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PODCAST

Eavesdrop on Experts

University of Melbourne

Overhear researchers talk about what they do and why they do it. Hear them obsess, confess and profess - changing the world one experiment, one paper and one interview at a time. Listen in as seasoned eavesdropper Chris Hatzis follows reporters Dr Andi Horvath and Steve Grimwade on their meetings with magnificent minds. Made possible by the University of Melbourne.

education

All Episodes

75:06

My Brilliant Career 2020

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2020/03/16

Welcome to a special episode of Eavesdrop on Experts where we encourage experts to obsess, confess and profess. On the 11th March 2020, producers Silvi Vann-Wall and Arch Cuthbertson attended the International Womens Day event called “My Brilliant Career”. It was held by the MDHS at the University of Melbourne. It features 6 female leaders in the field of child health, who speak about their career journeys, lessons learnt and advice to younger people. We can actively choose to challenge

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19:14

On the hunt for ancient reefs

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2020/03/04

Dr Ashleigh Hood’s career in geology started as a child. “When I was just a kid, my grandpa used to take me on walks. I’d find rocks and put them in people’s letterboxes, so that was the start of my love affair with geology,” says Dr Hood. She now searches the globe for ancient reefs, looking for ancient life forms and information about animal evolution. No longer in the oceans, these 500 million-year-old reefs are preserved high in mountains across Canada, Namibia and Australia. “Earth’s history

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25:59

Renewing democracy in a time of environmental crisis

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2020/02/19

“I’ve always followed the issues that the Australian community are concerned about,” says social researcher Dr Rebecca Huntley. “There are high levels of concern in the community about climate change, regardless of how you measure them, but people have very low levels of expectation that our leaders not only can, but will, do anything about it,” she says. Dr Huntley says studies have revealed a common misconception in which people believe there are greater numbers of climate change deniers and

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38:36

The life you can save

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2020/02/05

In 2009, Professor Peter Singer wrote his book The Life You Can Save in order to highlight that our response to world poverty was not only insufficient, but ethically indefensible. In the tenth anniversary edition released in late 2019, Professor Singer examines the progress we have made since the book’s release and how the first edition transformed the lives of both readers and the people they helped. “I’ve argued that we can expand our circle of moral concern and that that’s an important thing to

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26:02

Decoding cancer cell communication

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2020/01/22

Twenty years ago, Professor Elizabeth Vincan set out to understand how cancer cells ‘talk’ to each other and the cells around them. Her research group was among a number to realise that some cancer cells always ‘switched on’ specific genes that function in an ancient form of cell-to-cell communication. And the idea was that if you could find out what these genes did, and block them, it could provide a new way to treat cancer. “At that time I was a young post doc mum and working where I was working

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29:27

Being bold in medical research

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2020/01/08

Lupus isn’t well known, but the currently incurable autoimmune disease often marked by a ‘butterfly’ rash on the face, is highly prevalent, affecting five million people globally. Treatments are few and far between and few researchers are focused on it. But award winning medical researcher Professor Fabienne Mackay has concentrated much of her career on tackling lupus, and in 2011 her genetic research work led to the approval of the first new treatment for the disease in more than 50 years. And

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24:09

What will it be like for teenagers of the future?

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2019/12/11

The teenage brain is very interesting. According to Dr Katherine Canobi, author and cognitive developmental psychologist at the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, it’s a time when young people are starting to work out who they are, as well as looking to form meaningful and authentic relationships. “During this stage, their brains are still developing in various ways, for example executive function like decision making isn’t fully developed yet and neither is impulse control.” Combining

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23:31

Science, society and drug design

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2019/11/27

Now a professor of biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, in 1969 Sir Thomas Blundell was one of the first people to see what the hormone insulin looked like. As part of the team led by Nobel Prize winner Dorothy Hodgkin, it was a medical breakthrough for diabetes patients everywhere. “I was always interested in doing a range of different things,” Professor Blundell says. “I came from a family where my grandfather was a very gifted artist and musician. And although my parents left school

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24:50

Exposing the Hepatitis B virus

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2019/11/13

The hepatitis B virus causes liver inflammation that, despite treatment, still leaves people at greater risk of developing liver disease and cancer. While it can be effectively vaccinated against, there is no cure. Researchers Professor Peter Revill and Dr Thomas Tu are on front line of global efforts to find a cure; helped by Dr Tu developing a new method to better detect the virus’ ‘master blueprint’. For Dr Tu, who was diagnosed with the disease as a teenager, finding a cure for Hep B is

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21:46

The artistry of geology

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2019/10/30

You might not know it, but Melbourne has little earthquakes, even in the city centre and quite frequently. So says Michael Webster, engineering geologist at consulting, design and construction company, Golder Associates, and guest lecturer for the Master of Engineering at the University of Melbourne. “A lot of people know about the earthquakes down in Gippsland or the Otways, but actually in Melbourne itself, there have been earthquakes. You’d have to be a seismic instrument to actually feel these

