Category: That’s What I Call Science Episodes

This week we bring you an engineering special as the isolated power systems workshop brought engineering leaders from around the world to Hobart, Tasmania. What are isolated power systems? Essentially, they are any system that supplies electricity to those off the main electricity grid supply. From small scale operations to one or two households to more complex solutions for small to medium size regional communities, our special guest Dr Gwen Holdman Director of the Alaska Center for Energy and Power fills us in on the creativity to develop sustainable power systems.

Hosts: Niamh Chapman and Dr. Sarah Lyden

Production: Meredith Castles

Media: Olivia Holloway

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Off the back of the Facebook Community Boost events held across Tasmania between October 29th and November 1st 2019, we gathered together the event panelists from Hobart to discuss the global reach of communication technologies and the ways in which tech can be used for the betterment of society. Niamh caught up with Associate Professor Kristy de Salas from the University of Tasmania, Tasmanian entrepreneur and founder of Bitlink James Riggal and Mechanical Product Design Lead at Oculus VR at Facebook Mikal Greaves to understand how these Tasmanians forged careers in technology. 

Host: Niamh Chapman

Production: Meredith Castles

Media: Olivia Holloway

280 Australians develop diabetes every day, that’s one person every 5 minutes! World Diabetes Day falls on November 14th 2019 so we caught up with some local experts on diabetes, Dr Dino Premilovac and Brooklyn Fraser. We’ll be covering the causes and effects of diabetes and what you can do to prevent it, starting from childhood right through to old age.

Hosts: Niamh Chapman and Allanna Russell

Production: Olivia Holloway

This week’s show is a preview of the upcoming Science in the Pub event! We interviewed two volcanologists, Dr Karin Orth and Dr Martin, from the University of Tasmania. Both Karin and Martin vent their expert knowledge of volcanic eruptions, mysterious underwater volcanoes, the formation of new islands and of course, all the ways you can die from a volcano.

Be sure to tune in. You’re bound to lava it!

Check out the Science in the Pub event link below.

https://www.facebook.com/events/392834044720163/

Research pushes the boundaries of medicine and biology.

Bioethics safeguards the participants that take part in experiments to test new technologies or medicines. This week we interviewed three guests passionate about the role of ethics in research; Dr. Rebekah McWhiter, Dr. Lisa Eckstein and Dr. Frederic Gilbert. 

A jam-packed episode covering the ethical considerations for printing organs, genetic research and clinical trials. 

Host: Niamh Chapman
Production: Olivia Holloway

Today’s episode is all about the M in STEM, mathematics. 

We’re talking about why maths is more than just equations and numbers, that it surrounds us in nature and why it has such a bad stigma attached to it. 

To help us explain this topic we’re joined by Barbara Holland, an associate professor and mathematician. Barbara works within the Theoretical Phylogenetics research group in the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Tasmania. 

We were also incredibly lucky to have been able to interview the 2018 Australian local hero of the year and math teacher youtube sensation, Eddie Woo. Eddie gave us insight into why maths has such a bad stigma and why he finds such joy in teaching it.

Tune in to hear why maths is more than just numbers and how we can destigmatise the subject.

Killer whales: highly intelligent, social and elusive. Surely this is the perfect challenge for a marine scientist? Especially when killer whales spend a mere 2% of their lives on the surface of the ocean! Tune in this week as we chat killer whales with Ben Sellers, PhD researcher from the Institute for Marine & Antarctic Science at the University of Tasmania. Ben is a passionate researcher & science communicator, and this week we delve into their complex lives, covering ecology, chemistry & conservation. Citizen science also plays a key role in Ben’s research, with the not-for-profit group Killer Whales Australia a great way to report sightings of killer whales for research efforts. Join us this week for fresh perspective on these stunning marine mammals. 

Ben’s research is funded by Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment with Wild Ocean Tasmania, Killer Whales Australia and CETREC (Cetacean Research) as major collaborators.

Special Guest: Ben Sellers (IMAS, UTAS)

This week we are unpacking the importance of just pooing it. Co-host Allanna Russell caught up with Dr Dan Owens at MONA, Tasmania. Dan is keen advocate of the importance of returning your free bowel cancer screening kit. Tune in to learn more. 

Dr Sarah Lyden and Niamh Chapman cover why human-centered engineering is crucial for designing solutions and the work of Engineers Without Borders with special guests Andrew Koolhof and David Pointing. We also caught up with some first-year engineering students who have just taken part in a project to put people at the heart of engineering solutions. The first team was MArtin Croall, Joe Bailey, Martin Blengsli and Izaac Denholm who had a simple yet innovative solution for power supply (cover image). The second team was Dominic Brown and Thomas Little who filled us in on a solution for water purification. 

For more info on the work of Engineers Without Borders visit: https://www.ewb.org.au/