Brains Matter
By Brains Matter
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Podcast Description
Stories on science, curiosities, and general knowledge
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155 – Professor Brian Schmidt – The Accelerating Universe – Public Talk | In 1998, two teams traced back the expansion of the universe over billions of years and discovered that it was accelerating, a startling discovery that suggests that more than 70% of the cosmos is contained in a previously unknown form of matter, called Dark Energy. The 2011 Nobel Laureate for Physics, Brian Schmidt, leader of [...] | 27 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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154 – Alom Shaha – The Young Atheists Handbook | In today’s episode, I speak to Alom Shaha, a science teacher and communicator from the UK. Alom has worked on television shows researching science, and is well known in science communication circles. He recently published a book called The Young Atheists Handbook, and spoke to me about his views on science, religion, freedom from religion, [...] | 24 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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153 – Dr Duncan Galloway – Neutron Star Binaries | In today’s episode, I talk to Dr Duncan Galloway, ARC Future Fellow at Monash University. His interest is in Neutron Star Binaries and I talked to him about this: - Duncan’s background - What is a neutron star? - How big is a neutron star? - How does a neutron star stay together? - The [...] | 21 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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152 – Dr Corin Storkey – Sugar to Mend a Broken Heart | In today’s episode, I talk to Brains Matter regular, Dr Corin Storkey, from the Heart Research Centre in Sydney. He talks to us about new research into a type of sugar that could prevent heart disease! We talk about: - the patent that has been filed on a new sugar based compound - how the [...] | 19 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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10/12/2011 365 Days of Astronomy Appearance | The Ordinary Guy has contributed to another 365 Days of Astronomy podcast Aryabhata | 16 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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151 – Dr Robyn Pickering – Australopithecus Sedeba Update | In today’s episode, I talk to Dr Robyn Pickering from the University of Melbourne, with an update on the status of research regarding the discovery of Australopithecus Sedeba. Topics discussed include: - the age of the Australopithecus Sedeba has been confirmed - how the more accurate dates were determined - how does this relate to [...] | 5 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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150 – One Hundred and Fifty Shows! | In today’s short episode, OG comments on his experiences with the show for the past 150 episodes. Download Encore MP3 of Ep 150 | 1 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Encore – Brian Schmidt – The Acceleration of the Universe | Professor Brian Schmidt won the Nobel Prize for physics for 2011, for his work in helping discover that the universe was accelerating in it’s expansion, which came as a huge surprise to the whole astronomical community. I spoke to Brian about his work for the 24/5/2009 episode of Brains Matter – for those of you [...] | 13 10 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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149 – Kellie Caught – The Say Yes Campaign | In this episode, I talk to Kellie Caught, Head of Climate Change for WWF Australia, about the Say Yes Campaign. Topics discussed include: - Kellie’s background - The background of the carbon price in Australia and worldwide - Kyoto - How long has the EU had Emissions Trading Schemes? - What is the ‘say yes’ [...] | 12 10 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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148 – Michael Roache – Australian Macropod Action Plan | In this episode, I speak to Michael Roache, the Program Manager for Threatened Species at the World Wildlife Fund – Australia. He spoke to me about: - Michael’s background - National Threatened Species Day - How many threatened species do we have in Australia? - What are macropods? - The relationship between threatened species and [...] | 30 9 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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147 – Marita Cheng – Who are the Robogals? | In today’s show, I speak to Marita Cheng, the founder of Robogals. Topics we discuss include: - Marita’s background - What inspired her to go into engineering? - How did Robogals get started? - What are the aims of Robogals? - Who is it targeting? - What does it do at schools? - What is [...] | 18 9 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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146 – Five Years of Brains Matter | Today’s episode is a 5 year celebration of the podcast - Listener feedback for the five year anniversary - The five year anniversary competition winner A discussion on science and society at the Brains Matter 5 year celebration where we discussed: - education - inspiration - teachers - governments and their inertia in pushing science [...] | 17 9 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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145 – Dr Rosemary Mardling – The Three Body Problem | In today’s episode, I speak to Dr Rosemary Mardling from Monash University on the 3-body problem and the n-body problem. - What is the 3-body problem? How does it relate to astronomy? - How was it worked out in the early days? - What was Newton’s approach to the problem? - How does the 3-body [...] | 14 9 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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144 – Dr Owen Carter – What Causes Childhood Obesity? | In this episode, I talk to Dr Owen Carter, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer Control at Curtin University, on the topic of childhood obesity and the perceptions that surround it – some of the reality based on the research studies may surprise you! Today’s listener of the episode is [...] | 7 9 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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143 – The World of the Elephant – Science Week Live Show | This episode is the audio from the National Science Week live show recorded at the Monash Science Centre. You can download the presentation and the lyrics to the song at the Brains Matter web site. A live audience enjoyed hearing from the range of guests at the Brains Matter live show – first up was [...] | 4 9 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Science Week Live Show – 20/8/2011 | Brains Matter is hosting a live show for Science Week at the Monash Science Centre Details here | 14 8 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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142 – Prof