SPECIAL GUEST: Darryl Jones (Griffith) Don't feed the birds! Well.. OK, if you must make sure you do it properly. Dr Darryl Jones is an urban ecologist who has spent years studying the interactions between humans and animals in towns and cities. One of the most common and widespread interactions between animals and humans is bird feeding. Despite h…

Cameron Webb, to put it simply, is the mozzie guy. He has built his career studying the diversity and ecology of mosquitoes and also their interactions with humans and how they can be vectors of significant human diseases. His expertise in mosquitoes requires him to be in one moment a champion for mosquito appreciation and understanding, whilst sim…

SPECIAL GUEST: Sami Bayly (Author and Illustrator) Sami Bayly is the author and illustrator of the award winning children’s’ book ‘The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Ugly Animals”, published by Hachette Australia. This book features full page illustrations and fun facts about some of the world’s strangest animals, who are all beautiful in their own v…

SPECIAL GUESTS: Dr Jim Jobin and Nick Tangeman (Pod Therapy) How are you handling isolation and COVID-19? If you feel like you need some support and want to talk to someone about it, our two special guests today are here to tell you that you definitely should. In this very special episode of In Situ Science we chat to the hosts of Pod Therapy - a p…

Whats next for In Situ Science? In the weird new world we are living in things have changed quite a bit. Here's a quick update to let you know that we're still here and we're so happy to have your support during these crazy times! Take care, stay safe, and we'll see you all again soon! Find out more at www.insituscience.com Follow us on Twitter @in…

Way back on episode 39 Charlotte Mills was a PhD student at UNSW. She has since completed her PhD and is now Dr Charlotte Mills. Charlotte describes her time as a PhD candidate as a ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ experience. This experience has taken her across the magical desert landscapes of inland Australia and continues to be an exciting adventure…

This flashback episode takes us back to episode 60 where we chat with Dieter Hochuli, an invertebrate biologist and urban ecologist from the University of Sydney who studies how nature survives in towns and cities. His research investigates the ecological, economical and psychological benefits of nature in cities, and how our modern way of life aff…

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SPECIAL GUEST: Belinda Craig (UNE) How well can we read other people’s faces? And how good are we at faking our own emotional responses? Turns out not to great. In the absence of other contextual cues people are not very good at reading peoples facial expressions. Add to that the fact that cultural differences can have a huge impact on what emotion…

SPECIAL GUEST: Matthew McKenzie (Thalgarrah EEC) Support In Situ Science on Patreon Matthew McKenzie is the principal and head teacher of a public school with a difference. Thalgarrah Environmental Education Centre is located in the woodlands outside of Armidale in regional NSW. It is part of a network of environmental and zoo education centres acr…

SPECIAL GUEST: Michael Kasumovic (UNSW) Support In Situ Science on Patreon After a brief stint trying to become a dentist, Michael Kasumovic found his true calling studying the ecology and evolution of spiders. That was until he found another calling studying everything else from performance in professional athletes, how income can affect facial pr…

Support In Situ Science on Patreon SPECIAL GUEST: Isabelle Kingsley (UNSW) From school teacher, to science communicator, to events producer, and now researcher, Isabelle Kingsley has spent her career spanning widely different areas of science education and outreach. She founded the Sydney Science Festival in 2015 which has grown into an annual fest…

Support In Situ Science on Patreon SPECIAL GUEST: Benji Kessler (UC) Benji Kessler is a man of many talents, he studies the behaviour of spiders, teaches mathematics to school kids, does stand-up comedy and looks great in a Spider-Man costume. Benji is currently visiting Australia from the USA where he is doing his PhD at the University of Californ…

SPECIAL GUEST: Alva Curtsdotter (UNE) Support In Situ Science on Patreon Some scientists go out in to the field, collect data and conduct experiments to test their hypotheses. Other scientists conduct their experiments inside a computer. Alva Curtsdotter is a theoretical ecologist that studies the behaviour of animal populations across natural land…

SPECIAL GUEST: Natalie Morgan (UNE) Support In Situ Science on Patreon Chicken is big business and the science behind poultry nutrition is an incredibly precise mix of chemistry and biology. As the market for poultry continues to increase worldwide there is ongoing need to industry to improve the efficiency and sustainability of chicken feed. Natal…

Live from the Django Bar Support In Situ Science on Patreon In Situ Science returned to the Django Bar to celebrate National Science Week and the Sydney Science Festival. This year we we’re joined by Cameron Webb (USyd and NSW Health), Katherina Petrou (UTS), Fonti Kar (UNSW) and Samuel Bannister (USyd) who shared stories about everything from stud…

