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Professor Kurt Lambeck, President of the Australian Academy of Science, assesses the Cutler Report and the Green Paper, an outcome of the Review of the National Innovation System. He suggests ways in which Australia must increase its investment in science and technology. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: Well, it´s been a year. The Rudd government has been installed in Canberra during turbulent times. We´ve had some initiatives, and plenty of reviews. One came out a few weeks ago, about innovation, R&D and the future of Australia´s scientists, who´ve been going backwards for more than ten years.

Dr Jack Carmody, who coordinates a postgraduate course in Medicine and Music at the University of Sydney, tells us amongst other things how hormones influence the brain, the march of DNA down generations and reproduction. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: So what is the meaning of life? Is it the name of an outrageous film by Monty Python and the gang? Is it Forty-two? Is it an ineffable mystery which can be revealed only when we scale a high mountain and ask the wise monk sitting naked at the top who replies ... `Yellow´. Or is this the wrong question, as John Lloyd, from Blackadder used to ins

Ospreys are a bird of prey and are found in costal regions worldwide. Unfortunately, in the UK at the start of the 1800s these birds were high on the list of species to be destroyed. Today Bob Holderness-Roddam, Project Officer with Volunteering Tasmania, tells of his experiences as a volunteer in Scotland in the 1960s, protecting the nests of the few remaining breeding birds. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: One of the joys of watching the skies off various parts of coastal Australia is to see the big birds soaring, catching the up-currents of wind, or just hanging there, looking down. Plenty o

The Managing Director of Centurion Enterprise Management Services in Victoria, Dr Ron Harper, wonders what might have been if he had chosen a career as a scientist. However, he chose a career in management and today tells us what makes a good and efficient manager. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: Whatever your feelings about George W. Bush, there is a case to be made that his successes or failures could be put down to matters of management. If you do insist on invading Iraq, why not work out what happens when you get there? If you are keen on the free market, why not check that it knows what it

Health Director of the Jimmy Little Foundation and film maker Don Palmer tells us that kidney disease amongst Aboriginal people in Central Australia runs somewhere between 30 to 50 times the national average. Nearly 200 people are receiving dialysis treatment in this area alone. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: Have you been watching that marvellous series about the First Australians on SBS television? The thing that struck me, looking at the old pictures of Aboriginal people, was how lithe and healthy they looked, when living in the traditional way, close to the land. Even now, when doctors do

If you worry that 'Big Brother' is everywhere, watching us via CCTV or other devices, imagine a future that's even worse. Melbourne author Andrew Herrick delves into the not too distant future to tell us what can happen, and it's a very worrying picture which, according to the author, is not all science fiction. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: Have you noticed how the British police, at least on telly, depend almost entirely on CCTV? The cameras are everywhere, and it´s a rare crime that doesn´t get picked up on video to help The Bill, or even the guys from Spooks to find the villain. We´re alwa

According to an international survey 70% of the Australian adult population doesn't adequately understand how numbers work. Retired psychologist Valerie Yule discusses how simple arithmetic helps with everyday tasks and understanding the world around us. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: It may be a little early on a Sunday morning to ask this question, but I´ll put it anyway: do you think, in terms of plain numbers, our times are safer or more dangerous than they were in the 20th century, in terms of warfare, body counts and people injured. I know you don´t necessarily keep these numbers in your

Next year we celebrate two famous men's 200th birthdays - Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln. In this talk Sydney science writer Peter Macinnis tells us of the many scientific and technological discoveries of that time. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: Next year is the Big One. For anniversaries. Darwin, Cambridge, That Book 1859 as significant as 1848, or 1905, 1914, 1929, and, of course highly significant, 1944. Tell you why, later on. But now 1859 and all that. Peter Macinnis. Peter Macinnis: Next year, on February 12th, we celebrate two famous men´s 200th birthdays. In 1859, when they turne

Science journalist Dr Peter Lavelle from ABC Health Online looks at the history of disease and some of the terrible epidemics that have swept through societies throughout history. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: What´s the point of sex? Sexual intercourse isn´t the most likely activity, if you think about it: allowing someone else to get thoroughly involved with your delicate parts, and hoping you´ll get them back unharmed when it´s all over. Well sex was invented 380-million years ago at Go Go in Western Australia, according to a fossil-minded friend of mine from the Museum in Victoria. Fish

Dr Stuart Taylor is an environmental scientist and Director of Geochemical Assessments in Sydney. He investigated what is really at the bottom of Sydney Harbour and what he found wasn't pretty. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: Isn´t Sydney Harbour simply wonderful? The jewel in the crown of Emerald City. But look under the shining silver waves and you´ll find something very dark, and sometimes very toxic. In some parts the vile deposits, left over from heavy industrial times are over four metres thick, muck as deep as three men standing on each others´ shoulders. But does all this matter? Does

Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology, John Bradshaw, from Monash University, talks about experiments he undertook when investigating the brain's right and left hemispheres. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: I think you´ve heard the general put-down for someone in senior management, or in politics, that they are two-car wonders. John Prescott, former Deputy Prime Minister in Britain, was known as Two Jags, quite unfairly, according to his autobiography. Now I prefer being accused of having brains. Because I have two. But before you genuflect in wonderment, relax. Because you´ve got two brains as

Bill Hall from Adelaide is a professional writer for the antiques and collectables trade. According to him the mid 20th century now appeals very much to collectors. He visits a home of that era and summarizes some of the technical highlights and manufacturing breakthroughs that are now making that period so collectable. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: Do you realise that this program is retro? Talks like this were done on the ABC by Hermann Black, Julius Stone and even Douglas Mawson, before some of you were born; and on the BBC by Bertrand Russell, Dylan Thomas and George Orwell. But what does

