118 – Prof Patricia Vickers-Rich – Palaeontology 101

I speak to Professor Patricia Vickers-Rich, the Director of the Monash Science Centre and Personal Chair of Palaeontology at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, about palaeontology. Topics we covered included:

– What is palaeontology?
– What areas of science does palaeontology cover?
– If you’re interested in palaeontology, what should you consider learning?
– Prof Rich talks a little about the origin of birds in Australia
– How big were these birds?
– How closely related are animals of different continents, and why?
– Some of the unusual structures of animals from the past – and their relation to microbial life
– What jobs can palaeontologists get?
– Some examples of different places in the world palaeontology has taken Prof Vickers-Rich, and some of the cultures she experienced
– The value of learning different cultures and how this relates to research

Today’s listener of the episode is Sharon Ryan from Australia.

Download MP3 of Ep 118

Details of the National Science Week Show are here – please come along, or listen to it online!

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112 – Prof Roger Short and Evan Bittner – Taronga Zoo Baby Elephant Birth

In today’s episode, I talk to both Professor Roger Short and Evan Bittner from the University of Melbourne on several topics related to the Asian Elephant, including the recent “miracle birth” of the baby elephant at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo.

Topics we cover include:

– Some of the latest news with Prof Short and Evan Bittner’s work
– Some of the plans for working with Elephants Asia in Laos
– What the news about the Himalayan Glaciers means to the work required in saving the Asian Elephant
– The birth of the baby elephant at Taronga Zoo – what were the issues, and how were these overcome?
– The reaction of other elephants at Taronga Zoo to the newborn
– Some of the reaction by certain community groups about elephants in captivity and Prof Short and Evan’s responses to these reactions
– Matriarchal behaviour of elephant groups
– How much use is a bull (adult male) to an elephant group?
– The commonality between elephants and humans
– Comments on moving Asian Elephants from Melbourne Zoo to Open Plains Zoos and the wisdom of such decisions
– What the difference in ear size between Asian Elephants and African Elephants means in a practical sense
– And update on the “Never Forget Elephants” charity

Download MP3 of Ep 112

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111 – Evan Bittner – Asian Elephant Conservation Part 2

In this episode, I continue my talk with Evan Bittner from the University of Melbourne in Brains Matter’s continuing series on Asian Elephants. If you missed Episode 110, please go back and listen to that episode first. In this interview, Evan discusses:

– What can we do to reduce the impact on the ability to conserve the elephant?
– Making a difference
– What work is being done in artificial insemination techniques for elephants?
– What are the advantages of using artificial insemination for elephant populations?
– What are the transportation costs of an elephant?
– The differences in spending the same amount of money in different geographic locations – and how this impacts conservation efforts.
– How do the experts ensure the success of artificial insemination?
– Why does it seem to be more difficult to get elephants to mate in captivity compared to the wild?
– Can captive elephants be successfully re-introduced to the wild?
– Understanding herds in captivity and how they differ to herds in the wild
– Future research

We also demonstrate some of the various elephant vocalisations that have been discussed over the past two shows.

Download MP3 of Ep 111

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110 – Evan Bittner – Asian Elephant Conservation Part 1

In this episode, I talk to Evan Bittner from the University of Melbourne in Brains Matter’s continuing series on Asian Elephants. Evan discusses:

– Elephants and infrasound communications
– Determining how to measure elephant reactions to elephant vocalisations
– What are the meanings of some of the elephant behaviours we observe?
– The follow up experiment to Roger Short’s observation on Asian elephant vocalisations being played to African elephants – this time, African elephant vocalisations played to Asian elephants
– What further research can be done in this area?
– Do elephants really have a good memory?
– How do elephants recognise each other through sound?
– How far can elephants typically communicate?
– What is being done in elephant conservation work?
– What are some of the reasons causing the drop in elephant numbers? Why are they becoming endangered?
– Some of the work Evan has done in Laos
– The new elephant conservation charity, “Never Forget Elephants” that has been set up, and what it aims to do
– Some techniques to ensure that rainforests are conserved

Also in this episode are the Listener of the Episode, listener questions (Mark Wilson), and some listener feedback.

Download MP3 of Ep 110

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Brains Matter listeners making a difference…

I just received this email from Professor Roger Short, who appeared on Brains Matter in episodes 73, 74, 77 and 78 on the topic of Asian Elephants and their plight:

Thanks exclusively to Brains Matter, I was contacted by an Accountant,
Glen Antonovich, who lives in Melbourne and is devoted to elephants! He
has offered his services free to register a Charity, which we have
decided to call “Never Forget Elephants”, to promote the conservation of
the Asian elephant. It would be great to involve you in the next
chapter of this ongoing story

Wonderful news from Professor Short – and many thanks to Glen for engaging in this effort. I hope that many listeners get behind this charity as well.

