The Science Show - Separate stories podcast

In her book What the Flora? Vanessa Fuchs tells of the remarkable ways plants have shaped our world: fuelling civilisations, inspiring innovation and sustaining all life on Earth. Blending science, true crime, history and a touch of lore, What the Flora? offers a fresh perspective on the ingenuity and wonders of the plant kingdom.

Many Australian native trees are struggling. Nearly 25 per cent of all eucalypt species are threatened with extinction, impacted by land clearing, climate change and other factors.
In 2015 it was decided to assess the conservation status of all Australian trees. Chantelle Doyle meets two ecologists, Ella Plumanns Pouton and Rachael Gallagher, coordinating Australia’s contribution to The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.

The bones were found in 2013 by a team in Türkiye. They look like granules of instant coffee. 40 bones were recovered, with analysis applied to 10, producing one success. This is the genetic lottery with the result being genome sequences of two dogs dating back 14,000–16,000 years, the earliest dogs to be sequenced. Dogs at that time were already genetically distinct from wolves. The work shows that dogs were widely distributed across western Eurasia long before the introduction of agriculture with evidence that the genetic diversification of dogs started much earlier than previously thought.

Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society of London, discusses the responsibility of science in a world where ideology-driven politics is on the rise. A Nobel Prize winner, Paul Nurse was the inaugural Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Francis Crick Institute in London, a centre for biomedical research in a collaboration between six major UK research institutions.

Your phone battery doesn't like being fully charged or discharged. This is why it's sometimes advised that to extend its life, you shouldn't charge your phone beyond 80 per cent, or let it drop below 20 per cent.
But what's actually happening inside a lithium-ion battery to cause this effect, and what does it mean for battery engineering — and the life of the battery in your phone, or your electric car?
Jonathan Webb powers through the chemistry of batteries with Professor Neeraj Sharma.
You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science editor and presenter Jonathan Webb 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:
Professor Neeraj Sharma, University of New South Wales
This episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Ngunnawal and Ngambri people.