Ockham's Razor
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From Oxford to Monash: friendship rekindled
Professor John Crossley and Professor John Bradshaw, a regular contributor to this program, first met 50 years ago when they were both students at Oxford University.
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Stroke revisited
Professor John Bradshaw talks about how a catastrophic stroke suffered by his wife changed their lives forever.
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Wind farms and bird strike
A large number of birds are killed by wind turbines in Australia and overseas.
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Cutting for the stone
Medical historian Dr Jim Leavesley from Halls Head in Western Australia takes us through the history of surgery to remove bladder stones. The 355th anniversary of the cure for this condition is 1st May this year.
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The Junk DNA Controversy
A series of new papers has just been published, confirming that most of our DNA has no known function. The Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales, Merlin Crossley, believes that up to 90% of our DNA really is junk.
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The logistics of 50 per cent
Frank Szanto is a mechanical engineer who is involved in the design of rail vehicles. Today he talks about the way freight is transported in Australia; that is, either by rail or in trucks. He argues that transporting freight by rail is the way to go—it would be better for the environment and would cut down on road accidents. However, a lot of work needs to be done on the railway infrastructure before freight trains can become the major way of transporting goods in Australia.
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Social Dancing
Arthur Marcel teaches at the Queensland University of Technology and he loves dancing. Dancing is part of our human culture and goes back many, many years. Arthur Marcel talks about what dancing was like in the past and he argues that there is a decline in social dancing.
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Why digital money is one of the most important...
Professor Mark Dodgson from the University of Queensland's School of Business talks about digital money, a technology that has changed the way we are able to conduct business transactions.
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Lambing in the global financial crisis - part two
In part two of his talk Dr Peter Underwood from Western Australia talks about the time when his sheep gave birth during extremely harsh weather conditions, which some newborn lambs did not survive. He also tells us how his dog helped in saving a rejected newborn lamb to survive.
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Lambing in the global financial crisis - part one
A few years ago Dr Peter Underwood from Western Australia tried his hand at arranging artificial conception for his flock of Merino sheep. He talks about his experiences and difficulties during that time, which was also the time of the world-wide global financial crisis.
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Nuclear waste disposal in Australia
Terry Krieg from Port Lincoln in South Australia is a retired geology and geography teacher and a member of the Australian Nuclear Forum. He suggests that there are enormous environmental and economic opportunities for Australia in burying and removing the world's nuclear waste from the environment forever and argues that this can be done safely.
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Botanic gardens in modern society
Botanic gardens are beautiful and peaceful places. But they are far more than simply places to relax.
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A Foresight Saga
Futurist Oliver Freeman reflects on the importance of foresight in our intellectual, social, political and emotional lives as we engage with the growing uncertainties of the 21st century.
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Addiction and Gambling and Other Peccadillos
Professor John Bradshaw from Monash University explains some of the vulnerability aspects associated with addiction and gambling from a neuroscience perspective.
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'Poo transplants' - the Australian story
Dyani Lewis from the Melbourne School of Population Health at the University of Melbourne, provides an insight into the Australian scene of 'poo transplants' and how the 100 trillion microbes living in and on our bodies are not all bad for our health.
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Rethinking food security
Food security is a growing concern around the world. Mark Wahlqvist from Monash University suggests a fundamentally different approach is needed, from national governments, international organisations and also at a local or community level. He calls for a greater appreciation for the ways in which the biodiversity and ecology of local areas relate to the functioning of food systems.
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Decisions, decisions
Arthur Marcel teaches at the Queensland University of Technology. In this talk he looks at how decisions can be turning points in history, and making the wrong decision can have disastrous effects. He cites as one example the plane crash at Los Rodeos airport on Teneriffe in March, 1977, which killed 583 people.
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Coal fired power stations - an alternative
Geoff Hudson, an independent computer programmer and inventor from Melbourne, refers to an earlier Ockham's Razor talk by Graham Palmer about coal fired power stations and makes some alternative suggestions about how power can be obtained in a more environmentally friendly way.
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The curious minds who made our science Australian
Peter Macinnis from Sydney is the author of a book titled Curious Minds - The Discoveries of Australian Naturalists. In this book he looks at the long line of naturalists who have traversed Australia in search of new plants and animals.
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Pigs and poultry
People used to know where their food came from. They grew it and harvested it, or raised it and slaughtered it. However, the separation of people from their food sources has resulted in more than ignorance and misconceptions about how food is produced and has also resulted in massive waste. Returning to a more environmentally sustainable farm system would involve more than change the land, according to rural journalist Asa Wahlquist from Sydney.
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A poet's guide to climate change
Writer and poet Mark Tredinnick from the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, gives an artist's response to climate change, how to deal with the grief, the denial and the guilt.
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Celibacy and the Catholic Church
Author and historian Jill, Duchess of Hamilton, discusses the Vatican's law of celibacy for Roman Catholic priests. She talks about the history of this law and the problems confronting celibate priests.
