Sci Art Walks
11 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 3 years ago -Sci Art Walks, a project by Beaker Street Festival, is a series of audio-escapes featuring fascinating talks by some of Tasmania's most innovative and accomplished scientists and artists, with music composed by a stellar lineup of Tasmanian musicians. Each episode is paired with a suggested walking location in Tasmania, but you can listen from anywhere in the world (preferably while enjoying the great outdoors). Visit www.sciartwalks.com.au for more information on each episode and the suggested walking location.
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Episodes
Cultural Burning - Mona Foma Special #2
January 21, 2021 03:00 - 1 hour - 46 MBIn 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 countr...
Ancestral Eve - Mona Foma Special #1
January 13, 2021 21:00 - 51 minutes - 35.3 MBIn 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 ...
Exploring the Last Stop on the Earth with First Dog on the Moon
September 07, 2020 06:00 - 55 minutes - 38.3 MBA 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 C...
Rewilding Tasmania: The ecological challenge of restoring Lake Pedder
September 05, 2020 06:00 - 54 minutes - 37.4 MBA 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...
Walk Slow, Look Low: Seeing the world from a naturalist’s perspective
August 31, 2020 04:00 - 52 minutes - 36.4 MBA 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, mu...
Reigniting Aboriginal Fire Culture in Tasmania
August 20, 2020 12:00 - 58 minutes - 40.2 MBA talk 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 for centuries, helping to encourage native vegetation, improve food availability for humans and animals, and restoring balance in the ecosystem. Knocklofty Reserve was a very different environment not so long ago, but when we look out at the vegetation there today, we rarel...
The Secret Life of Mutton Birds
August 20, 2020 12:00 - 59 minutes - 40.7 MBA talk by Dr Jennifer Lavers, wih music by Maggie Abraham The small, brown, humble-looking mutton bird may not seem so exquisite upon first glance (or first sniff), but their modest appearance belies their incredible story. From throwing themselves off a cliff for their first flight and not returning to land for five years, to flying round-trip to Antarctica every few days to fish for their growing chicks, these birds are true Tasmanian superheroes. Walking along the Nut, with evidence of m...
As Tasmania’s waters warm, what happens to our marine species?
August 20, 2020 12:00 - 46 minutes - 32.3 MBA 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...
In Search of a Devil Facial Tumour Disease Vaccine
August 20, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 42 MBA talk by Dr Andy Flies with music by Emily Sanzaro. Tassie Devil populations are at risk of extinction due to a devastating transmissible cancer that has wiped out huge numbers of the iconic species. But their plight has catalysed groundbreaking research into devil immune systems, and the search for an effective vaccine against the deadly tumour is well underway. The upshot may be that we pull the devil back from the brink, while also discovering crucial insights into other wildlife disease...
Using Maths and Evolution to Connect All Living Things
August 20, 2020 04:00 - 42 minutes - 29.4 MBA talk by Professor Barbara Holland with music by Brian Ritchie. 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 tools to understand evolution, species diversity, and what ties us all together. The suggested walking location for this episode is Cataract Gorge, Launceston, ...
David Walsh On Risk
August 19, 2020 02:00 - 53 minutes - 36.9 MBA talk by David Walsh with music by Zac Henderson. Humans are flawed evaluators of past decisions. We place far too much emphasis on outcomes, with little consideration of inherent risk. When we learn to appreciate the importance of alternative histories, the ghosts of our past decisions come back to haunt us, or perhaps we finally appreciate the broker who sold us that insurance policy we never collected on. Perched just above the Derwent River, trekking through David Walsh’s past and prese...