Heroes, zeroes and who deserves a statue - The COVID Conversation

Meet the inventor of an amazing implant that delivers some independence to people paralysed by conditions such as Motor Neuron Disease. Also this episode: the cancer-like growth of cyber-squatting and how to protect yourself against it; and a new lighting system in a neo-natal unit that keeps the doctors awake at night, and the babies happily asleep. Plus, how obesity works against the brain’s ability to heal itself.

News media here and abroad have reported – or fretted by way of speculation – that our children, who have spent months remote-learning, have been falling so woefully behind, it’s going to affect them for the rest of their lives. It’s a disaster. Is that true? This episode we're asking three experts to put the COVID impact on families and on learning into some perspective. We ask: to what extent do parents, teachers and children need to manage their expectations of one another and of themselves? With the end of the school year looming, this is a timely investigation.

Most women under 30 think there is a vaccine for ovarian cancer, and there is not. A Melbourne chemistry researcher tells how some energy drinks contain high levels of a carcinogenic agent: it’s turning up by accident as a by-product of the manufacturing process and until now the makers were probably unaware it was happening. An even stranger tale is that of the ghost of an exploding star that has been haunting earth for 33,000 years. Meet the bird that saves its biggest songs for the full moon. Find out why women are clamming up about their birth experiences. And ponder how technology is changing the social dynamic of mental health care because of COVID-19.

In the latest episode of our health and science podcast, we learn why our sun might have a long, lost evil twin. AI technology under development that can predict violent attacks on women. An Australian company's innovative bid to transform heart valve technology. God brought to life as an algorithm. And more.

In the latest episode of our health and science podcast, we learn why seahorses need a big dance floor, how jealousy in our friendships helps keep society together, why drinking water might hold the key to lowering the suicide rate, some vitamin news, why the stockmarket thrives while the real world does not, and we meet the Australian scientists who are developing an insurance policy in case a COVID-19 vaccine is slow in coming.