SPECIAL GUEST: Andrew Katsis (Deakin) Support In Situ Science on Patreon A single tweet can make all the difference, or at least it did for Andrew Katsis, who decided to get involved in the #billmeetsciencetwitter trend. Little did he know that his tweet would be seen by American television producers, who decided to fly Andrew over to LA to talk ab…

SPECIAL GUEST: Tom Saunders (U of Auckland) Support In Situ Science on Patreon Tom Saunders experienced a burst of scientific fame after naming a newfound species of wasp Lusius malfoyi, after the beloved and maligned Harry Potter character Lucius Malfoy. Naming new species after pop culture figures has become a useful tool for enhancing public awa…

SPECIAL GUEST: Amy Martin (UoA) Support In Situ Science on Patreon Amy Martin is a researcher at the University of Auckland that studies the incredible private lives of orchids that trick male wasps into mating with them. By depriving these wasp populations of male sperm they can actually have long term effects on the wasp populations. Amy says tha…

SPECIAL GUEST: Tim Chapman (UNE) Support In Situ Science on Patreon This episode sees our first ever geologist on the podcast. Tim Chapman is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of New England. He studies the high energy geological reactions, such as the formation of volcanoes and meteorite impacts, and what influence these have had on…

SPECIAL GUEST: Fonti Kar (UNSW) Support In Situ Science on Patreon Fonti Kar is a behavioural ecologist from the University of New South Wales. She studies the life history of skinks and how the conditions they are born in can affect their behaviour and development later on in life. In this interview Fonti we dive deep into what it takes to be a pr…

SPECIAL GUEST: John Paterson (UNE) John Paterson is a professor of paleontology and earth sciences at the University of New England. He studies the evolution of life during the Cambrian explosion. Some of his recent research has shown that during this time some of the largest predators around, Anomalocaris, had wonderfully complex eyes and they wer…

SPECIAL GUEST: Boyd Wright (UNE) Boyd Wright is an arid zone ecologist from the University of New England that studies the life history of the sturdy plants that make their homes in Australia’s dry deserts. Boyd has spent many years working with Indigenous communities in these areas and has made it his mission to find as many opportunities as he ca…

SPECIAL GUEST: Marissa Betts (UNE) Palaeontology isn’t just about Dinosaurs! Marissa Betts is a researcher at the University of New England that studies the evolution of miniscule animals that existed during the Cambrian explosion. During this era animals evolved hard shelled bodies that made them much more likely to fossilise. By looking at these …

SPECIAL GUEST: Mary Whitehouse (CSIRO) Farmers have learned that the widespread use of pesticides is a dangerous strategy as it can lead to the evolution of highly pesticide resistant crop pests. Land managers are moving towards ‘Integrated Pest Management’ techniques that use a multitude of strategies to more responsibly control pests, including f…

SPECIAL GUESTS: Alexander and Jane Dudley (Faunaverse) Alexander and Jane Dudley are passionate defenders of the natural world. They have written two poetry books showcasing Australia’s unique animal life. Alexander travels all across Australia as a wildlife surveyor. His passion for animals and poetry has led him, with some firm encouragement from…

SPECIAL GUEST: Tanya Latty (USyd) Urban beekeeping is all the rage but its not the only thing you can do to help pollinators. Tanya Latty from the University of Sydney says being a lazy gardener may be the best thing you can do to help your local bees, beetles and butterflies. Tanya’s work was recently featured on ABC’s Catalyst as part of the Grea…

LIVE FROM THE SYDNEY DESIGN FESTIVAL Can science explain what makes good design? Are designers and scientists really that different? Or are they both just explorers searching for truth in different ways? We celebrated the intersections of Science and Design at the Sydney Design Panel with a celebrity panel featuring Tom Gordon, Chris Reid, Wendy Da…

SPECIAL GUEST: Richard Charlesworth (UNE) Is gluten actually bad for you? Is all the hype surrounding gluten free diets justified? According to Dr Richard Charlesworth, its complicated. People's responses to gluten can range from severe coeliac disease, through to a whole spectrum of intolerance syndromes, to not reacting to it at all. And diagnosi…

SPECIAL GUEST: Russell Bicknell (UNE) Horseshoe crabs, firstly, are not crabs, nor do they make effective horseshoes. They are a unique animal more closely related to spiders and scorpions than crustaceans. They are highly valued due to the coagulant properties of their blood, which is harvested as a pharmaceutical product to identify impurities in…