Richard Wassersug – Prostate Cancer | Professor Richard Wassersug is from the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology from Dalhousie University in Canada. He is also a prostate cancer survivor, and I talked to him about his personal and academic interest in issues around prostate cancer, including: - His personal experience with prostate cancer - The link between his interest in herpetology [...] | 16 7 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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1/7/2011 365 Days of Astronomy Appearance | The Ordinary Guy has contributed to another 365 Days of Astronomy podcast The making of Makemake | 8 7 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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141 – Dr Rosemary Mardling – Extra Solar Planet Update | In this episode I speak again to Dr Rosemary Mardling from Monash University with an update on extra solar planets - What kind of planets are being discovered? - The HARPS spectrograph and its capability - The radial velocity method - How many extra solar planets have been discovered to date? - The transiting method [...] | 4 6 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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140 – Stephen Luntz – Forensics, Fossils and Fruitbats | In this episode, I speak to science writer Stephen Luntz. He talked to me about his interests, career, and his book Forensics, Fossils and Fruitbats Today’s listener of the episode is Eliska Jeffrey Download MP3 of Ep 140 You can donate by clicking on the button above, and subscribe by subscribing in iTunes | 4 6 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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139 – Dr Michael Brown – The Square Kilometre Array | In this episode, I talk to Dr Michael Brown, the ARC Future Fellow from Monash University, who has been doing work on the planned surveys with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder. He talked to the podcast about the Square Kilometre Array. Topics we discussed included: - What are the different types of telescopes? - [...] | 24 5 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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138 – Prof Ray Jayawardhana – Strange New Worlds | Professor Ray Jayawardhana is the Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics and the Steacie Fellow at the University of Toronto. He has just written a book called Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien Planets and Life beyond Our Solar System, and he chatted to me about: - some of his background, and study areas [...] | 21 5 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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137 – Prof Lawrence Krauss – Dinner with a Physicist | Professor Lawrence Krauss is the author of “The Physics of Star Trek”, a professor of physics, the Foundation Professor of the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the Director of the Origins Project at the Arizona State University. I was privileged enough to have a chat with him about physics and science in general, [...] | 16 4 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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136 – Marion Anderson – Spam in a can: Yuri’s Night | Today is the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gargarin’s first venture into outer space. Marion Anderson, a planetary geologist from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, presented a talk on the history and future of Manned Space Flight. Download MP3 of Ep 136 Please vote for this podcast this month at You can donate by clicking on [...] | 12 4 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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135 – Prof Claude Roux – Forensic Science | I talk to Professor Claude Roux from the Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Technology Sydney about forensics and how it is used. Topics we discuss include: - The type of research Claude is interested in - Finger printing - Forensic anatomy - Anti body forensic methods - DNA usage and profiling in [...] | 19 3 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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134 – Dr Helen Paterson & Sadhana Raju – Lying | Why do people lie? And how easy is it to determine if people are being truthful or not? I talk to Dr Helen Paterson and Sadhana Raju in relation to these topics. We discuss: - What is a lie? - Why do people lie? - Is there an advantage to being deceitful? - Are humans [...] | 13 3 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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3/3/2011 365 Days of Astronomy Appearance | The Ordinary Guy from the Brains Matter Podcast has contributed to another episode of 365 Days of Astronomy: Meteorites in Antarctica | 4 3 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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133 – Prof Ralph Pudritz – From First Stars to First Life | Professor Ralph Pudritz is the Director of the Origins Institute at McMaster University in Canada, and presented a talk entitled “From First Stars to First Life” at Monash University, Australia. The following podcast is a recording of that presentation, which also brings out some interesting discussion points, and some amazing revelations including: - Formation of [...] | 19 2 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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132 – Steve Mirsky – (2/2) – Science Communication Pt 6 | In Brains Matter’s continuing series on science communication, I continue my talk with Steve Mirsky, a journalist and author, editor at Scientific American, and podcast host about various aspects of science communication and the perception of science in the public. This is part 2 of the discussion. If you haven’t listened to part 1, please [...] | 1 1 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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131 – Steve Mirsky – (1/2) – Science Communication Pt 5 | In Brains Matter’s continuing series on science communication, I talk to Steve Mirsky, a journalist and author, editor at Scientific American, and podcast host about various aspects of science communication and the perception of science in the public. Topics we discuss include: - Steve’s background - The changing view of science by the public - [...] | 15 12 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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9/12/2010 365 Days of Astronomy Appearance – Titan and the Saturnian System | The Ordinary Guy from the Brains Matter Podcast has contributed to another episode of 365 Days of Astronomy: Titan and the Saturnian System For the full interviews with Dr Andrew Prentice, please check out the guests list | 11 12 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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130 – Ian Woolf – Science Communication Pt 4 | In our continuing series on Science Communication, I talk to Sydney science journalist, Ian Woolf. Topics