The Science Show - Full Program Podcast

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.

It's impossible to escape microplastics. They're in our food and water, and the air around us is teeming with them. 

So considering they're all around us, how can we minimise our exposure to tiny plastic fragments without resorting to living in a cave? 

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...

The Science Show gives Australians unique insights into the latest scientific research and debate.

She battled rigidities of 18th century Europe. But with writer and philosopher Voltaire, Émilie du Châtelet led the Enlightenment.

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...

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.

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:

In her book Prove It! Elizabeth Finkel presents the evidence showing 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...

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

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 po...

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

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 t...

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.

Thanks in part to 18th-century nuns, we now know that having children and breastfeeding reduces a mum's risk of developing breast cancer for years, even until her kid is well into primary school.

Now Australian scientists have discovered how breastfeeding specifically enlists the immune system to protect against an aggressive and hard-to-treat type of breast cancer.

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.

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Robyn Williams reports from the 2025 Prime Minister's Prizes for Science ceremony in Parliament House Canberra.

It's mid-afternoon and time for a treat! Do you choose a healthy piece of fruit, or do you head straight for the chocolate? 

It turns out that well before we consciously decide what we're going to eat, our brain has already weighed up our choices — and in a fraction of a second. 

Now a new study shows which food attributes are processed by our brain faster than others, and how this might influence our dietary decisions. 

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on th...

We’ve built a picture of the evolution of biodiversity based on a few accessible fossils. But the real story may be very different.

We have a mysterious visitor to our little patch of the cosmos this week: A comet called 3I/ATLAS. 

This icy, rocky ball is only the third interstellar object we've discovered zooming past our Sun. 

There are scientists who think the comet may be alien technology sent from another solar system to invade Earth, but space agencies poured cold water on this idea. 

So how will we know if we truly find evidence of extraterrestrial life? 

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Beli...

An additive in paint converts ultraviolet light into red light allowing plants to grow more producing higher yields, a boon for greenhouse agriculture.

Around 1.5 million years ago, in what's now Kenya, a human-like figure walked across the savannah. 

He was probably quite short by our standards, no taller than Danny DeVito. 

But unlike Danny DeVito, this ancient figure was not human. He was a long-extinct relative of ours called Paranthropus boisei. 

And now his fossilised hand bones are giving us never-before-seen insights into how he and his species lived. 

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 epis...

Jonathan Porritt’ recent book, Love, Anger and Betrayal charts the lives of young British climate campaigners. Meanwhile in Australia under-16s are about to be banned from using social media.

Few astronomical wonders are as spectacular as a total solar eclipse, when the Moon fully covers the Sun, plunging us into daytime darkness. 

If we're lucky, we can see this epic phenomenon as it happens — through special glasses, of course. But our preoccupation with looking at the sky means we may not notice what's happening to the animals around us. 

When it comes to birds, many of which rely on the Sun to tell them when to sing a dawn chorus, how does a solar eclipse change how they behave? And what are the wider impl...

Richard Robson from the University of Melbourne has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, the nation’s first Chemistry Nobel in 50 years.

This has been a bumper year for whale-watching on Australia's east coast, with thousands of humpbacks spotted cruising along their annual migration route.  

This population was almost wiped out by whalers last century but has bounced back — and then some. A new estimate suggests there are now more of these humpbacks than in pre-whaling times. 

So why are the eastern Australian humpbacks going gangbusters while other populations aren't doing nearly as well? 

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (A...

The BA, as it was known, established in 1831, was set up to advance science in the interest of the people, old and young, professional and lay. So, how well is it doing now amid international turmoil.

For decades, climate scientists have been tracking a curious phenomenon. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are steadily increasing overall but they also rise and fall in an annual rhythm — like the planet is breathing.

Each spring, in the southern hemisphere, carbon dioxide levels start to plateau or maybe even drop slightly before shooting up again after summer.

So what's driving these seasonal changes?

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, hu...

Iconic jellyfish in saltwater lakes are disappearing.

If you've been watching the Women's Rugby World Cup, you may have noticed players have been wearing special mouthguards that light up when they've suffered a significant knock to the head.

It's the first time these concussion-predicting mouthguards have been trialled at a major competition.

So in the wake of recent concussion concerns, from professional AFL and rugby league to community competitions, is this the future of sport?

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...

Sophie Ly takes us to Palau to meet scientists and traditional knowledge custodians who are working together to uncover the secrets of Palau’s ancient terraces.

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?

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 m...

Just as quantum physics is poised to launch computing into a new era of capability, researchers are seeing the first signs of quantum effects in biology.

When you think of leaders in the space sector, big hitters like NASA and private companies like SpaceX spring to mind.

But since the very beginning of the Space Age, Australia has played a role in the space flight industry.

And this year, an Australian company tried to launch a rocket from Australian soil.

So why is Australia building and launching rockets at all, especially when so many nations are already miles ahead?

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on...

As The Science Show concludes its celebration of 50 years, we remember John Clarke’s contributions to early Science Shows and point to a film just released looking at John’s life, produced by his daughter Lorin.

One in four Australians get hay fever, and as the planet warms, our seasonal sneezes and sniffles are tipped to get much, much worse. 

Join us for highlights from fifty years of The Science Show including Fred Dagg, who helps us with the big questions: what is it all about and why are we here?

Every now and again, dozens or even hundreds of perfectly healthy looking whales strand themselves on a beach. Scientists have a few theories on why they do this. 

Samples from asteroids have helped build a theory of the origin of complex molecules and how they made it to Earth.

Fresh Australian dietary guidelines are due next year, and they’ll likely focus on the health of the planet as well as people.

Small chemical groups inserted or removed from around DNA may affect gene expression and so be a way to control genetic blood disorders such as sickle cell anaemia and beta thalassemia.