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Trees of survival: seeds of hope
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War hold an international meeting every second year. Dr Peter Underwood, a physician from Perth, attended their last conference, which took place in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. He talks about his experiences and impressions during his stay in this city, which suffered the blast of an atomic bomb 67 years ago.
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Testing times for medical science
Dr Rob Morrison, a Professorial Fellow from Flinders University in Adelaide, is also the Vice President of Friends of Science in Medicine, an organisation that was formed to discourage universities from offering pseudoscientific health courses under a scientific banner and calling them evidence-based when they are not. The Australian Skeptics have named the Friends of Science in Medicine as 'Skeptic of the Year'. This year's winner of the Australian Skeptics' Bent Spoon award 'for the most...
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John Gould's Extinct and Endangered Birds of Australia.
Sue Taylor, author and 'twitcher' from Melbourne, talks about her new book John Gould's Extinct and Endangered Birds of Australia.
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Endangered languages
Associate Professor Claire Bowern is in the Department of Linguistics at Yale University. Today she talks about why some languages become endangered and why we should care about this. Her main area of work are endangered Australian Aboriginal languages.
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Rescuing an icon in crisis
Dr Ron Sandland retired from CSIRO in 2007 as Deputy Chief Executive. He was responsible for the National Flagship Initiative and the Science Investment Process and prior to that he was Chief of CSIRO's Mathematical and Information Sciences Division. Today he talks about why CSIRO, Australia's largest publicly funded research organisation, staked everything on an ambitious program of renewal and what happened when it did.
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The war to end all wars
On 11 November, 1918 the hostilities of World War I ended. Shirley Shackleton from Melbourne talks about the World War I experiences of her grandfather and her great uncle.
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Biodiversity hotspots in the southwest region of Western...
Perth based journalist and author Victoria Laurie talks about the flora and fauna of Western Australia's southwest region, a 'biodiversity hotspot' where large numbers of species are concentrated, but that place is under threat.
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50th Anniversary of Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring'
Jonathon Porritt is the Founder Director of Forum for the Future in London. In this talk he celebrates the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring, which took a hard look at the effects of pesticides on our environment and was instrumental in the banning of DDT.
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The effect of climate change in Antarctica
David Neilson is a photographer from Emerald in Victoria. David has made six trips to Antarctica between 1990 and 2009 and in this program he talks about the effect of climate change in Antarctica. GALLERY
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Japanese Disasters
Roger Pulvers is the Head of the Center for the Study of World Civilizations at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and talks about the history of disasters in Japan and about the big earthquake and tsunami that struck that country last year. He also looks at what can be done to prevent or at least minimise the effect of these types of disasters.
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Parkinson's Disease and Deep Brain Stimulation
Sally Hunter is an author from Adelaide and she has written a book called You Can't Keep A Good Man Down - From Parkinson's To A New Life With Deep Brain Stimulation. It's the story of one person's journey through Parkinson's disease and deep brain stimulation.
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John Graunt and the birth of medical statistics
In London, in 1662, 350 years ago, John Graunt published a booklet which was the beginning of medical statistics, of epidemiology and of medical demography. Dr John Carmody of the Department of Physiology at the University of Sydney, looks at the history of medical statistics.
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Building London’s sewerage system: an engineering wonder...
London's sewerage system is seen as wonder of the engineering world. The challenges in getting it built are mirrored in the big infrastructure projects of today.
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Diet and ADHD
Joan Breakey, a dietitian from Brisbane, asks the question why, after 35 years, the controversy about diet and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is still relevant today.
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Was Australia intended as a hemp colony?
Two hundred years ago hemp, cannabis sativa, was used as the basis for sail and rope. In the Age of Sail hemp was as important as oil is in the modern era. Historian Dr John Jiggens wrote a book called Sir Joseph Banks and the Question of Hemp, in which he used previously unpublished documents by Sir Joseph Banks on the hemp question.
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Ockham's Magic Razor
Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at Monash University, John Bradshaw, talks about how the media may open doors to research. He mentions his experiences after he talked about two topics of his own research interests on the Ockham's Razor program: Phantom limb pains and synaesthesia.
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Six products I want to see
Independent computer programmer and inventor Geoff Hudson from Melbourne talks about some possible inventions which could be useful in the future.
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Australia's population debate
Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe from Griffith University in Brisbane has recently published a book called Bigger or Better, in which he explains the politics of population growth and what it will mean for Australia.
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Cattle and methane
A lot of people, amongst them Britain's Lord Stern and Sir Paul McCartney, argue that eating less meat could help save the planet. But there is a growing body of evidence that it is not simply a case of less meat means less heat. Rural journalist Asa Wahlquist takes a closer look at this issue.
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What's your beef?
When Mark Whittaker, a cow farmer and journalist, moved to the country for a simpler life, he did not expect to discover that his cows would be blamed for their contribution to the greenhouse effect.
