beer safe, our bodily response to methanol poisoning and how it's t...

With Ant prepping more science lessons and binging Chernobyl, Stacey is exposed to a full dose of the science behind radiation. From our microwaves and phones, to medical applications and nuclear catastrophe, Ant covers the good, the bad, and the downright dangerous types of radiation. It’s a full high school science recap with the team discussing atomic structure, ionising and non-ionising radiation, half life, radioactive b...

What’s going on when Ant gets that burning sensation eating a spicy curry? And why are his mates so insistent on pushing through the burning pain? From chilli eating contests to tattoos and heartache, Stace serves up the science behind everyday pain. The role of nociceptor triggers, the adrenaline response, the nocebo effect, and the curious role the male platypus might play in helping science better understand our pain response.

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Stacey isn't interested in signing up for a trip to Mars, and Ant does a pretty bad job of selling it. Boiling eyeballs, a diet of lettuce, and sweeping up after mega dust storms, not to mention the ice lasers and giant iron wedding ring in the sky. Ant and Stace ponder the chances of kickstarting Mars' nutrient cycles and dig into the science and sci-fi behind the possible paths to terraforming our red neighbour.

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A snowstorm, a slashed tent, some clothes and then, the discovery of gruesome human remains. Conspiracies abound, including a Yeti attack or failed military exercise. Stacey takes us back to 1959 to the Ural Mountains in Russia, to dig into the science that might explain what tragically happened to 9 frozen hikers. Hypothermia, slab avalanches, the freezing point of water, cellular structure and the Disney film Frozen all help thaw...

In prepping a Year 9 Science lesson on conservation of energy, Ant comes across a booklet on heat and bush fires. The science behind the burning of wood naturally has him busting to know whether humans can spontaneously combust. What's involved in pyrolysis, combustion, and the wick effect? And can these scientific phenomena explain why images alleging to show the aftermath of spontaneous human combustion depict one lonely limb rem...

Stacey wonders why the thumbnails in her Netflix account look so different to her partner's - even for the same film, Good Will Hunting. This sets Ant on his own hunting for an answer, and has him pulling back the curtain on Netflix's not-so-secret sauce: data. Dig into the psychology behind why certain images make you click, the science and maths of the algorithms driving your next binge, and the sometimes eerie feeling that Netfl...