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25:27

Knowledge sharing for health and wellbeing

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2019/10/14

A lot of Aboriginal people don’t necessarily feel comfortable accessing health services, explains Gwenda Freeman, Associate Lecturer in Aboriginal Health at the University of Melbourne. “Whereas you might have been brought up to go to the doctor when you are unwell, for Aboriginal people (going to a doctor) might be a much bigger issue,” she says. “There might be issues of racism, there might be history of difficulties, there might be hesitancy about western medicine and all sorts of cost and

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33:19

The oddities of existing things

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2019/10/02

The 13th century physician and astronomer Zakariya ibn Muhammad al-Qazwinin was an influential member of the literary circles in Iraq and advisor to the Mongol Governor of the area. One of his major works is the Wonders of Creation, a kind of compilation of the knowledge of the universe, says Dr Stefano Carboni, lecturer in Islamic Art at the University of Western Australia and 2019 Macgeorge Fellow at the University of Melbourne. “Starting from the outer spheres where the throne of God is found

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20:59

Finding memories in music

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2019/09/18

Music has this unique ability to connect with emotion, and with memory, so they’re very intricately linked, says Professor Felicity Baker, Head of Music Therapy and Director of the International Research Partnerships for the Creative Arts and Music Therapy Research Unit at the University of Melbourne. “When you hear a piece of music and then the memories become evoked as a result of that, the neural network is activated, and it also then leads to the activation of more positive moods.” Professor

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34:47

Bringing democracy to the internet

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2019/09/04

In her new book Future Histories, author and lawyer Lizzie O’Shea asks what historical social experiments like the Paris Commune can tell us about modern online democracy. “I sort of see Mark Zuckerberg’s call for regulation of his platform somewhat cynically,” she says. “I think he’s trying to do that in anticipation of it coming inevitably. So, he’s going to try and manage that process.” According to the author, this is the moment for us to organise and think about how we can install more

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17:23

Delving into memory to understand schizophrenia

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2019/08/21

Impaired memory is a symptom of schizophrenia and University of Melbourne PhD student Cassandra Wannan has identified areas of the brain that give us new clues as to what’s going on. Up to 1 in 100 people worldwide will experience schizophrenia. It can stem from a number of factors, including genetics, trauma, and substance abuse. For centuries there’s been limited understanding of how schizophrenia operates, leading to misdiagnosis or insufficient treatment. In order to better our understanding

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35:37

The Frontiers Of Physics - From planets to photons

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2019/08/07

Physics is sometimes described in terms of two frontiers, says Professor Jamieson, a physicist at the University of Melbourne and Chief Investigator of the Victorian node of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computer Technology. “One frontier is cosmological. You look out into the abyss of space, an enormous scale of space and time.” “So that’s a journey into the wide frontier as we explore the cosmos with evermore powerful telescopes and use the laws of physics as

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29:15

Indigenous astronomy

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2019/07/24

Associate Professor Duane Hamacher has spent 11 years immersing himself into the world of Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous science. Working closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders and communities to learn about their astronomical knowledge and teachings, Associate Professor Hamacher also mentors and supports Indigenous students pursuing studies in astronomy, physics, and space science. “I was very fortunate to be able to learn directly from many Elders,” says Associate

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28:35

Investigating the brain’s insulation

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2019/07/10

Following his uncle’s brain injury, Dr David Gonsalvez studied neuroscience and now researches the connections between brain cells and how they change in diseases like Multiple Sclerosis. “The cells that I study make the insulating material myelin, that covers all of the wires in the brain,” says Dr Gonsalvez. Our ‘wiring’ is formed by axons, the long stalks that grow out of the brain’s neurons and carry electrical signals to other neurons. Myelin is wrapped around axons to insulate the signals,

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39:28

Movement, mobility and identity

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2019/06/26

One of anthropologist Professor Andrew Dawson’s research papers is titled ‘Why Marx was a bad driver: Alienation to sensuality in the anthropology of automobility’. The name gives an insight into his interest in the way movement, mobility and migration informs cultures and communities around the world. “Anthropologists often see cultures and communities as outcomes of people living in places. The fact is that people have always been mobile, and increasingly are mobile, especially with

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32:28

The genomic clues to disease

Eavesdrop on Experts ·

2019/06/12

Genomics is a rapidly evolving technology that can help identify the genetic cause of a condition in a person. It can also find a person’s predisposition to various diseases like some cancers. When science first sequenced all the genes in the entire human genome, it became possible for scientists to compare the genomic patterns of larger groups of people – looking for more clues to health and disease in the ‘big data’. Professor Clara Gaff was awarded the Most Valuable Woman in Leadership in the

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