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QWERTY - here to stay
There is no sense to its layout. Touch typists have wired their brains for the qwerty keyboard. Despite some attempts to introduce other layouts, qwerty has become part of almost every digital device which requires human input. The qwerty keyboard seems embedded and immovable. Robin Robertson discusses the history of qwerty and the power of touch typists.
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A grandmother confronts creationist beliefs in her family
Mildred Studders, a grandmother from Brisbane, hoping to encourage her grandchildren to think for themselves, posed several questions to them by email. The replies she got were extremely surprising and worrying.
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Computers and Literacy
Michael Callanan, a high school teacher from Brisbane, discusses whether computers in schools have a beneficial effect on academic achievement.
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Are global cataclysms cyclic?
Geologist Peter James from Tasmania discusses what has happened over the centuries when Jupiter and Saturn line up with us and the sun.
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Disease and civilization
Medical historian, Dr James Leavesley from Margaret River in Western Australia, talks about the times when diseases like typhoid, measles, cholera and others decimated large areas of Europe and North and South America.
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Indigenous Literacy
Jeanie Adams of Black Ink Press in Townsville, Northern Queensland, talks about some of the reasons for low literacy among many indigenous Australians.
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Summer in the Antarctic
Professor Herbert Huppert, an Australian Geophysicist at Cambridge University, King's College, talks about his experiences while taking part in an oceanographic expedition in Antarctic waters.
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The history of bell-ringing
Dr Heather Phillips from Adelaide talks about the history of the ringing of church bells in England.
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Innovations that can change our lives
Dr Andrew Leigh MP is the Federal Member for Fraser in the ACT and today he talks about five ideas that can change our lives.
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GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth
Dave Gardner is a US filmmaker who recently directed the documentary GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth. He asks one of the most critical questions of our time: How do we become a sustainable civilization?
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The weather of who we are
Mark Tredddinick is a poet who lives in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales and has written a book called Australia's Wild Weather. He talks about what weather means to us and how it affects our daily lives.
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From Battlefields to Bushfires: The Mental Health...
Professor Mark Creamer from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne discusses the effect of trauma and how awareness of it and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has changed considerably over recent years.
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Music and the mind
Emeritus Professor Roger Rees from Flinders University in Adelaide, talks about the benefits of music therapy for people who recover from trauma, brain injury and who suffer from mental illness.
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Beyond vox pop democracy: Deepening democracy in the...
Nicholas Gruen is CEO of Lateral Economics and Chairman of the Australian Centre for Social Innovation and today he discusses how the internet can play a role in involving people in government..
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Reframe
Sydney author Eric Knight wrote a book called Reframe: How to solve the world's trickiest problems, in which he explains ways of finding a solution to problems.
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Educational technologies and the changing role of...
Professor Jim Barber, Vice Chancellor of the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, talks about how teaching at universities is changing, using the internet.
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Christian animal sacrifice in the Holy Land
Jill, Duchess of Hamilton was shocked when she discovered that the practice of ritualized animal sacrifice by Christians in the Holy Land still occurs.
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Humour in science
IgNobel Laureate Len Fisher from the Physics Department of the University of Bristol in the UK, tells us that scientists do have a sense of humour and humour can be a stimulus as well as the result in scientific research.
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Is the carbon Landcare's missing link?
Landcare just had its 25th anniversary and today one of its founders, Phillip Toyne, talks about the history and the future of that movement.
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Mateship with nature
Author Carrie Tiffany from Melbourne has been working with the Landcare movement, which just had its 25th anniversary, for most of that time. Today she talks about her experiences with the Australian landscape and the people she has met during her work.
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The effect of caffeine on performance
In his second talk about caffeine Chris Forbes-Ewan, a defence nutritionist with the Defence and Technology Organisation in Scottsdale, Tasmania, talks about the way caffeine affects the performance of athletes.
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The effect of caffeine on human health
Chris Forbes-Ewan, a defence nutritionist with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation in Scottsdale, Tasmania, talks about the health effects of caffeine. He explains what caffeine is and describes its physiological effects on the body.
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Interdisciplinary approaches
Science author Ann Moyal from Canberra draws attention to the need to bring science into a greater interdisciplinary contact with the humanities and social sciences.
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250 years of veterinary education
This year is the 250th anniversary of veterinary education. Dr Andrew Turner, formerly Chief Veterinary Officer for the state of Victoria, takes us on a historical journey, right back to the beginning.
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How Australia changed old money for new
On 14th February, 1966, Australia changed to a decimal currency. Writer and social historian Robin Robertson takes us back to that time with some amusing anecdotes of how the population felt about this change.
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Distillation
Trevor McAllister, a retired chemist from Melbourne, discusses the history of whiskey distillation in Ireland.
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Problems with desalination plants
According to journalist Ken Davidson from Melbourne, desalination plants are not only outrageously expensive, but also threaten the environment and our health.
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Measures of leadership: Reflections on Robert S. McNamara
Professor Mark Dodgson from the University of Queensland Business School, talks about the career and personality of Robert Strange McNamara, who also served as US Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
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Nuclear power - exploding the myths
Terry Krieg, a retired school teacher from Port Lincoln in South Australia, looks at some of the myths surrounding the use of nuclear power.
