Ockham’s Razor

Latest Episodes:

Resilient farms and water worries Aug 01, 2021

Show notes

Living as we do in a country that’s prone to drought, it’s no surprise that the subject of irrigation for farming can become a contentious one in Australia. Stepping up to the mic today is Rose Roche, who wants to bring some much-needed nuance to the water debate… and she’s enlisting the help of fairy tales and Disney princesses.

Hiding drugs in nanomaterials to repair brains Jul 25, 2021

Show notes

If you could take your brain and zoom in a couple of times – and then a bit more – you’d see structures that look like towers and tentacles, and behave like pieces of automatic Lego. It’s a crazy miniature world, and one we’re going to get a tour of today. Our tour guide is Dr Kiara Bruggeman, who’s hijacking and hacking these nano-sized structures, in the hopes of helping stroke-affected brains heal.

How communities can recover from disasters like bushfires and COVID-19 Jul 18, 2021

Show notes

You know in movies, where it turns out the scrappy young hero had the power to succeed inside themselves all along – they just had to learn how to harness it? It turns out this is more than just a storytelling trope – it can also be true for communities, recovering from disaster.

Unseen minerals all around us Jul 11, 2021

Show notes

Look, don’t put your mobile phone in a blender. Just… trust me on this one. But if you did, you’d find more of the periodic table of elements in that pulverised phone dust than you might expect. What’s that, you want more context? Allison Britt from Geoscience Australia can explain.

Food supply in a pandemic Jul 04, 2021

Show notes

We’re pretty used to walking into a supermarket and expecting the stuff we want to be on the shelf. Or at least we were until last year, when panic-buying lifted the curtain a bit on just how complex our food supply can be. Lucky for us, it’s something smart people are studying hard – including development economist Katie Ricketts.

Bringing passion back to learning Jun 27, 2021

Show notes

We know that giving students choice and ownership over their own learning is best, but has it been lost from the education system?

Is there a future for brown coal? Jun 20, 2021

Show notes

When I say “brown coal”, what word comes to mind? Dirty? Well maybe that’s fair… if you want to burn it. But Vince Verheyen reckons there’s a future for it in a net zero emissions world. The starting point is understanding what it is, geologically, and how to make the most of its ingredients.

Trolling, cyber-abuse and radical empathy Jun 13, 2021

Show notes

Why is it that so many people are horrible online? Are they always bad people?

The cost of trust Jun 06, 2021

Show notes

Caveat emptor – buyer beware.

Humans as part of nature May 30, 2021

Show notes

There are those places in nature that we come back to, again and again. The reason we come is because they’re so beautiful, or peaceful… but it’s the act of returning regularly that helps us notice when things are different. The landscape is telling us in those subtle changes what’s happening to it.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected