National Science Week 2025

We all know that little surge of delight that comes with the latest purchase. That nifty gizmo that will make your life better. But a week later, it's sitting in your kitchen drawer, forgotten along with the other gizmos. Such are the days of our lives, one purchase after another. But does it matter? Or are we condemning ourselves to disastisfaction, the endless spending, consuming the Earth's finite resources? This is one of the many questions in our lively discussion today with Richard Denniss, director of The Australia Institute. Richard is the author of Curing Affluenza which probes the modern addiction to spending. You can pick up a 25% discount on this and other books on TAI website using code ‘curing’.

To keep our precious native animals, we need to know where they are. We can focus our efforts on saving their habitats and maybe even restoring degraded ones. ACT government's Natural Resource Management works with energetic people in the commuity who love platypus. We have the beautiful rakali, more an otter than the unworthy label 'water rat' suggests. And lurking in the mud are the common yabby, the less glamorous but tireless workers in the ecosystem. In this interview Daniel Harris-Pascal shows his affection for those things that live in our waterways, and why the citizen science projects are so important. Daniel is Citizen Science Facilitator with ACT Natural Resource Management. There's plenty going on if you want to see for yourself: Platypus Month - Waterwatch Upper Murrumbidgee Waterwatch

Syban has fled persecution in Indonesia for peaceful expression of his beliefs. Seeking safe haven in Australia he has, very disappointingly, continued to experience discrimination with the Queensland Road safety authority ruling his drivers licence invalid due to the fact his photo features him wearing a spaghetti colander on his head. He says this is an item of religious head wear and he should be treated equally to other wearers of religious garments in drivers licence photos.

Under the weight of population growth, cities are spilling their borders. In Canberra, that means spawl, placing pressure on precious habitats. In these interviews we learned that the city now covers an area equivalent to greater London, but with a fraction of the population.It begs the question of how that affects the environment and the liveability of Canberra. The Conservation Council organised this protest to pressure the ACT government into drawing boundary that protects areas to the west of the city. They are hosting a documentary on this issue, 12 May at the National Film and Sound Archive. https://conservationcouncil.org.au/event/premiere-screening-on-the-edge/

With ever growing pressures on the environment, caring for our land is become urgent. In this interview with Rod, Tom Baker from Landcare gives a sense of the breadth of work that organisation performs. There are a few ways to get involved: