It Starts With...

There’s a vast reef system rivalling the Great Barrier Reef in size and diversity which you probably haven’t heard of. Its name is the Great Southern Reef and it wraps around most of the southern part of Australia.David Bolderman speaks with marine ecologist Scott Bennett in this episode of It Starts With… to understand the hidden world of the Great Southern Reef.Scott is Chair of the Great Southern Reef Foundation which aims to promote understanding and protection of this marine environment.The Great Southern Reef itself was only identified by science in 2015. It’s not an interconnected coral reef like the tropical Great Barrier Reef, but a temperate collection of rocky reefs. It is home to a stunning array of biodiversity, including the vulnerable kelp forests off Tasmania’s coast.

Alcohol has been socially lubricating, intoxicating and relaxing humans for thousands of years. But the chemistry behind alcohol and the biological effects it has on the human body are still being understood.Join David Bolderman and science journalist Ellen Phiddian in this episode of the It Starts With… podcast as they take a sip from the chalice of knowledge to get to the gurgling heart of what alcohol is and how it affects the body.Ellen and David explore the properties of ethanol, why we get drunk, as well as the harmful effects of overconsumption of alcohol on the human body.

About 70% of Australia’s dinosaur holotype fossils were not discovered by palaeontologists. They were found by members of the public with a keen eye. It begs the question: what should you do if you stumble on a fossil or ancient artefact?In this podcast, David Bolderman speaks with archaeologist and palaeontologist Sally Hurst who is founder of the “Found A Fossil” project which provides all the answers to these questions and more about what to do if you find remains of ancient animals or artefacts from human settlements.Who do you tell? Can you take the object? What kind of pictures should you take?Join Sally and David as they discuss these questions. Sally is author of the book Found a Fossil is published by CSIRO Publishing and is available in print or eBook.

Soil health has big implications for farms and land management. In this podcast episode, David Bolderman talks with soil scientists Lisa Lobry de Bruyn and Oliver Knox about communication between science and key stakeholders in agriculture and land use.They discuss how soil health depends not just on the microorganisms within them, but also on how people understand soil and make decisions about it. This, Lisa and Oliver argue, is an example of science and real-world applications needing to work together to build better understanding of what’s needed.Talking Soil is a new book by Lisa Lobry de Bruyn and Oliver Knox published by CSIRO Publishing and will be available in print or eBook in early 2027.

Dark energy. Physicists believe it makes up 70% of the universe, but we don’t know what it is or how it works. Yet this mysterious force is responsible for pushing everything in our universe apart. This elusive phenomenon has had cosmologists scratching their heads for decades.What if it could be interpreted through music?In this episode, David Boldeman is joined by Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Brian Schmidt, composer Constantine Koukias, as well as ConnectSci News journalist Evrim Yazgin to talk about the universe and music. They cover literally light-years of listening revelry from Pink Floyd and The Beatles to whether or not it’s true that in space no one can hear you scream. The discussion led to a Spotify playlist of the best songs.Koukias was given the daunting task of composing a piece of music to convey the concept of dark energy. His piece – an epic which plays with more than 100 voices and the space of the theatre itself – will premiere at this year’s Beaker Street Festival which will take place over 2 weekends during 6–17 August in Hobart, Australia.No 2 seats will hear the exact same music. No one will be left not wondering how they fit into the vastness of the cosmos.Koukias’s composition, called VAST, will be playing at the Theatre Royal on 12 and 13 August. On 13 August, Koukias and Schmidt will hold a conversation at the Theatre Royal about the piece, the discovery of dark energy and the expanding universe. Get your tickets through the Beaker Street Festival website.

Batteries are one of the most important technologies in the modern world. They are also one of the least understood.Science journalist Ellen Phiddian joins David Boldeman to discuss how batteries actually work, why they are so important and what is coming next. To read more about batteries visit ConnectSci News or sign up to our free monthly newsletter about the latest energy discoveries.