SPECIAL GUEST: Kirsti Abbott (UNE) Have you ever wanted to visit a Steampunk themed scientific learning space aimed at all ages in a regional university. We’ll guess what!? The Boilerhouse Discovery Space is currently under construction at the University of New England and is on track for completion in 2022. In this interview we chat with Kirsti Ab…

SPECIAL GUEST: Vincent Raoult (UoN) Sharks are cool! Thats about all there is to it. Gone are the days of viewing sharks as bloodthirsty killers, we're now all on board with the fact that they are an incredibly diverse group of animals with amazing biology. Vincent Raoult from the University of Newcastle studies the biology of sharks and is looking…

SPECIAL GUEST: Martin Whiting (MQ) Martin Whiting is a true natural historian. He has spent his life studying reptiles across the world as far as Australia, Asia and Africa. In an interview with In Situ Science we delve into the secret lives of social skinks and their incredible intelligence and the incredible flat lizards that signal their quality…

SPECIAL GUEST: Sonja Dominik (CSIRO) In this special Christmas episode we chat to Sonja Dominik from the CSIRO who has just been named one of Australia’s ‘Superstars of STEM’; a nationwide initiative focussed on increasing the visibility of women in STEM and addressing the gender gap in scientific careers. Her research focuses on using genetic tech…

SPECIAL GUEST: Mandy Hagstrom (UNE) Lift heavy, but not too heavy. Don't eat too much, unless you need to eat a lot. Cardio is great, until it isn't. Sports science is a relatively new field of science and there is lots of conflicting information out there that can leave people very confused about how best to approach healthy decisions. Sports scie…

SPECIAL GUEST: Chris Goatley (UNE) What do animals do? It may sound like a very simple question but for many biologists it can be very hard to answer. For marine biologist Chris Goatley studying small, elusive cryptobenthic fish, understanding what they get up to is both an incredible challenge and adventure. Teeny tiny fish make up a huge amount o…

SPECIAL GUEST: Will Billingsley (UNE) With computer technology processing rapidly, and the proliferation of the internet into all aspects of our lives and businesses, you can't blame people for feeling a little bit out of control. With technologies such as 'machine learning' and 'artificial intelligence' becoming more common place we are beginning …

SPECIAL GUEST: Lindsey Frost (UNE) Wetlands aren't always wet. Sounds strange but in an arid country like Australia, wetlands may be dry for decades at a time until water arrives via rain and flooding events. These unique habitats provide crucial resources for diverse ecosystems that thrive under dynamic boom-and-bust situations. Lindsey Frost is a…

SPECIAL GUEST: Dieter Hochuli (USyd) “A society grows great when men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” - Greek proverb Dieter Hochuli is an invertebrate biologist and urban ecologist from the University of Sydney that studies how nature survives in towns and cities. His research investigates the ecological, economical and …

SPECIAL GUEST: Naomi Koh Belic (UTS) The potential for using stem cells in medical treatments is really only just being explored. Despite this there are already unsubstantiated claims being shared and predatory cosmetic stem cell treatments on the market. Naomi Koh Belic is a PhD researcher at the University of Technology, Sydney who studies the bi…

SPECIAL GUEST: David Lamb (UNE) Living and working in a regional town is having your cake and eating it too! David Lamb is a distinguished professor at the University of New England and Chief Scientist of the Food Agility CRC. He has spent his professional career at regional universities throughout Australia and wouldn’t have it any other way. The …

SPECIAL GUEST: Scott Fabricant (Rutgers Medical School) Boffins, tinkerers, deep-thinkers, these are terms people often use to describe the stereotypical scientist, sitting away in the lab slowly piecing together facts and data. And for a lot of scientists this is true, but not all scientists are the same, and for some this long-game of piecing tog…

LIVE AT THE CAMELOT LOUNGE!!! Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a scientist? Do they really wear lab coats? Are they really all timid nerds, like in the movies? All these questions and more were answered at In Situ Science's annual Life Vs Science live podcast recording. Each year we celebrate National Science Week and the Sydney Science …

SPECIAL GUEST: Karl Vernes (UNE) The Desert Rat Kangaroo (Caloprymnus campestris), or ‘oolaculnta’ was last seen by scientist Hedley Herbert Finlayson in the 1930’s. Since then there have been a number of accounts which suggest that this rare and elusive creature may still be out there, in the stony deserts of South Australia. In Australia, which h…

SPECIAL GUEST: Ada Klinkhamer (UNE) The enormous, long-necked Sauropods are some of the most iconic dinosaurs, and its no surprise given the almost unfathomable sizes that they grew to. Ada Klinkhamer is a palaeontologist from the University of New England that studies how these ancient beasts could have moved and how their skeletons supported such…