Episodes
This episode Jesse and Harry talk ants and tech: CSIRO's phenomenally successful eradication of African big-headed ants from Lord Howe Island. Good lord, how!? Cat food. Poisonous cat food. They also chat about autonomous cave-exploring droids and also speak with star researcher Dr Elizabeth Mahony about interstellar radio explosions, Fast Radio Bursts, and the newly isolated origins of one in particular. It's also the final episode of Interronauts for some time, so go and have a listen to...
Published 11/17/18
Published 11/17/18
Jesse sets off on a solo venture through the overgrown and tangled world of science news this Interronauts, beginning at the beginning with early Earth perhaps implanted with purple, not chlorophyll green, pigment, before heading undersea with two new species of very small jellyfish discovered by CSIRO researchers, bushbashing in the crops, the cropage, with our and the Chinese Academy of Sciences' work blending the benefits of brown rice with the pale ease of white rice, trekking through the...
Published 10/26/18
Umm...ah...it's Interronauts...we think. Join Jesse and Sarah as they discuss the ideal number of choices to choose from, a tiny imperilled fish and how we're helping to rebuild the critically endangered, fearsomely cute spotted handfish in Tasmania, Australia's roadmap towards a future in space, AND we chat with CSIRO researcher Dr Rich Pillans recently back from the Top End and a bonza survey of some of our most endangered aquatic life, including the speartooth shark, northern river shark,...
Published 10/11/18
Cowabunga! On this episode of Interronauts Kate and Gavin join Jesse to talk about scourges of our times: marine debris and antibiotic resistance, as well as science's endeavours to set us on the straight and narrow, the clean and biotic. They also talk about the use of third person in podcast descriptions ("We don't actually, we prefer first person but are twenty episodes into the precedent..."), NovaSAR-1-a new state of the art satellite, which provides Australia 10% helm-time, and finally,...
Published 09/28/18
Up, up, and away with Kate and Gavin and Jesse on this episode of Interronauts where they talk about a new treatment for pancreatic cancer using killer cells, CSIRO's new vehicles powered not on gasoline but hydrogen, and a fortnightly science digest about the oldest cheese, neutron stars, omnivorous sharks, and moooore. Learn more about the stories on the Interronauts blog, here. Go ahead and give us a rating on iTunes, all the kids are doing it. Or better yet, tell your friends about...
Published 09/14/18
This episode technophile Ketan teaches technophobe Jesse about big data and the big burden it bears, why robot marketers are more unnerving than you know, how hackers might have swiped your fingerprints (drats; crims are supposed to leave 'em behind, not steal 'em), this fortnight in science news, and isn't it ironic? Well, isn't it? No, not really. It's our new cotton that doesn't crease and doesn't need ironing, it's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife. Learn more about...
Published 08/31/18
Take a walk on the mild side with Rif and Jesse on this XL episode as they explain why Australia was in dire need of a marine microbe census, how every touch of your smartphone screen gives you away, the liquid water lake (what!?) on Mars, and finally, chat with Dr Brenda Lin about sustainable living, resilient cities, and the loss of nature from our lives. Learn more about the stories on the Interronauts blog, here. Enjoyed the show? Give us a rating on iTunes or tell your friends about...
Published 08/16/18
In this J-mad episode, Josie, Jessie, and Jesse discuss the need for naming marine heatwaves like you might hurricanes, the plight of the waylaid northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita), using non-invasive, surface-level cues for detecting gold deposits, the plants of Antarctica—as part of the Antarctic Festival in Hobart—AND we speak with one of our wearable tech experts, Samy Movassaghi on her research and career path. Give us a rating on iTunes.Find the show notes at our blog | Send us a...
Published 08/03/18
Get your fly swats out (or your sleepy cheeks) because this episode researchers Kate Tepper and Gavin Volpato join Jesse to chat about our project to release sterilised male mosquitoes to drown-out an invasive mozzie species responsible for dengue fever and Zika. We also do a slapdash digest through the last fortnight's science news, and then speak with Dr Cameron Stewart about the discovery of a vital immunity gene and the parlous quest to have the public name it. Get your single-celled,...
Published 07/19/18
This episode, Ketan Joshi from our Data61 team joins Interronauts to talk about the future, specifically, the future of AI and autonomous cars, and all things robo-librarians, not to mention a recent study on Antarctica set 50 years in the future, which takes a retrospective at two courses of action we humans might take to slow the gradual degradation of that lovely white continent, and, following that, a chat about the >200 new species we've discovered and named in the last year—more than...
Published 07/06/18
Interronauts' nine month hiatus is abatus and we're back! This episode, Sarah Frazer joins the roster to talk about our robot ecologists in the Amazon,  the plan to augment feral cats into all-male clowders, the use of ugly veggies into delightful powders for your coffee, and researchers' best attempt yet at weighing all life on Earth. This time Jesse's on production, but the sound will improve. Koala bear with us. Give us a rating on iTunes. (Not on this episode's sound quality,...
Published 06/21/18
Well listeners, this is it for a little bit — Season One of Interronauts is over. In our last episode, we've got new technology from CSIRO: giving scarecrows a brain, we've got the evolution of the first flower ever (what!?), we've got more research on how tarantula venom can help treat enwormed sheep, and plenty more science shenanigans. (Don't forget to listen back through our back catalogue!)Give us a rating on iTunes.Find the show notes at our blog | Send us a message or follow us on...
