Ockham's Razor - Program podcast
By ABC Radio National
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Podcast Description
William of Ockham was an English monk, philosopher, theologian, who provided the scientific method with its key principle 700 years ago. 'What can be done with fewer assumptions is done in vain with more,' he said. That is, in explaining any phenomenon, we should use no more explanatory concepts than are absolutely necessary. Simplicity should never be despised. Thoughtful people have their say, without interruption, on important science-related topics.
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
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1 |
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? | 26 5 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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2 |
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. | 19 5 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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3 |
From Battlefields to Bushfires: The Mental Health Effects of Traumatic Experience | 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. | 12 5 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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4 |
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. | 5 5 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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5 |
Beyond vox pop democracy: Deepening democracy in the internet age | 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.. | 28 4 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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6 |
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. | 21 4 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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7 |
Educational technologies and the changing role of universities | 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. | 14 4 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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8 |
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. | 7 4 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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9 |
Humour in science | Ig Nobel 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. | 31 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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10 |
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. | 24 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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11 |
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. | 17 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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12 |
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. | 10 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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13 |
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. | 3 3 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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14 |
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. | 25 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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15 |
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. | 18 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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16 |
How Australia changed old money for new | On 14 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. | 11 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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17 |
Distillation | Trevor McAllister, a retired chemist from Melbourne, discusses the history of whiskey distillation in Ireland. | 4 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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18 |
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. | 28 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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19 |
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. | 21 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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20 |
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. | 14 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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21 |
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. | 7 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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22 |
There's a quiet revolution going on in the social sciences | 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. | 31 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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23 |
Why is science such a worry? | 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? | 17 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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24 |
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. | 10 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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25 |
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. | 3 12 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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26 |
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. | 26 11 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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27 |
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. | 19 11 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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28 |
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. | 12 11 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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29 |
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. | 5 11 11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 29 Episodes |
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- Category: Science & Medicine
- Language: English
- © Copyright 2012, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
