National Science Week with Dr Karl - Sun 10 August - Newcastle Conservatorium of Music
Looking Ahead Lecture | National Science Week with Dr Karl
When
Sun 10 August 4 pm
Where Newcastle Conservatorium of Music
Get Directions
Join Dr Karl for this free event as part of the University of Newcastle's Looking Ahead Lecture and to help us celebrate National Science Week 2025!
The University of Newcastle is thrilled to welcome Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki for an unforgettable keynote lecture where he will delve into the weird, wonderful, and mind-blowing world of science.
This exciting event will also feature short presentations from researchers at the University of Newcastle, followed by an engaging Q&A session.
Don't miss this opportunity to celebrate all things science with us. We look forward to seeing you there!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
Lab Notes: The native ants that take down cane toads
Belinda Smith: It's National Science Week. And this year ABC Science is celebrating the slimy, bitey and downright bizarre creatures that never get featured on postcards. We're shining a spotlight on our underrated animals. And as far as I'm concerned, one of the most underrated creatures is the meat ant. When I was a kid growing up in Western Victoria, I'd often see bird or lizard carcasses absolutely crawling with meat ants, their bones being picked completely clean. Look, I know, meat ants don't sound like the most endearing creatures. But it turns out they're not just aggressive, flesh-tearing fighters. They're also farmers, architects and the best bit of all, cane-toed exterminators. Hi, I'm Belinda Smith and you're listening to Lab Notes, the ABC Radio National show that dissects the science behind new discoveries and current events. To help me convince you that meat ants are underrated is Peter Yeeles, an entomologist and ecologist at James Cook University. Alright, first things first, what are meat ants? Peter Yeeles: Yeah, so meat ants, they're only found here in Australia and only on the mainland. They're not on Tasmania. They're quite a large ant, so sort of depending on the species, they range from about 8 to 12 millimetres. And it's a species complex, so it's actually made up of between six and seven species, depending on who you speak to. But the majority of meat ants that people will see, especially in the southern part of the country, is a species called Iridomyrmex purpureus. Belinda Smith: Yeah, Iridomyrmex means rainbow ant, doesn't it? And purpureus means purple, which is really descriptive of what the ant looks like. Peter Yeeles: Yeah, yeah. So if you look at them from a distance, they just sort of look like a generic large ant with a bit of red and a bit of black. But if you look at them closely, you can see that they're sort of red on their thorax and head. They've got this amazing blue iridescence, which gives them, in combination with that red, this beautiful purple look. Belinda Smith: And they've also got some quite fearsome looking jaws on Peter Yeeles: them too. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. They don't have a sting, so instead of having a sting, they can spray chemicals as a defence. And they have large jaws, which they can use to defend themselves, their colony and also for processing food. Belinda Smith: Right, OK, the meat ant sounds more like a dinosaur and less like an ant. Are they as aggressive as I'm imagining? Peter Yeeles: They're super aggressive. They're very dominant within most of the ecosystems that they can be found in, very competitive. They get their name meat ant from their sort of propensity to strip vertebrate carcasses of meat. And even farmers used to drop dead farm animals near a meat ant nest and they'd clean it up for them. Belinda Smith: Real clean-up crew, sort of like a forensics team almost. Yeah, yeah, exactly. In a kind of grim way. So do they only eat meat? Peter Yeeles: No, so they are quite generalist in terms of what they consume. So the colony is sort of divided into two main components. You've got the worker ants, which are the ones that you see. And then back held in the colony, you've got lots of larvae. So they're the baby ants essentially. And the baby ants need lots of protein. So they consume the sort of the dead insects and things that the workers bring back and the carrion, the meat. While the worker ants primarily feed on carbohydrates, so sugars. And they get those from flowers and from tending bugs, hemipterans and aphids and things like that up in the tree canopy. Belinda Smith: Yeah, meat ants are farmers. And they're livestock are special sugar-producing insects. Peter Yeeles: They're called hemipterans or bugs, we call them bugs. They drink tree sap. So they'll sit on trees and on plants and they've got a long proboscis that they'll use to drink tree sap. But tree sap has lots of sugar in it compared to what the bugs actually need. They only need a little bit of sugar. So they sort of concentrate and expel the excess tree sap. And we call it honeydew. And ants absolutely love honeydew. So they have learned to essentially farm the hemipterans. There are species of ants that will move them around to find the best place on the plant to get the sap. They'll defend them from predators. There are even some when the queen has a mating flight, will carry a hemipteran with her for when she founds her new colony so they've already got hemipterans to start off with. Belinda Smith: Meat ants also like to feast on seeds, which is mutually beneficial for the plants and the ants. So some Peter Yeeles: seeds have like this fatty growth on it called an eliosome, which is part of the seed. But these plants have evolved to have this eliosome larger and fattier than on other plant species. And they do that to attract ants. So meat ants, for example, will pick up the seed because it's got this fatty body and they'll take it back to consume it. They'll eat the fatty body, but they don't eat the seed. The seed's got the very hard seed coat so it's not edible to the ants. So once they've eaten that fatty eliosome, they'll dispose of the seed, usually in like a garbage heap essentially, just outside the nest, and disperse that seed for the plant away from its parent. Belinda Smith: When I think of meat ants, I tend to think of their nests. They're just these beautiful rounded domes cleared of most stuff. But how big can they get? I imagine we're only just sort of seeing a tiny proportion of what a meat ant colony would look like from the surface. They Peter Yeeles: can be relatively deep, sort of up to a couple of metres, but generally their size is sort of laid out over the landscape. So most meat ants are what we call polydomous. So they'll have one queen usually, and she's held in one central nest. And then radiating out from that nest will be sort of a network of cleared pathways which have satellite nests. So they'll have multiple nests for that one colony, for that one queen. And they can be spread out over quite a large distance as well. So there's plenty of records of meat ant colonies with a series of nests that stretch over half a kilometre across. Oh my gosh. They can be quite large. They travel quite a long way as well when they're sort of foraging. So we've seen them in Western Australia travelling well over 100, 120 metres just to get food. So they can spread quite a long way from that central nest. Belinda Smith: Now are meat ants dangerous to humans or just occasionally annoying? Peter Yeeles: Yeah, they're not really dangerous, but they're just a nuisance. So often when you go camping or something like that, if you accidentally put your tent near a meat ant mound, it's pretty miserable, and I think you'd end up having to move. They've got quite a nasty bite, especially when they're very numerous and they're crawling up your legs. And Belinda Smith: they certainly know how to track down food. Peter Yeeles: They're very efficient foragers, so they'll be spreading out from those central place nests quite a long distance looking for food. And when they find food, they'll travel back to their nest, leaving a pheromone trail, which all of the nest mates will then follow back to the food to consume it as quickly as they can. Belinda Smith: This voracious foraging isn't limited to native food sources. They attack invaders too. I Peter Yeeles: think probably the most famous one would be meat ants interacting with cane toads. So some researchers at the University of Sydney found that meat ants were able to kill and consume young cane toads, which are obviously quite poisonous to most other animals that try to eat them. They found that meat ants consumed these baby cane toads, and there has been some research into looking at how those meat ants could be utilised to try and control cane toads when they're in very high densities, high populations, potentially moving meat ants to around billabongs and waterholes where the cane toads lay their spawn. Belinda Smith: How fascinating. So meat ants just don't... They're not affected by the cane toad poison at all? Peter Yeeles: No, I'm not actually aware of the mechanism. I don't know whether it's that they consume parts of the cane toad which aren't toxic, or whether they're just immune to that toxin, I'm not sure. Belinda Smith: So could the meat ant be a practical solution to a cane toad problem? Peter Yeeles: I think that the challenge involved in utilising meat ants as a control for cane toads is primarily going to be associated with moving and manipulating the locations of the ants. It's quite difficult to move ant colonies around and then have them established because they'd be moving into communities which are already established. Belinda Smith: Are you aware of any trials or any results that might have come out of...? Peter Yeeles: I'm not aware of whether that's been successful yet or not. Yeah, that's Rick Shine and Georgia Ward-Fears' work. It'll be very interesting to see though. Belinda Smith: Where does the meat ant rate in terms of your favourite ant species? Peter Yeeles: I'd probably be pretty high. I guess I'm fascinated by ants that have these abilities to influence and change the habitats that they live in. So meat ants are definitely one of those. Belinda Smith: And meat ants are definitely underrated, that's very clear. Peter Yeeles: Ants in general, they're one of the most ecologically important animals that we have. There was a famous entomologist in America who once said that if you were to remove all of the birds and mammals, many communities would continue functioning pretty much as they are now. But if you were to remove all of the ants, you'd see these sort of broad scale changes to how those communities function. Belinda Smith: That was Peter Yeeles, an entomologist and ecologist at James Cook University. And thank you for listening to Lab Notes on ABC Radio National, where every week we dissect the science behind new discoveries and current events. I'm Belinda Smith. This episode was produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Menang Noongar people. Fiona Pepper's the producer, and it was mixed by Ross Richardson. Catch you next week.