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Dirt
Jill, Duchess of Hamilton, wonders why dirt has such a bad name and the word is often used in a derogatory and negative way. In this talk she puts in the good word for dirt.
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There's a quiet revolution going on in the social...
Professor Ian Wilkinson from the University of Sydney Business School talks about building models, using a computer, to manage future possible events in science and the social sciences. The co-author of this talk is Dr David Earnest from the Old Dominion University in Virginia, USA.
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Ockham's Razor 18 December 2011
Dr John Kirk, a former CSIRO plant biochemist from New South Wales, asks what it is that science asks us to believe about the nature of physical and biological reality. Are there some beliefs which science tells us we should abandon? And is science, with its discoveries and resulting technologies, and its particular way of looking at the world, really - as some environmentalists seem to believe - the ultimate source of the environmental problems of the planet?
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I am a mutant
Dr Alan Baxter from the Comparative Genomics Centre at James Cook University in Townsville, Northern Queensland, discusses his life as a mutant.
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Science and communication in the information age
Denis Cryle, who is Professor in Communication and Media Studies at Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, tells us how the technology of communication has changed over the years.
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Apology for duplicate podcasts
We have just upgraded to a new website, and the move has caused some podcast subscribers to download duplicate mp3s. We apologise for this issue and hope you continue to listen to Radio National podcasts in the future.
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2011-11-27 A question of collaboration
Sydney author Peter Macinnis is fascinated by the 19th century. Today he discusses the science and technology predictions of that era and tells us his vision of the future.
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2011-11-20 Lathered up about CO2
Howard Morrison is an energy consultant, a hands on adviser to architects and engineers and today he joins the debate about how we can reduce our CO2 emissions. He also questions the efficiency of our energy system.
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2011-11-13 Epileptic seizures - turmoil hidden from view
Melbourne author Suzanne Yanko has written a self-published book called Epilepsy in the Family. She talks about different types of epilepsy, in particular, complex-partial seizures and how they often go unrecognised, despite the strange sensations experienced by those who have temporal lobe epilepsy.
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2011-11-06 Mulling up Cannabis and psychosis
Psychiatrist Dr Matthew Large, Clinical Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales, responds to an earlier Ockham's Razor talk by author Dr John Jiggens, which was broadcast on 28 August, 2011.
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2011-10-30 Ignoring gen Y while the world sleepwalks to...
Fiona Heinrichs, who studies business administration at Macquarie University in Sydney, feels that her generation is largely ignored and not given a voice in the media.
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2011-10-23 A scientific view of non-scientific beliefs
Science communicator Dr Craig Cormick from Canberra discusses the fact that a large number of people believe in psychic powers, UFOs, magic and similar things. Apparently about 80% of Australians and Americans hold at least one paranormal belief.
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2011-10-16 Heat
Dr Jennifer Coopersmith is an Honorary Research Associate at La Trobe University in Bendigo, Victoria. She discusses the various theories that surrounded the mysteries of heat.
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2011-10-09 Significant does not equal important: why we...
Professor Geoff Cumming from the Statistical Cognition Laboratory at La Trobe University in Melbourne looks at how we interpret statistics.
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2011-10-02 Climate change debate? Pity about the science
Barry Jones was Minister for Science in Bob Hawke's government and is a Fellow of all four of Australia's Learned Academies. Today he discusses the development and the debate of climate science over the years.
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2011-09-25 Coal dependence and the renewables paradox
Graham Palmer, who is an industrial engineer from Melbourne, discusses our dependence on coal.
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2011-09-18 Not so high speed rail
Frank Szanto is a mechanical engineer based in Sydney and has spent a lifetime working on the railways. Today he discusses the history and future of the Australian rail system.
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2011-09-11 Mobile phones and cordless technology - are...
Lyn McLean is the Director of EMR Australia and former director of EMR Association of Australia. She is a community representative on several government and industry committees and has lobbied for precautions to protect the community against the harmful effects of electromagnetic radiation.
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2011-09-04 Climate change and Australia's energy future
Terry Krieg is a retired geography and geology teacher from Port Lincoln, in South Australia. He suggests that Australia should embrace nuclear power.
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2011-08-28 New drug that maddens victims (Reefer Madness...
Dr John Jiggens is an author living in Brisbane. He is outraged by the type of media coverage linking marijuana and cannabis to mental illness.
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2011-08-21 All is not quite right in the hallowed halls...
Former Pro Vice Chancellor at the University of New South Wales, Adrian Lee, believes that universities are too focussed on research rather than teaching. Whilst research productivity increases the prestige of a university, it is critical that teaching excellence should not be ignored.
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2011-08-14 Stroke - the hour that struck
Emeritus Professor John Bradshaw from Monash University in Melbourne has been a regular contributor to this program for many years. Today he tells us how his life (and that of his wife Judy) has changed forever after his wife suffered a major stroke during a hiking trip in the Grampians in Victoria.
