Particle Word for Word

What if the best classroom didn’t have walls at all?

In this episode of Particle Word for Word, we head to Turtle Camp a hands-on conservation program blending science, culture, and connection to Country. Written and read by Cat Williams, this story explores how kids in the Pilbra are learning to track turtles, monitor nests, and care for their environment in ways rooted in thousands of years of knowledge.

It’s not just about turtles...

In this episode of Particle Word for Word, we dive headfirst into the fascinating, futuristic and sometimes fraught world of de-extinction.

What happens when you splice a woolly mammoth gene into a lab mouse? What if extinction wasn’t the end of the story, but just... an intermission? Join us as we explore the sharp, speculative science behind resurrecting long lost species from genetic puzzles to ecological ethics.

Based on the arti...

Written and read by Cody Robinson

In this episode, Cody Robinson takes us to Garden Island, a restricted naval base off Western Australia’s coast, where one of the state’s northernmost little penguin colonies is quietly fighting for survival. Away from the crowds of Penguin Island, Cody joins marine biologist Dr Belinda Cannell on a survey mission, scrambling over rocks, peering into burrows, and piecing together a story of resilien...

Written and read by Tom Gurn

Deep beneath Western Australia's Nullarbor Plain, scientists are uncovering a hidden world of rare cave-dwelling spiders. In this episode, Tom Gurn takes us underground to explore the eerie silence, delicate ecosystems, and the surprising discoveries that come with searching for life in total darkness. These blind, pale arachnids may be tiny, but they raise big questions about conservation, extinction, a...

Giant wombats. Marsupial lions. Thunderbirds. Australia’s ancient landscapes were once home to massive megafauna creatures as strange as they were enormous. But around 40,000 years ago, they vanished.

In this episode, we explore the mystery behind their extinction. Was it climate change? Human hunting? Or something more complex? With new fossil evidence and evolving scientific theories, we dig into the clues that could finally solve...

They don’t move, don’t make noise, and don’t have brains but sea sponges might just help cure cancer. In this episode, we dive into the hidden world of marine sponges and the incredible promise they hold for modern medicine. With research happening right here in Western Australia, scientists are uncovering powerful chemical compounds inside these ancient ocean dwellers, some already used in cancer treatments, others just waiting to...

The ocean is full of sound, from the haunting calls of whales to the crackling of coral reefs. But now, those natural voices are being drowned out by noise pollution. Ships, sonar, oil rigs, and even tourism are changing the underwater soundscape, making it harder for marine animals to communicate, navigate, and survive.

In this episode, we explore how human-made noise is disrupting marine life, what scientists are doing to understa...

For far too long, women have been seen as secondary to men under the patriarchal rule of human society.

Yet, humanity’s existence has been a minor blip in the history of the Earth, where females are the dominant sex of many species.

The differences between men and women are far greater culturally than biologically.

In animals like the noolbenger/honey possum, females are highly promiscuous, forcing males to evolve some impressive anat...