Sci Art Walks Beaker Street

In partnership with Tasmania's Mona Foma festival, an audio episode to be paired with artist Tim Coad's installation in Knocklofty Reserve, Hobart, 22-24 January 2021. Hear a special introduction in which Tim discusses his artwork, followed by a talk about Aboriginal fire culture by Andry Sculthorpe and Billy Paton-Clarke, with music by Emily Wurramara. Many Australians view fire as a destructive force, but there’s more than one type of fire. Aboriginal people have been burning this country f...

In partnership with Tasmania's Mona Foma festival, a talk by Professor Barbara Holland with a special introduction by Mona Foma curator and Violent Femmes bass guitarist Brian Ritchie, who composed the music for the episode. The field of phylogenetics describes how all living things are related, and can be traced back to a common ancestor (one of Darwin’s key insights). As you wander through the ancient geological formation of Launceston’s Cataract Gorge, a reflection on using mathematical to...

A talk by First Dog on the Moon, with music by Emily Sheppard.A joyful meditation on the end of the world, taking refuge in Tasmania’s secluded and stunning environments, and drinking good whisky along the journey. Emerging at South Cape Bay, one of the most southern points in the inhabited world, take a moment to gaze out at the great nothingness before you. Perhaps this is where humanity ends and nature takes over.The suggested walking location for this episode is Cockle Creek to South Cape...

A talk by Christine Milne, Bob Brown, Distinguished Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick, Tabatha Badger, and Todd Dudley, with music by Julius Schwing and Tilly Martin.When Tasmania’s iconic Lake Pedder was flooded in 1972 to create a reservoir in the service of hydroelectric power, a unique wilderness was drowned, and now lies 15 metres beneath the surface, dormant but apparently intact. What would it take to reverse the course of history, drain the impoundment, and restore the flooded lake to its o...

A talk by Dr Cathy Byrne and Dr Simon Grove, with music by Warren Mason and Ben Salter. When you go for a walk in the bush, you enter the realm of small species. Insects abound in our natural world, but many of us rarely take the time to look for them or wonder about their stories. Whether you make it 100 metres out of the Remarkable Cave car park, or all the way to Crescent Bay, here’s a chance to tune into the incredible diversity and intrigue of the insect world. Full of scandal, sex, murd...

A talk by Professor Gretta Pecl, with music by Michael Fortescue.Climate change and rising sea temperatures are pushing Australian coastal marine species south, in search of cooler waters and more suitable habitat. But Tasmania’s east coast is pretty much the stop of last resort for many vulnerable species. To those gazing out over the dazzling Wineglass Bay, the changes occurring below the surface may be invisible, but their effects are already altering our ecosystems and ways of life.The su...