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2011-08-07 Heart pacemakers
Cardiologist Dr John England, who lives and works in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, has been living with a pacemaker for the last 35 years. He has also written a book which tells you everything you need to know about living with a pacemaker. It's called Kickstart.
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2011-07-31 Compulsory imagination
David Astle from Melbourne is a crossword maker and today he talks about the art of designing and solving crossword puzzles.
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2011-07-24 Fire and humans
Professor of Forest Ecology David Bowman from the University of Tasmania in Hobart, talks about human involvement with fire and its consequences.
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2011-07-17 Adonis and Jesus Christ
Today historian Jill, Duchess of Hamilton talks about the connection between Adonis and Jesus Christ and what Adonis has to do with Bethlehem.
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2011-07-03 Early French influences in Australia
Edward Duyker is Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the Australian Catholic University and Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of French Studies at Sydney University. Today he tells us about the French influence in Australia in the beginnings of European settlement.
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2011-06-26 There's more to it than meets the eye:...
Emeritus Professor John Bradshaw from Monash University in Melbourne discusses how we are open to suggestion and gives many examples of how our thinking can be influenced without us knowing it.
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2011-06-19 Why Australian students should be travellers
Dr John Aaskov from the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology, researches tropical medicine. During his work he spends a large amount of his time in South East Asia and today he tells us the story of Dr Alexandre Yersin, who spent almost his entire working life in Vietnam and who identified the causative agent of the plague.
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2011-06-12 Tents, toilets and tipping points
Jo Chandler is a senior writer for The Age in Melbourne. In this talk she tells us about her experiences when she accompanied scientists on field trips in Africa, Antarctica and a rainforest in Queensland's tropics.
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2011-06-05 Deliberative democracy
Professor Lyn Carson from the Centre for Citizenship and Public Policy at the University of Western Sydney talks about using deliberative democracy to solve the world's 'wicked problems'.
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2011-05-29 The celestial bed
Medical historian Dr Jim Leavesley from Margaret River in WA tells us about the life and strange ideas of Dr James Graham, a medical entrepreneur and self-styled sex therapist. In 1773, after returning to England from the US, he embarked on a new career dedicated to marriage and fertility.
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2011-05-22 Grammar and word plays
Dallin D. Oaks is a Linguistics Professor at Brigham Young University in Utah, in the US. In this talk he focuses on the use of grammar in humour and advertising.
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2011-05-15 The science and the art of language fieldwork
Associate Professor Claire Bowern from the Department of Linguistics at Yale University, talks about the research work of linguists and the importance of field work in that area.
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2011-05-08 Trouble with dentists
Today Professor Emeritus John Bradshaw from Monash University talks about ghosts, miracles, religion and he also takes a light-hearted look at certain practical problems in theology. All this was inspired by a visit to a dentist.
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2011-05-01 Man's best friend
Social commentator Bettina Arndt has a look at the situation men with erection problems find themselves in when looking for help.
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2011-04-24 The spirit of things
Sydney engineer Frank Szanto looks at the influence the 17th century mathematician and philosopher Rene Descartes had on the way we view the world.
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2011-04-17 The Titanic disaster and global warming
Arthur Marcel lectures at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane and in today's talk he compares the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the Titanic to issues surrounding global warming.
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2011-04-03 Parks, zoos and freezers
Science writer Melvin Bolton from Yeppoon in Queensland looks at the problem of wildlife conservation and some of the battles that are being lost.
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2011-03-27 Information management in business
Robert Hillard is a partner at Deloitte Enterprise Information Management in Melbourne and the author of a book called Information-Driven Business.
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2011-03-20 Half-pay pudding
Bernadette Hince is at the ANU in Canberra and today she tackles the subject of waste, particularly food waste. Never before have we tossed so much left over food into our bins instead of finding ways to use it.
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2011-03-13 Climate science and public debate
Ian Enting is a Professorial Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems at the University of Melbourne. Both sides of the public debate over global warming effectively claim conspiracies and self-styled skeptics propose that the world's climate scientists are driven by a mix of motives. So, what are the central issues in this debates?
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2011-03-06 Antarctica, Glossopteris and the sexual...
We all know the story of Robert Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole, but what was the connection between Scott and palaeobotanist Marie Stopes, who later became famous in the arena of birth control and women's sexuality?
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2011-02-27 Eucalypts, with the Duchess of Hamilton.
Jill, Duchess of Hamilton, is an enigma, and expert on topics ranging from Napoleon's horse to the desert poets of World War One. And everything in between. Today, she enlightens us about eucalypts.
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2011-02-20 The Kimberley: Australia's Last Great...
Victoria Laurie tells stories from Australia's final wildlife frontier, the Kimberley. Her book on the subject is out now through UWA Press.
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2011-02-13 Earth calling - SOS
Dr Reese Halter spent several years studying at the University of Melbourne. He now resides in Los Angeles but has grave concerns about the fate of our world. In 2012 it is expected world population will exceed 7 billion people and how we source energy, feed ourselves, contend with global warming and protect the wild ecosystems will ultimately define the longevity of our species on Earth. And honeybees.
