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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

Fire, insects and disease all pose a threat to Australia's forests but scientists are now seeing a rise in natural tree deaths right across the country. 

New research links this background mortality to higher average temperatures.

So what do these higher temperatures mean for our forests and the future of Australia's ecosystems? 

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science editor and presenter Jonathan Webb 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: 

 • Professor Belinda Medlyn, plant ecologist from Western Sydney University

Extra information: 

Pervasive increase in tree mortality across the Australian continent

Rising tree death rates in all types of Australian forest tied to climate change

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

Lab Notes: What's behind the rising tree death rates?

Natasha Hurley-Walker considers what might explain a mysterious stellar object which shines every 18 minutes.

Mysterious stellar object discovered

A faint orange hand stencil on the wall of a cave in Indonesia just became the oldest art known to science. 

The art, made by splattering ochre over a hand, had been painted over by subsequent generations and was only preserved because moisture combined with the limestone of the cave to form a protective layer on top. 

The finding strengthens the picture that humans migrated via Borneo, Sulawesi and Papua to reach Australia at least 65,000 years ago. 

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science editor and presenter Jonathan Webb 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: 

 • Jacinta Bowler, ABC science reporter 

Extra information: 

Hand stencils discovered in an Indonesian cave are oldest-known rock art

Rock art from at least 67,800 years ago in Sulawesi

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

Lab Notes: The oldest rock art in the world…that we know of

In the Swedish city of Kiruna, an entire community is being relocated to accommodate the expansion of the world's largest underground iron ore mine.

Kiruna: The city that moved to make way for a mine

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 in Paris 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? 

This episode was first broadcast in May 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:

Bruce Warrington, CEO and chief metrologist of the National Measurement Institute 

More information:

The metre originated in the French Revolution, but its definition has changed many times since

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

Lab Notes: The Treaty of the Metre: how the metre came to be

Australia's summer UV levels are high enough to cause sunburn in as little as 11 minutes.

Yet the summer sun in the Northern Hemisphere rarely feels that full on.

So why does our sunlight have that extra "bite"?

Spoiler: it's not the hole in the ozone layer.

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: 

 • David Whiteman, medical epidemiologist and Cancer Control group leader at QIMR Berghofer

More information:

Why is UV so high during Australia's summer? The ozone hole is not to blame

Cancer Council — UV Radiation

World Health Organization — Radiation: The ultraviolet (UV) index

CSIRO — The future of the ozone hole

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

Lab Notes: Why UV levels are so high in Australia

She became an expert on fleas and despite no formal education received honorary doctorates from both Oxford and Cambridge was elected a fellow of The Royal Society.

A portrait of Dame Miriam Rothschild

She could only read and write from age 10. She reared children and had a first unsupportive husband. But Mary Somerville was able to correct the work of Isaac Newton, help discover Neptune, and write a science book which became a university text.

Mary Somerville — Brilliant polymath, scientific genius

Every now and again, dozens or even hundreds of perfectly healthy looking whales strand themselves on a beach. 

And despite people's best efforts, many — if not all of them — will die. 

So why do whales strand themselves, and why do they seem to do it at the same locations? 

This episode was first broadcast in August 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:

Kate Sprogis, marine mammal ecologist at University of Western Australia 

More information: 

Cause of mass pilot whale stranding at Cheynes Beach still no clearer one year on

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

Lab Notes: Why do whales strand en masse?

Norman Swan, Fiona Stanley and Lorin Clarke describe their involvement with Robyn Williams and The Science Show with MC Richard Glover at a party celebrating 50 years of broadcasting.

Mysterious stellar object discovered

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