OG

100 – The Century – Dr Andrew Prentice and Dr Simon Singh

The 100th episode of Brains Matter coincides with National Science Week – and to celebrate both the 100th show and National Science week, in this episode, we cover a range of topics. There are two great new interviews, as well as highlights from previous shows. You can go to the original interviews by clicking on the links associated with that episode.

Interviews:
Dr Andrew Prentice — the first use of the telescope for astronomical purposes

Dr Djoymi Baker– The relationship between sci fi and mythology
Prof John Lattanzio – Element formation in stars
Dr Zachary Moore – Fundamentalism and evolution
Dr Adrian Gentle – Special relativity
Dr Roger Rassool – Physics and music
Prof Peter Doherty – Jokes and the Nobel Prize
Dr Mark Boland – Measurements in the synchrotron
Dr Pamela Gay – Naming the big bang
Dr David Karoly – The evidence for global warming
Adam Parker – Origins of robotics
Dr Orly Lacham-Kaplan – What are stem cells?
Prof Roger Short – Evolutionary evidence of the origin of elephants
Marc West – Cricket, maths and statistics
Dr Seth Shostak – Science and the movies

Dr Simon Singh – The wonder of maths and science, the decline of maths and science study in schools, and a discussion on pseudo science

I hope everyone enjoys National Science Week in Australia – and for those not in Australia – go out and enjoy some science today!!

I would like to thank everyone who have made contributions to this episode, including: Dr Andrew Prentice, Dr Simon Singh, Dr Allie Ford, Christian Wilson, Christopher Short, Dr Daniel Price, Dr Phil Plait, Dr Duncan Galloway, Erk, Daniel Viles, Jason Hameister, Dr Rosemary Mardling, Marc West, Kylie Sturgess, Derek Colanduno, Darryl Carlton, and Nigel Hedges

Thanks also to the following people for their feedback for the episode:

Julia Meaden, Catherine Ld, Christopher Able, Paulo Ricardo Savino, Gerardo Blanco, Jerome

Download MP3 of Ep 100

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Redirect – The Century

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078 – Prof Roger Short – Saving Asian Elephants 2 (ft Dr Roger Rassool)

In this episode, which is the final of a 2 part interview, I talk once again with Professor Roger Short, from the University of Melbourne on further topics regarding Asian elephants, and on saving them.

– elephant accents
– what happens when you play Asian elephant vocalisations to captive African elephants? Some surprising results!
– Potelemic time African elephants versus Asian elephants in Gaza (circa 100 BC)
– Infrasound communication, and how this may relate to their aquatic ancestry
– The distance of infrasound communication
– Gestation of elephants
– Elephant mating
– How do elephants produce infrasound?
– Do elephants and whales understand each other?
– The relationship between whale and elephant communications
– Elephant mahoots and what they were able to train elephants to do
– How many words can elephants understand?
– The intelligence of elephants in comparison to primates
– Prof Short’s circus experiences
– The knowledge of mahoots
– How can we communicate with elephants, and help save them?

Also featured on today’s episode is a discussion on elephants from Dr Roger Rassool from the University of Melbourne, from an Australian & New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science presentation which I attended.
– Dr Roger Rassool showing elephant behaviour with different elephant sounds from an ANZAAS presentation
– How do we know elephants are communicating?
– The experiment on getting the Melbourne elephants talking to the Perth elephants
– How was the recording done?
– The actual elephant sounds!

Download MP3 of Ep 78

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077 – Prof Roger Short – Saving Asian Elephants 1

In this episode, which is the first of a 2 part interview, I talk once again with Professor Roger Short, from the University of Melbourne on further topics regarding Asian elephants, and on saving them.

– What are elephants used for?
– How many elephants have been released back into the wild from zoo breeding?
– What’s been doing to help prevent ivory trade?
– What is being done to help elephants breed?
– Where does the term ‘white elephant’ come from?
– The intelligence of elephants
– Elephant communication
– Vocalisations of African elephants vs Asian elephants
– Asian elephant vocabulary
– The playback of Helena Harrington’s elephant sounds to elephants in both Australia and the UK
– The friendliness of Asian Elephants

Download MP3 of Ep 77

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074 – Prof Roger Short – Asian Elephants Part 2

In this episode, which is the second part of a 2 part interview, I talk to Professor Roger Short from the University of Melbourne on Asian Elephants. We discuss what evolution is doing to tusks of elephants, what elephants are used for today and what is causing their extinction, some history of elephants in ancient battles, and the tradition of mahoots – elephant keepers.

Some images courtesy of Professor Short:

The tooth of an Asian elephant

Comparing an Asian elephant’s tooth to that of a mammoth – very similar!

A Mahoot’s Ankus – what they use to control tamed elephants

Download MP3 of Ep 74

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