Published 08/11/17
This fortnight Jesse and Sophie have a special selection of science news, plucked from all over town in this, their penultimate episode. In their first ontogenetic episode yet, they chat about breaking news from Yale on the evolution of pregnancy in marsupials and eutherians (ourselves), childhood learning in apes (bonobos' inability to copy silly stuff), a chat with Dr Olivier Salvado about iron deposits' relationship with Alzheimer's, and finally the living funeral of NASA's Cassini as it...
Published 07/28/17
Join Jesse and Sophie as they snap back to reality, whope there goes gravity...*ahem* — as they discuss last fortnight's science news: plant defences that turn herbivorous caterpillars into cannibals, our RV Investigator's voyage to Sample the Abyss, the new project to rescue imperfect fruit and veg and turn them into healthy food products, and finally their new segment: Deconstructed Croque-MonScience, where Sophie guesses research findings and methods based on the title of a paper. Make...
Published 07/17/17
Join Jesse and Sophie as they cast their net overboard to snag last fortnight's science news before heaving it aboard with their gelatinous biceps for us all to sort through. Here's the catch: they talk about how it is that we're able to remember (tens of) thousands of faces with relative ease, a new CSIRO algorithm that can model blood vessel growth to pre-empt tumours, the ancient origins of Homo sapiens (100 000 years older than expected), and, they speak with Robert Whyte, co-author of A...
Published 06/16/17
Dive back into science news with the Interronauts! Jesse and Sophie are back with a brand new episode, studio, the whole kit and caboodle (kitten cavoodle?). They talk about why it is that the fittest Tassie devils are most likely to succumb to the deadly facial tumours, how to pipe renewable hydrogen, why some shark mammas hook up with multiple pappas, and they speak with Dr Lisa-ann Gershwin about her to-date co-discovery of 204 species of sea animals (including a DOLPHIN!).
Published 05/19/17
Join Jesse, Sophie, and Adrian as they talk about how the world's worst extinction was caused by microbes, mandrills that don't groom those with sickly faeces, Neanderthal's making jewellery, and their chat with Dr Rob Kinley about his research feeding seaweed to cows to neutralise their methane emissions. Methane special! Find the show notes at our blog: blog.csiro.au/interronauts-episode-6-the-great-dying-anal-mandrills-cutting-cow-methane-w-seaweed-neanderthal-jewellery Send us a message...
Published 04/20/17
In this extended dino version of Interronauts, we talk about the newly discovered Daspletosaurus horneri and its exquisitely preserved skull. We also speak with Dr Steve Salisbury from the University of Queensland about his research on the Dinosaur Coast and the world's largest footprint.
Published 04/06/17
Join the Interronauts—Jesse, Sophie, and Adrian—as they go dinosaur hunting along the west Australian coastline with Dr Steve Salisbury (not Turok). They also chat about sensitive dinolovers, CSIRO's new lab-on-a-glove, and Mars' ghost of an atmosphere. Let's zip ourselves up and get mailed back to the Cretaceous. Find the show notes at our blog: blog.csiro.au/interronauts-episode-5-t-rex-lovers-toxin-testing-lab-glove-worlds-largest-dino-print-martian-atmospheres Send us a message or follow...
Published 04/06/17
Join Jesse, Sophie, and Adrian as they dive deep on the evolution of the human nose, tardigrades (check 'em out) and how they dry out for 30 years, why water droplets splash, and some work on climbing foxes. They also speak with Dr Ken McColl about the ambitious plan to release a strain of herpes to target pest carp in Australian water ways. Woo it's a bumper episode! Find the show notes at our blog:...
Published 03/23/17
Jesse, Sophie, and Adrian get together to chat about the uninvited microbes that stumble into our guts, how you can store Amazon gift cards on DNA, the mutations behind mirror movement disorder, and CSIRO's 3D printing of a titanium sternum and polymer tissue. We also speak with Michelle Trautwein about her new project 'Arthropods of Our Homes' to catalogue the Australian arthropods we share our homes with. Enjoy the show, why don't you. Find the show notes at our blog:...
Published 03/09/17
Jesse, Sophie, and Adrian join interroforces to discuss the antimicrobial properties of dragonfly wings, how roundworm genes might inform weight gain, how desert ants navigate their way home, and from CSIRO, a new way to make graphene (the world's strongest material), pesky mobile Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), and we cross over for a live chat—podcast live—with Asaesja Young, one of our communicators in Antarctica. Enjoy! Find the show notes at our blog: http://bit.ly/2kSJIMx Send us a...
Published 02/23/17
Jesse, Sophie, and Adrian talk about menopausal whales, panda thumbs, Tasmanian tiger brains, and frisky wrens. They also have a chat with Dr Lisa Harvey-Smith about the launch of the new ASKAP radio telescope, and discuss research around CSIRO: mouse plagues and trips to Antarctica. Send us a message or follow us on Facebook at: http://bit.ly/2b5kJQp Read our blog at: http://bit.ly/2kvO9fp
Published 02/05/17