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2011-02-06 Ornithology: A love affair
Sue Taylor takes us on a journey of discovery and enlightenment, introducing us to all her feathered friends.
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2011-01-30 Waiter, there's a climate sceptic in my soup!
Andrew Herrick, a Melbourne writer, keeps a keen eye on the march of the Melbourne fly, and climate change.
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2011-01-23 The history of species
John Wilkins is a philosopher at the University of Sydney. His latest book is called Species - A History of the Idea, published by the University of California Press. Today he talks about how the complex idea of species has evolved over time, yet its meaning is far from resolved.
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2011-01-16 Thoughts on innovation
Dr Sarah Pearson from the Australian National University believes that the word 'innovation' is so over-used these days, that it somehow lost its edge. Many things which are called 'innovative' are neither useful or practical.
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2011-01-09 The case of open science
The need to share scientific knowledge has never been more urgent. The present global knowledge system is good at generating knowledge, but poor at sharing it. Science communicator and author Julian Cribb talks about the need for better communication of science in society.
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2011-01-02 Is there a new scramble for the arctic?
Dr Keith Suter is in the Department of Politics at Macquarie University in Sydney and asks the question if the Arctic is heading for a new era. It has been suggested that global warming will enable greater access to the Arctic's considerable resources, which might change the political complexity of that area.
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2010-12-26 Modelling forests from space
Dr Joe Landsberg, former Chief of the CSIRO Division of Forest Research, talks about the importance of forests for our environment. He's written a book with Dr Peter Sands from Tasmania: Physiological Ecology of Forest Production.
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2010-12-19 The birth of modern genetics
This year we celebrate 100 years since the beginning of modern genetics. Physiologist Dr Jack Carmody, who is at the University of Sydney, takes us through a fascinating historical journey.
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2010-12-12 The occupational health of academics
Professor Yasmin Haskell from the University of Western Australia discusses some of the ailments associated with the sedentary scholarly lifestyle.
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2010-12-05 Not your ordinary doctor
Medical historian and author Dr Jim Leavesley from Western Australia looks at some of the famous and infamous men who trained as doctors and then went on to do other things.
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2010-11-28 Small can be beautiful when it comes to...
Victorian veterinarian Dr Peter Carter discusses the importance of minerals, not only in animals and plants, but also in humans.
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2010-11-21 Darwin's shame and other strong emotions
Senior Lecturer Tony Webb from the University of Western Sydney discusses Darwin's other less well known book on the expression of emotions in man and animals. This talk focuses on shame and its implications.
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2010-11-14 Earthquakes and their prediction
Earth scientist and author Peter James from Dunalley in Tasmania discusses the nature of earthquakes and the ability to predict them.
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2010-11-07 Innovative cities
Professor Mark Dodgson, Director of the Technology and Innovation Management Centre at the University of Queensland, has been exploring how innovation might deal with the problems of city living.
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2010-10-31 Jatta
Sydney author and illustrator Jenny Hale has written a fantasy novel in which its heroine, 14-year-old Jatta, discovers that she is a werewolf.
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2010-10-24 Energy, the subtle concept
Physicist Jennifer Coopersmith from La Trobe University in Bendigo, explains the difficult concept of energy.
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2010-10-17 Patentable subject matter
Patent Attorney for ResMed,Paul Green, discusses the issue of what's patentable and who should be granted a patent.
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2010-10-10 The spectacular practicalities of Florence...
This year we celebrate the centenary of Florence Nightingale's death and Melbourne author Shirley Shackleton pays tribute to her life's work.
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2010-10-03 Occupational health invention
As a young man inventor Michael Gill worked with his father in a lead oxide factory during the holidays, with his face strapped inside a leaking, smelly and claustrophobic mask. This experience led him to invent the Gills Respiratory Protective System.
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2010-09-26 The plague in Brisbane
Author of scientific history, Dr Rosaleen Love from Victoria, discovered a report about an outbreak of the plague in Brisbane in 1900/1902 and realised that she knew nothing about this event, so she decided to investigate.
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2010-09-19 Chicken pox or smallpox in the colony at...
It has been suggested that smallpox was deliberately introduced into the colony at Port Jackson in 1789 to kill many Aborigines. However, Dr Jack Carmody from the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Sydney, argues against this belief. He actually thinks that it wasn't smallpox at all, but chicken pox which killed many indigenous people and it wasn't deliberately introduced.
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2010-09-12 Army food - army cooks, from flies to ice...
Melbourne author Shirley Videion takes a look at how the Australian army has been fed, starting with World War I to the present.
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2010-09-05 The Mekong - a river under threat
Dr Milton Osborne, Visiting Fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, discusses the detrimental effects of further dams being built on the mainstream of the Mekong River.
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2010-08-29 Why 24 April matters: the story of the...