The Advertiser
2 days ago
- The Advertiser
'Great results': how a locally-developed solution could improve IVF success
A method to store sperm for horse reproduction could be used in humans to boost IVF and the declining fertility rate. Hunter Medical Research Institute's Dr Aleona Swegen said about 75 per cent of IVF cycles "fail to result in pregnancy". Dr Swegen said the sperm storage method, developed in Newcastle, which involves a nutrient-rich liquid that enables semen to live for up to a fortnight outside the body and without the need to be frozen, could "significantly improve the success rate of IVF". She said technologies such as IVF and artificial insemination had "advanced significantly over the past decades". "However, only one-third of couples who undergo these cycles have been able to achieve live births. Fertility treatments remain relatively ineffective." The method, named SpermSafe, could improve DNA integrity and "reduce the likelihood of developmental and childhood disease in offspring conceived by IVF". Dr Swegen said this could "reduce the disease burden in the next generation" and ease the consequences of a falling fertility rate. The method was developed over the last decade "in response to equine industry demand", mainly from the harness racing industry. Artificial insemination isn't allowed in Australia's thoroughbred horse racing industry, but it is allowed in harness racing. "We are seeing great results from the equine industry with this new storage medium," Dr Swegen said. Last month, she and co-founder Dr Zamira Gibb launched Newcastle Fertility Solutions, a biotech company that will upscale production of SpermSafe. "The innovation program has hastened our ability to commercialise this product," Dr Swegen said. The Newcastle Herald reported in 2019 that a horse named Tinsel was the first foal to be born using the sperm system. "She is doing well, all grown up and a rather handsome dressage horse," Dr Swegen said. As of now, SpermSafe is "being used around the world". "Hundreds of foals have been bred with it," she said. "We have been working under the University of Newcastle banner and collaborating with other universities, clinicians and breeders around the world." They've been trialling various applications, including "ambient temperature shipping for artificial insemination, thawing cryopreserved sperm and IVF". She said big advances had been made in fertility for livestock and horses, with the Hunter known for its prowess in the field. "One of the benefits of working with the University of Newcastle is the state of the art equipment and expert teams," she said. She was thankful to the university for helping to commercialise SpermSafe. She said the Newcastle Permanent Innovation Program, run at HMRI, was "supporting us to explore applications in human reproductive biotech". "The priority is to see how this technology could benefit people who are seeking IVF treatment," she said. She said SpermSafe was "non-invasive technology that can yield immediate results". However, human research was "still at an early stage". "We have some promising pilot data showing we can dramatically reduce DNA damage and improve motility in human sperm," she said. "We're now looking for partners and funding, particularly in the Hunter and Newcastle region, but also internationally." The SpermSafe technology could work for humans "as a handling and holding medium for sperm". "This could improve sperm parameters in low quality samples, which are quite common. "It may also support at-home sperm testing kits, which are becoming increasingly popular." A method to store sperm for horse reproduction could be used in humans to boost IVF and the declining fertility rate. Hunter Medical Research Institute's Dr Aleona Swegen said about 75 per cent of IVF cycles "fail to result in pregnancy". Dr Swegen said the sperm storage method, developed in Newcastle, which involves a nutrient-rich liquid that enables semen to live for up to a fortnight outside the body and without the need to be frozen, could "significantly improve the success rate of IVF". She said technologies such as IVF and artificial insemination had "advanced significantly over the past decades". "However, only one-third of couples who undergo these cycles have been able to achieve live births. Fertility treatments remain relatively ineffective." The method, named SpermSafe, could improve DNA integrity and "reduce the likelihood of developmental and childhood disease in offspring conceived by IVF". Dr Swegen said this could "reduce the disease burden in the next generation" and ease the consequences of a falling fertility rate. The method was developed over the last decade "in response to equine industry demand", mainly from the harness racing industry. Artificial insemination isn't allowed in Australia's thoroughbred horse racing industry, but it is allowed in harness racing. "We are seeing great results from the equine industry with this new storage medium," Dr Swegen said. Last month, she and co-founder Dr Zamira Gibb launched Newcastle Fertility Solutions, a biotech company that will upscale production of SpermSafe. "The innovation program has hastened our ability to commercialise this product," Dr Swegen said. The Newcastle Herald reported in 2019 that a horse named Tinsel was the first foal to be born using the sperm system. "She is doing well, all grown up and a rather handsome dressage horse," Dr Swegen said. As of now, SpermSafe