Professor Alan Baxter from James Cook University in Townsville talks about the complexity of our immune system and how things can go wrong. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: I´ve just recovered from URTI, an upper respiratory tract infection. The chances are that you have too. Half of Australia seems to be coughing and spluttering, and lying prone during the last two weeks. That´s why I sounded a bit like Kamahl on steroids in the last couple of programs. But the point is, how did we recover without thinking about it, yet again? As the great radio doctor, Earle Hackett used to say, `We always re

The CEO of Green Cross Australia, Mara Bun, reports on what will happen if sea levels continue to rise. According to scientists we could experience an 88cm rise by the end of the century if greenhouse emissions keep increasing and this will have catastrophic effects on vast populations globally. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: Today´s talk is about climate and sea-level rise. No, don´t think you´ve heard it all before because this talk is really about you and your concerns about the facts and about the policies that flow from them. You may remember nearly ten years ago there was a consensus con

Nineteen-year-old Sarahjane Thompson is a double degree student at the University of New South Wales and has had a hearing impairment for as long as she can remember. She talks about her experiences living with a hearing disability. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: One of my heroes is called Sir John Cornforth. He´s an Australian who studied at the University of Sydney and went on to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. And he´s deaf. Another is this young woman, now doing two degrees at the University of New South Wales, also without hearing, Sarahjane Thompson. Sarahjane Thompson: It feels a lit

Professor Jane Goodall from the University of Western Sydney is fascinated by the dramatic unpredictability of culture change. Today she focuses on the debates surrounding climate change. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: Did you know that there are two kinds of person on earth? Some are like you think you are: decent, humane, at one with nature, a combination of Noble Savage and Philosopher King or Queen; the other is avaricious, unfailingly acquisitive, money mad and dollar foolish. Trouble is, each one of us can be both. Gordon Gecko or Robin Hood, Ayn Rand or Mary Poppins, which do you think

150 years ago Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace made a joint presentation to the Linnean Society of London of their views on biological evolution. But who was Alfred Wallace? Emeritus Professor Tony Larkum from Sydney University relates the story of this unsung man. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: Next year, 2009, will be the big one for Charles Darwin. 200 years since his birth and the sesquicentenary of his Great Big Book. But there´s also another date, just passed, we should remember, not only for Darwin, but also that other evolutionary hero, Alfred Wallace. Who? Well, let Professor Tony La

Today Richard Begbie from Canberra looks at the environmental cost of air travel. Airplanes add around 750 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year to the atmosphere and in the process burn 250 million tonnes of a non-renewable resource. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: Well I see that National Science Week will soon be upon us. Again. Amazing how it comes around when you think it was on just a few days ago. And today´s talk harks back to the last one, and raises an awkward thought about air travel. Now flying in planes is becoming ever more tricky, not simply because of oxygen cylinders that

Ian Dunlop is Deputy Convener of the Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil and warns that the oil supply will eventually run out and with that and the global warming issue in mind, we need to look for alternatives. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: So the oil price is beginning to fall. At last. But how far, and for how long? Can we really, as The Age reported a few days ago, expect to pay $ 8.00 a litre to fill the car in 10 years´ time? One particularly interesting point of view on this comes from Ian Dunlop, who was an executive in the coal and oil industries for many years and in

Medical historian Dr Jim Leavesley from Margaret River in Western Australia, talks about Dr W.G. Grace, medicine's greatest gift to cricket, whose last match was in 1908 when he was 59 years old. Apparently he was much better at cricket than at medicine. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: What is wrong with English sport? Apart from everything? They invented soccer, but can´t manage to reach the European Cup, at all; their cricket is abysmal, despite the talents of their South Africans and Indians; and as for the Olympics, they try to win by using lawyers to turf other nationals such as Australian

In October 2004 a new species of hominin, less scientifically called The Hobbit, was discovered on the island of Flores in Indonesie. Today PhD candidate Debbie Argue from the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra discusses the controversy that erupted after this discovery was announced. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: It was just four years ago. That´s when a team of scientists from Australia and Indonesia announced something almost unbelievable: that a new kind of human being, a fossil, had been found on the island of Flores, quite close to u

Are we born with a sense of good and evil? Science writer Tim Dean reports on findings made by an increasing number of scientists. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: Why be nice? Why not be nasty? In a vicious world isn´t it best to look after No.1? Well, one of the best books on the science of being nice was written by Matt Ridley a few years ago, The Origins of Virtue. Great stuff. Unfortunately the landed Ridley had to resign a year ago or so from the board of the finance company Northern Rock, as it fell apart. So let´s stick to the philosophy. That´s been the interest of Tim Dean, in an acad

Melbourne writer Rosaleen Love has some suggestions on how to clear the clutter in our mind space. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: Do you find it surprising that some of our best-selling books these days are about cleaning? How to cleanse your liver, or Spotless, brought out by the ABC that last one, how to clean your kitchen, they´re selling by the shed-load. Well how about a book on cleaning your brain, and I don´t mean just the dirty bits; it´s all those niggles and nags that clutter the mind space. How might that be done? Well Rosaleen Love has a few tips. So take notes if you can. Rosal

There have been many reports into the state of school science over the last decades. However, former President of the Australian Science Teachers Association Ruth Dircks says that despite these reports and recommendations nothing has been achieved and she has some suggestions of her own. TRANSCRIPT: Robyn Williams: Way back in the beginning of the 1990s the Minister for Science was a former teacher called Ross Free. Bob Hawke was the Prime Minister at the time. Ross Free commissioned a report on how the Australian society in its various forms viewed science. It became known as the Nerds and