Clinical Associate Professor Robert Kaplan is a forensic psychiatrist and historian from the University of Wollongong. Today he tells the story of the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians by the Turks, which is commemorated on April 24.
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2010-08-22 No Ockham's Razor program today due to a...
Due to post-election coverage this morning Radio National will not broadcast an Ockham's Razor talk. However there will be a podcast on our website of a talk given by Emeritus Professor Sol Encel on 4th July, 2004, talking about working well into old age. Professor Encel passed away on 23rd July this year.
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2010-08-15 Carbon offsets, ecosystems, climate change...
Today we hear from Penny van Oosterzee, an ecologist working with Regional Bodies across Australia to aggregate terrestial carbon offsets across the landscape through the aggregation of good land management activities like avoided clearing and ecosystem restoration.
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2010-08-08 Critical thinking
Queensland teacher Peter Ellerton laments the fact that few educational institutions actively and explicitly teach the skills of critical thinking.
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2010-08-01 Walking the path together
Dr Anthony Hillin, statewide training co-ordinator for the NSW School-link training program at the New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry, makes a case for scientists and others who want to improve the wellbeing of Aboriginal people to undertake meaningful consultation with Aboriginal stakeholders.
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2010-07-25 Worlds in transition
Professor Jim Falk from the University of Melbourne discusses governance in a rapidly changing world. He has co-authored a book called Worlds in Transition: Evolving Governance Across a Stressed Planet with Professor Joseph Camilleri from La Trobe University.
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2010-07-18 Diamonds
Associate Professor James Rabeau from Macquarie University in Sydney takes a look at diamonds, particularly the synthetic diamond.
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2010-07-11 Seabirds on the Southern Ocean
Author and keen birdwatcher Sue Taylor from Melbourne tells us of her quest to sight albatrosses in Australian waters. Travelling south from Hobart into the Southern Ocean aboard a small yacht she endured rough seas and sea sickness.
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2010-07-04 Electric junk
Dr Trevor McAllister, a retired chemist from Melbourne, discusses our dependence on electricity.
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2010-06-27 Retro revenge
Melbourne author Andrew Herrick talks about the fact that most of us are obsessed with anything new on the market, can't wait to buy the latest gizmo and are only too ready to discard anything that's old.
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2010-06-20 Memory and attention in health and disease
Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at Monash University in Melbourne, John Bradshaw, illustrates clinical memory and attentional phenomena with examples from everyday life.
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2010-06-13 Aristotle meets Ockham
Aristotle believed that we learn by doing and, while teaching he constantly walked around his pupils, one of whom was Alexander the Great. Jennifer Riggs is an educator in Brisbane and she suggests that a major challenge today is how to teach the hard-to-reach students.
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2010-06-06 The lawn
Sydney-based science writer Peter Macinnis talks about the history and culture of lawn maintenance.
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2010-05-30 Nuclear energy: a panacea for climate change?
The argument that nuclear energy may be part of a solution to global warming has been voiced over the last few years. Dr Adam Lucas from the University of Wollongong has a look at the state of nuclear energy in the world.
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2010-05-23 Burrowing crayfish
Dr Susan Lawler from Environmental Management and Ecology at La Trobe University in Wodonga talks about her research into burrowing crayfish.
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2010-05-16 Nursing before Florence Nightingale
Medical historian Dr Jim Leavesley from Margaret River in Western Australia tells us what nursing was like in England before Florence Nightingale.
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2010-05-09 The importance of evidence
The president of the Australian Skeptics, Eran Segev, talks about the importance of assessing what is true or false by evaluating the evidence.
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2010-05-02 The peak of oil production is passed
Dr Michael Lardelli from the University of Adelaide looks at how the bulk of the world's oil production comes from a relatively small number of very large fields discovered decades ago. The rate of world oil production has been maintained at current levels only by finding and bringing on line an increasing number of smaller fields, but the financial cost and the energy required to find and develop these new fields is constantly increasing. According to Dr Lardelli the so-called peak of oil...
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2010-04-25 A jump into the future
Gavin Gilchrist is the managing director of Big Switch Projects, a company set up ten years ago as an advisory group on energy efficiency and carbon management issues to business and government. In this program Gavin jumps into the future for a look at what life might be like five years from now, in a seriously carbon-constrained world. In 2015 Kevin Rudd's running the United Nations, Julia Gillard's prime minister and the National Climate Commission has taken some tough decisions. All...
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2010-04-18 Bringing the 'wow' factor of science fiction...
Douglas E. Richards is a children's science fiction writer from San Diego, California. He talks about the importance of bringing science fiction into the classroom to stimulate children's interest in science.
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2010-04-11 Should artificial colours be banned?
Specialist dietitian Joan Breakey from Brisbane discusses artificial food colouring and allergies.
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2010-04-04 Mother Nature speaks
Ian Johnstone from the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, has always had a long standing interest in nature writing. For this talk he has given a fresh slant on Nature by seeing things from her point of view. It is an exercise in ecological empathy which is read by Jeremy Nash, who teaches Drama at the University of New England.
