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The Science Show gives Australians unique insights into the latest scientific research and debate, from the physics of cricket to prime ministerial biorhythms.

The Science Show

Australia's known for having some of the world's toughest sunscreen standards, but in June, that reputation was rocked.

Independent testing of 20 sunscreens found 16 did not meet their advertised SPF50 rating, including three children's sunscreens and three sold by the Cancer Council.

So how are sunscreens tested, and what can we learn from these recent SPF revelations?

This episode was first broadcast in September 2025.

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more. Get in touch with us: labnotes@abc.net.au

Featuring:

 • John Staton, scientific director at SciPharm

More information:

What is SPF, and how is sunscreen's sun protection factor tested in the laboratory?

Choice report finds popular Australian sunscreens fail to meet SPF claims on label

This episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Menang Noongar people.

Lab Notes: How is sunscreen SPF tested?

Retiring Vice Chancellor of the University of South Australia David Lloyd awarded Pratchett two honorary degrees. In exchange, the author honoured the university with a special scholarship – to be offered every year forever. This week David Lloyd explains his enthusiasms for the Discworld author in front of a packed audience at the Hawke Centre in Adelaide.

Author Terry Pratchett’s links to science and Adelaide

A huge cold blob of air above Antarctica and bushfires spreading along ridgelines don't appear to have anything in common, yet the strange behaviour of these natural phenomena — and many others — can be understood and explained by mathematics. 

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.

Get in touch with us: labnotes@abc.net.au

Featuring:

 • Chantelle Blachut, mathematician at UNSW Canberra

Lab Notes: How maths explains nature's weirdness

In her book Prove It! Elizabeth Finkel presents the evidence showing no link between pain relief drugs and autism

Evidence shows no link between pain relief drugs and autism

Step into the supermarket and there's plastic around just about everything, even mangoes — and not all that packaging will be properly disposed of.

So with around 20 million tonnes of plastic polluting the environment each year, not to mention the potential health effects of microplastics, is there a better, more environmentally friendly alternative?

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.

Get in touch with us: labnotes@abc.net.au

Featuring:

 • Edward Attenborough, chemical engineer and chemist at Monash University

More information:

Bacterial species-structure-property relationships of polyhydroxyalkanoate biopolymers produced on simple sugars for thin film applications

This episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Taungurung people.

Lab Notes: Are bioplastics the future of packaging?

The International Astronautical Congress held in Sydney showed how space science is vital to our modern world.

3 young high achievers in science, and Sydney hosts space conference

Astrophotographers have had another great month, with the aurora australis lighting up night skies as far north as southern Queensland.

And while you might've heard that the best of this bunch of auroras is behind us, don't put your camera away just yet. There's good reason to think the southern lights will illuminate the sky well into 2026.

It all depends on what the Sun shoots in our direction … and we might find ourselves in the firing line more often over the next few months.

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.

Get in touch with us: labnotes@abc.net.au

Featuring:

Brett Carter, space weather researcher at RMIT University

More information:

The Sun Reversed Its Decades-long Weakening Trend in 2008

When the southern lights are seen further north

This episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Taungurung people.

Lab Notes: Why aurora season isn't over yet

University departments of geology and geophysics are getting smaller or closing. So how will we find new mineral deposits?

Rare earth minerals – we’ll need geologists to find them

It looks like most of Australia is in for a warmer-than-usual summer this year.

That's according to the Bureau of Meteorology's long-range forecast, which was released in October.

So — without a crystal ball — how do meteorologists make weather predictions so far out, how accurate are they, and how is climate change affecting them?

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.

Get in touch with us: labnotes@abc.net.au

Featuring:

Karl Braganza, National Manager of Climate Services at the Bureau of Meteorology

More information:

BOM's first long-range summer forecast shows increased chance of extreme heat

This episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Taungurung people.

Lab Notes: How are long-range weather forecasts made?

In just 75 years the Earth’s average temperature is predicted to be close to 3 degrees above pre-industrial levels. We are in the fast lane to a different world, one that will not be friendly to the current range of plants and animals, including humans. The race is on to cool our overheating planet.

Bragg winners for science writing, more from the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science and water droplets used for geoengineering

The next time you pick up a bag of spuds from the supermarket or fill up the car with petrol, you can thank the Treaty of the Metre for the metric system that underpins daily life.

The treaty was signed exactly 150 years ago, when delegates from 17 countries gathered on a Parisian spring day to establish a new and standardised way of measuring the world around us.

But the metre's inception predates the treaty that bears its name by nearly 100 years. So how did it come about, and how has its definition changed over the centuries?

Lab Notes: Why a metre is a metre long

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