is "being used around the world". "Hundreds of foals have been bred with it," she said. "We have been working under the University of Newcastle banner and collaborating with other universities, clinicians and breeders around the world." They've been trialling various applications, including "ambient temperature shipping for artificial insemination, thawing cryopreserved sperm and IVF". She said big advances had been made in fertility for livestock and horses, with the Hunter known for its prowess in the field. "One of the benefits of working with the University of Newcastle is the state of the art equipment and expert teams," she said. She was thankful to the university for helping to commercialise SpermSafe. She said the Newcastle Permanent Innovation Program, run at HMRI, was "supporting us to explore applications in human reproductive biotech". "The priority is to see how this technology could benefit people who are seeking IVF treatment," she said. She said SpermSafe was "non-invasive technology that can yield immediate results". However, human research was "still at an early stage". "We have some promising pilot data showing we can dramatically reduce DNA damage and improve motility in human sperm," she said. "We're now looking for partners and funding, particularly in the Hunter and Newcastle region, but also internationally." The SpermSafe technology could work for humans "as a handling and holding medium for sperm". "This could improve sperm parameters in low quality samples, which are quite common. "It may also support at-home sperm testing kits, which are becoming increasingly popular." A method to store sperm for horse reproduction could be used in humans to boost IVF and the declining fertility rate. Hunter Medical Research Institute's Dr Aleona Swegen said about 75 per cent of IVF cycles "fail to result in pregnancy". Dr Swegen said the sperm storage method, developed in Newcastle, which involves a nutrient-rich liquid that enables semen to live for up to a fortnight outside the body and without the need to be frozen, could "significantly improve the success rate of IVF". She said technologies such as IVF and artificial insemination had "advanced significantly over the past decades". "However, only one-third of couples who undergo these cycles have been able to achieve live births. Fertility treatments remain relatively ineffective." The method, named SpermSafe, could improve DNA integrity and "reduce the likelihood of developmental and childhood disease in offspring conceived by IVF". Dr Swegen said this could "reduce the disease burden in the next generation" and ease the consequences of a falling fertility rate. The method was developed over the last decade "in response to equine industry demand", mainly from the harness racing industry. Artificial insemination isn't allowed in Australia's thoroughbred horse racing industry, but it is allowed in harness racing. "We are seeing great results from the equine industry with this new storage medium," Dr Swegen said. Last month, she and co-founder Dr Zamira Gibb launched Newcastle Fertility Solutions, a biotech company that will upscale production of SpermSafe. "The innovation program has hastened our ability to commercialise this product," Dr Swegen said. The Newcastle Herald reported in 2019 that a horse named Tinsel was the first foal to be born using the sperm system. "She is doing well, all grown up and a rather handsome dressage horse," Dr Swegen said. As of now, SpermSafe is "being used around the world". "Hundreds of foals have been bred with it," she said. "We have been working under the University of Newcastle banner and collaborating with other universities, clinicians and breeders around the world." They've been trialling various applications, including "ambient temperature shipping for artificial insemination, thawing cryopreserved sperm and IVF". She said big advances had been made in fertility for livestock and horses, with the Hunter known for its prowess in the field. "One of the benefits of working with the University of Newcastle is the state of the art equipment and expert teams," she said. She was thankful to the university for helping to commercialise SpermSafe. She said the Newcastle Permanent Innovation Program, run at HMRI, was "supporting us to explore applications in human reproductive biotech". "The priority is to see how this technology could benefit people who are seeking IVF treatment," she said. She said SpermSafe was "non-invasive technology that can yield immediate results". However, human research was "still at an early stage". "We have some promising pilot data showing we can dramatically reduce DNA damage and improve motility in human sperm," she said. "We're now looking for partners and funding, particularly in the Hunter and Newcastle region, but also internationally." The SpermSafe technology could work for humans "as a handling and holding medium for sperm". "This could improve sperm parameters in low quality samples, which are quite common. "It may also support at-home sperm testing kits, which are becoming increasingly popular." A method to store sperm for horse reproduction could be used in humans to boost IVF and the declining fertility rate. Hunter Medical Research Institute's Dr Aleona Swegen said about 75 per cent of IVF cycles "fail to result in pregnancy". Dr Swegen said the sperm storage method, developed in Newcastle, which involves a nutrient-rich liquid that enables semen to live for up