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2010-03-28 The wise delinquency of decision makers
Tim van Gelder, Principal Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Melbourne, discusses one of the most critical of all human activities - decision making.
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2010-03-21 Healthy ageing
Lucy Goodman, research assistant at the University of Auckland, talks about our changing body image as we age and she gives some good advice about healthy ageing.
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2010-03-14 The parable of the wise ones
Science writer Melvin Bolton from Yeppoon in Queensland tells us as a parable the tale of civilization which extends over three and a half million years to the present era of environmental destruction and waste.
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2010-03-07 The man who taught Darwin beetles
Emeritus Professor Anthony Larkum from Sydney University talks about what launched Charles Darwin into a scientific career at Cambridge and how he was given the opportunity to go on the HMS Beagle.
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2010-02-28 Non-invasive prenatal diagnosis
Dr Caroline Wright, Head of Science at Population Health and Genomics in Cambridge, reports on progress being made into safer non-invasive procedures for prenatal diagnosis.
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2010-02-21 Internet addiction
Dr Glenn McLaren from Swinburne University in Melbourne focuses on the increasing obsession with the internet and he also laments the decline and increasing disappearance of Philosophy as an area of study in our education systems.
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2010-02-14 Clothes pegs, sex, hobbies and allied...
John Bradshaw, Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at Monash University in Melbourne, discusses why people become obsessed with collecting things.
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2010-02-07 The effect of a terminal illness on family...
Psychiatrist Dr Jane Turner from the Mental Health Centre at the University of Queensland's School of Medicine talks about her research into the impact that parental cancer and subsequent death has on children.
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2010-01-31 Black Saturday
Geoff Hudson, inventor, author and computer programmer, lives in an area close to the devastating bushfires of last year. Today he looks at what went wrong with the warning system and suggests what could be done to prevent such a catastrophe happening again.
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2010-01-24 Early language and reading skills in...
Professor Margot Prior from the Department of Psychology at the University of Melbourne has been working in Aboriginal child health for over 10 years. In this program she talks about the terrible state of literacy in Aboriginal children and some of the reasons for it.
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2010-01-17 Edison the organizational innovator
Professor Mark Dodgson from the University of Queensland talks about the achievements of inventor Thomas Edison. He also tells us about some of the less pleasant aspects of Edison's life, i.e. his lack of personal hygiene, the harsh way he treated people who worked for him and his electrocution of animals.
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2010-01-10 Is fructose the root of all evil?
On 12th July last year lawyer and author David Gillespie presented an Ockham's Razor talk telling us that fructose is very bad for us. In this program nutritionist Chris Forbes-Ewan refutes some of the claims made by David Gillespie.
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2010-01-03 Aboriginal astronomy
Professor Ray Norris from the CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility, together with his wife Cilla, has written a book called Emu Dreaming - An Introduction to Australian Aboriginal Astronomy. In this talk he tells us about Aboriginal Australians' amazing depths of knowledge about the sky.
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2009-12-27 A response to evangelical atheism
Philip Ponder teaches chemistry at a High School in Melbourne. In this program he tackles the rise of what he calls aggressive atheism and tries to reconcile creationism and evolution by suggesting that every major religion was created or has evolved to answer four big questions.
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2009-12-20 A short history of cell deaths
Many cells in our bodies are programmed to die. In a human about one million cells divide in two every second. Professor David Vaux from La Trobe University in Melbourne looks at how cells function and behave.
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2009-12-13 The coral reef crisis
The former Chief Scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Dr Charlie Veron, discusses the situation of coral reefs and the environmental challenges ahead.
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2009-12-06 Ching Chong China Girl - From fruitshop to...
Helene Chung, author and former ABC Foreign Correspondent, wrote her biography: Ching Chong China Girl: From fruit shop to foreign correspondent. She recalls what it was like growing up Chinese in 1950s Tasmania and gives insights into her life as an adult.
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2009-11-29 Look back with pride
Emeritus Professor of Ethology at the University of Queensland, Glen McBride, gives us a different view of natural selection as we celebrate the birth of Charles Darwin 200 years ago and the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species.
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2009-11-15 A Gunn and two Hookers - Part one
Dr Jim Endersby is a lecturer in British History at the University of Sussex in the UK and he's the author of a book called Imperial Nature - Joseph Hooker and the Practices of Victorian Science. Joseph Hooker was an internationally renowned botanist and a close friend and early supporter of Charles Darwin and he was one of the first British men of science to become a full-time professional. Dr Jim Endersby talks about Hooker's career and offers interesting insights into the 19th century...
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2009-11-08 The role of undergraduate education in...
Michael Bradley is in his 4th year studying engineering at the University of Sydney. In this talk he discusses some interesting thoughts about the role of university education.
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PROGRAM INFORMATION
- Sydney, NSW
- Science News, Public Radio
- ABC (Australia)
- English
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Ockham's Razor
ABC Radio National
GPO Box 9994
Sydney 2001(02) 8333 1423 -
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