we discuss include: - How Ian got into science communication - How well is science communicated in Australia? - Where does most of the communication come from in this country? - The government’s lack of valuing of education - [...] | 22 10 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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129 – Karl Kruszelnicki – Science Communication Pt 3 | In todays show, I talk to Karl Kruszelnicki, also known as Dr Karl, about science communication, in the Brains Matter continuing series of science communication. Topics we discuss are: - Why do we need a science week? - Respect for education - Different attitudes to education and science overseas compared to western nations - The [...] | 22 10 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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128 – Bec Crew – Science Communication Pt 2 | In todays episode I talk to Bec Crew, from Cosmos Magazine. Bec won the Australian Government’s National Science Week Big Blog Theory competition in the Blogging Category, and talked to me about science blogging, her blog, how it started and what got her interested in science communication. Bec also discusses what she thinks makes a [...] | 17 10 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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127 – Prof Dennis Schatz – Science Communication Pt 1 | In this episode, the fourth anniversary of the Brains Matter podcast, I talk to Professor Dennis Schatz, the Senior Vice President for Strategic Programs at the Pacific Science Centre in the US. We discussed the topic of communication in science, including: - Dennis’s background - What are some of the issues with current science communication? [...] | 15 10 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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3/10/2010 365 Days of Astronomy Appearance – Transiting Extra Solar Planets | The Ordinary Guy from the Brains Matter Podcast has contributed to another episode of 365 Days of Astronomy: Transiting Extra Solar Planets | 3 10 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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126 – Prof Missaka Wijayagunawardane – The Sri Lankan Asian Elephant | In this episode, I talk to Professor Missaka Wijayagunawardane from the Department of Animal Science at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka. Professor Wijayagunawardane is a Professor in Animal Science and is an elephants reproduction specialist. Topics we discussed included: - What is the situation of elephants in Sri Lanka? - What is the [...] | 1 10 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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125 – Dr Mark Boland – Presentation on ACAS | In this episode, I talk once again to the Dr Mark Boland, Principal Accelerator Physicist at the Australian Synchrotron, and he is alsoDeputy Director for the Australian Collaboration for Accelerator Science. He gave a presentation at the Synchrotron about ACAS, and has given his permission for all the listeners out there to hear it. Download [...] | 23 9 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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124 – Dr Mark Boland – Update on the Australian Synchrotron | In this episode, I talk to the Deputy Director for the Australian Collaboration for Accelerator Science. We talked about some of the work that has been done at the Australian Synchrotron since Dr Boland’s last appearance on the show. - How will measurements take place at the LHC? - What is a Linear Collider? - [...] | 7 9 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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123 – Mei Liu – Amazing Bodies Exhibition | The Amazing Bodies Exhibition is an exhibition that showcases bodies of all shapes and sizes – from reptiles, to land mammals, to whales, and even humans. The exhibition premiered in Melbourne, and will tour Australia and New Zealand. One of the most interesting aspects of the exhibit is the use of the plastination technique to [...] | 3 9 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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122 – Science and Education Policy and Election Reactions – Karl Kruszelnicki, Bec Crew, and Anthony David | Out of frustration on not hearing enough about science and education in the 2010 Australian Election Campaign, I put together an open letter to every political party with questions that they should have all considered as part of formulating their education and science policies for the future. I received several responses – including from the [...] | 19 8 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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121 – From Slime to Dinosaurs – National Science Week Live Show | Today’s episode is the audio of the Brains Matter & Monash Science Centre’s National Science Week live show, held on 15/8/2010. The topic was “From Slime to Dinosaurs”, and I interviewed renown palaeontologst, Professor Patricia Vickers-Rich on: - How long the earth has been around - What are the geological processes occurring, and that have [...] | 15 8 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Astronomy for Non-Human life forms | Steve Nerlich from Cheap Astronomy and I contributed the following episode to the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast Listen here | 10 8 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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120 – Prof Richard Wassersug – Talking to a Herpetologist | Professor Richard Wassersug is from the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology from Dalhousie University in Canada. Much of his research and study was and is in the area of herpetology, or the study of amphibians. I talked to Professor Wassersug about herpetology, and the importance of understanding this area of biology. Topics discussed include: - [...] | 9 8 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 44 Episodes |
Customer Reviews
Feed your brain
I've been listening to Brains Matter for several months now and find it stimulating, interesting and educative. The host obviously has sound knowledge of science which allows him to interact with the guests to promote a lively and erudite discussion. I look forward to the download and sitting back and getting a good healthy dose of brain food. There is also a great variety of topics and guests each week. I highly recommend this site for anyone who is involved in science or is a pure novice like me. Everyone will get something worthwhile.
Great
Early episodes were raw, but a fascinating and interesting show. The interviews are fantastic - I especially loved the interviews with the International Astronomical Union member, and the others with mathematicians, evolutionary biologists, philosophers and historians are great to listen to. Keep up the great work!
An excellent listen
Really enjoy these eclectic science podcasts. I've learned a few things I was not aware of.
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