to a fortnight outside the body and without the need to be frozen, could "significantly improve the success rate of IVF". She said technologies such as IVF and artificial insemination had "advanced significantly over the past decades". "However, only one-third of couples who undergo these cycles have been able to achieve live births. Fertility treatments remain relatively ineffective." The method, named SpermSafe, could improve DNA integrity and "reduce the likelihood of developmental and childhood disease in offspring conceived by IVF". Dr Swegen said this could "reduce the disease burden in the next generation" and ease the consequences of a falling fertility rate. The method was developed over the last decade "in response to equine industry demand", mainly from the harness racing industry. Artificial insemination isn't allowed in Australia's thoroughbred horse racing industry, but it is allowed in harness racing. "We are seeing great results from the equine industry with this new storage medium," Dr Swegen said. Last month, she and co-founder Dr Zamira Gibb launched Newcastle Fertility Solutions, a biotech company that will upscale production of SpermSafe. "The innovation program has hastened our ability to commercialise this product," Dr Swegen said. The Newcastle Herald reported in 2019 that a horse named Tinsel was the first foal to be born using the sperm system. "She is doing well, all grown up and a rather handsome dressage horse," Dr Swegen said. As of now, SpermSafe is "being used around the world". "Hundreds of foals have been bred with it," she said. "We have been working under the University of Newcastle banner and collaborating with other universities, clinicians and breeders around the world." They've been trialling various applications, including "ambient temperature shipping for artificial insemination, thawing cryopreserved sperm and IVF". She said big advances had been made in fertility for livestock and horses, with the Hunter known for its prowess in the field. "One of the benefits of working with the University of Newcastle is the state of the art equipment and expert teams," she said. She was thankful to the university for helping to commercialise SpermSafe. She said the Newcastle Permanent Innovation Program, run at HMRI, was "supporting us to explore applications in human reproductive biotech". "The priority is to see how this technology could benefit people who are seeking IVF treatment," she said. She said SpermSafe was "non-invasive technology that can yield immediate results". However, human research was "still at an early stage". "We have some promising pilot data showing we can dramatically reduce DNA damage and improve motility in human sperm," she said. "We're now looking for partners and funding, particularly in the Hunter and Newcastle region, but also internationally." The SpermSafe technology could work for humans "as a handling and holding medium for sperm". "This could improve sperm parameters in low quality samples, which are quite common. "It may also support at-home sperm testing kits, which are becoming increasingly popular."
ABC News
5 days ago
- ABC News
Chit Chat: Dr Karl on the weirdest question he's ever been asked, cool shirts and his live show
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki has dedicated the majority of his life to answering our weirdest scientific questions with infectious enthusiasm and wildly accessible explanations of exceedingly complex concepts. But how much do we really know about the man himself? As part of Science Week, triple j is taking Dr Karl's Science Hour out of the studio for the first time in its 48-year run, with a live show at the Enmore Theatre in Eora/Sydney on August 11. Of course, ABC Entertainment took this opportunity to sit down with the veteran science broadcaster and ask him a bunch of personal questions. Read on to find out how Karl Kruszelnicki became Dr Karl, the strangest question he's ever been asked and what audiences should expect from Science with Dr Karl Live. But also so much more — prepare yourself. I was coming home from primary school and it was a really hot day and the bitumen was wet and sticky on the road and we'd been taught at school about how black absorbs heat and how plants do this photosynthesis and absorb sunlight. I thought, "Well, if black absorbs the Sun's energy really well, how come plants are green and not black?" That was my first science question ever. In 1981, I was very interested in NASA's Space Shuttle program. I'd been following it for many years and I knew a lot about it, so I thought, "Bugger it, I'll apply," and I wrote a letter to NASA saying, "Dear NASA, my name is Karl. I'm a fit young bloke, I can run a City to Surf, I do martial arts. I've got a degree in maths and physics, a master's in biomedical engineering, and soon I'll have a degree in medicine and a degree in surgery, can I be an astronaut? Yours truly, Karl." And they sent me a letter back saying, "No, we're full up, and anyway, we only employ Americans." I've still got that letter. But then I heard triple j was doing a show on the launch of the Space Shuttle … So I rang up and said I'd applied to be an astronaut on the Space Shuttle program and I knew a lot about it, and did they want me to come in and talk about it? And they said, "Sure, come in." I was out the back afterwards having a cup of hippie tea with [journalist and former triple j broadcaster] Tony Barrow, and he said, "Gee, I really need this tea to clean my kidneys." And I said, "Look, I'm sorry to disagree with you, but in fact it's the other way around. Your kidneys clean the tea out of your blood. "You see, your kidneys filter around 200 kilograms of blood every day, they pull out about half a kilogram of salt at vast metabolic cost, then they put all of this salt back into the blood stream, except for a tiny amount that goes in the urine, and the reason this happens is because God made a mistake and we're fish gone wrong." And he said, "We need you for a new segment. We'll call it 'Great Moments in Science'." Because they've got a sense of curiosity. People want to know why the sky is blue, or why, when you use really fine sandpaper on a hot day and you breathe out, you can see water vapour coming out of your mouth like you would on a cold day. Or — one classic one from the past which is possibly too rude to talk about — a lady rang in and said, "Hi Dr Karl, whenever I have oral sex with my husband and his penis is at the back of my throat, I go temporarily deaf, and I wondered about this, so I asked all my girlfriends to try it with their boyfriends and husbands and it happened to them too. Why?" I think so. Well, firstly, almost certainly this has not been discussed in the medical professional literature, so I had to wing it. But, luckily, I have 28 years of education including 16 years at university for free, because once upon a time the Australian government thought education was a worthwhile investment. So, I started working from first principles. When you're listening to the quietest noise you can possibly hear, your eardrum is vibrating backwards and forwards an incredibly small distance, roughly equal to the diameter of a hydrogen atom. Our eardrums respond to the merest change in pressure. Now, imagine you've got a sheet drying on the clothesline and you peg it at the top and the bottom is just floating free; the merest breath of wind will make it move. Suppose you bolt it to the ground, the wind won't make it move so far. With your eardrum, you've got a pipe leading to the outside world that sometimes you stick a cottonbud down. And then there's also another pipe on the other side of the eardrum going down the back of the throat. That's called the Eustachian canal and it's related to why, when you're flying in an airplane and you're coming down for landing and you've got a blocked ear, you have to swallow to make it go away. Getting back to the penis hitting the back of the throat, it hits the Eustachian tube, shoves some air up there and holds it there. And so you've got a preload on the eardrum, it's bulging out slightly and it's not free to flop and respond to the merest change in pressure like normal because it's being pushed by a fair bit of pressure from the inside. And that's what's happening with going momentarily deaf from oral sex. I made a very romantic marriage proposal. My wife [Mary Dobbie] was in Sydney and I rang her up saying, "Hi, honey, I'm in this cheap hotel in South East Asia about to inject opiates into the buttocks of a young yoga teacher and I know I'm not supposed to inject into the buttocks, but I haven't had any sleep for a couple of days, so can you remind me why and where should I inject instead? And by the way, will you marry me?" And then the line went dead. Well, it was a cheap hotel room in South East Asia. But, anyway, I rang back again and she eventually said yes. Then we had a scientific wedding where we got married inside the Arctic Circle on the longest day of the year, so on that day the sun did not set, and it was a metaphor for how the love would not set on our marriage. Questions from the audience. Plus we'll have lots of people who know stuff. When I'm live on air I'll often say, "I can give you a bit of an answer but really, what we need is a canine endocrinologist." With a bit of luck, we'll have lots of those in the audience. And we'll have a few surprise little videos as well. So, it'll be a mixture of [questions] driven by the audience, plus listening to the audience give their answers, plus a few funny things I can't share because we want to keep the element of surprise. There's a few things going on here. Number one, if you look at a bunch of people going out at night for a bit of fun, in general the female humans have gone to a lot of trouble to dress up and look good and the males have gone to lesser trouble, sometimes even wearing bloody shorts and a T-shirt, God help me. Number two, in general it's kind of accepted in our society that a female person can get away with wearing [as much colour or pattern as they want]. Whereas, the males are kind of stuck with variations of white and blue and brown or black. And third, when I was a kid growing up in Wollongong, I was about 15 and it was a rainy day in winter and I was walking down Crown Street and everyone was dressed in grey and all the faces were sort of uniformly 'blah'. Suddenly, I came around a corner and there was this woman dressed in really bright colours and everyone sort of smiled a little bit when they saw her and I thought, "Wow. If you've got a choice between happy and sad, I prefer happy. And is it that easy to get happy?" And so now I follow the rainbow theory of colour dressing, where I try to wear every single colour of the rainbow at once, every day. Science with Dr Karl Live is on at Enmore Theatre in Eora/Sydney on August 11. Quotes lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
