Robyn Williams

Australia

Science Journalist and Broadcaster at ABC Radio Australia

Presenter at The Science Show - Full Program Podcast

Articles

Celebrating Charles Todd and the overland telegraph

1 week ago | abc.net.au | Robyn Williams

The Australian overland telegraph was a 3,200 km line connecting Port Augusta in South Australia to Darwin. It was completed in 1872 and allowed communication between Australia and the rest of the world. It was one of the great engineering feats of 19th-century Australia and was a significant milestone in the nation’s development. The line was built due to the determination of one man, a government employee, Charles Todd.
Professor Roger Short, reproductive biologist

2 weeks ago | abc.net.au | Robyn Williams

Roger Short was born in Surrey, England in 1930. He studied veterinary science in Bristol, genetics in Wisconsin and attained his PhD in Cambridge UK. After a range of appointments across the UK, he moved to Australia in 1982 to take up a personal chair as professor of reproductive biology in the department of physiology at Monash University. In 1996 Roger became a professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne.
Hang on - we’re about to enter a wormhole! - ABC listen

3 weeks ago | abc.net.au | Robyn Williams

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Black white and green

4 weeks ago | abc.net.au | Robyn Williams

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Mary Somerville - Brilliant polymath, scientific genius triumphed against the odds - ABC listen

1 month ago | abc.net.au | Robyn Williams

In a splendid long room at the Royal Society of London Building near Pall Mall and Buckingham Palace is a row of busts of great scientists. The first in line is of Charles Darwin, then a few more along the line of utter notables is a woman. She looks kind and thoughtful. It is Mary Somerville and her story is staggeringly brilliant.
Evidence of oldest reptiles found in Victoria

1 month ago | abc.net.au | Robyn Williams

* Citizen scientists score major fossil find in Victoria* Marsupial reproduction - one at your feet, one in the pouch and one on standby! * Effects of early life adversity in marmots and humans* Volcano! Another book for children by prize-winning author Claire Saxby* Antibiotic resistance – a surprising new source
Aging halted in fruit flies. How about humans?

1 month ago | abc.net.au | Robyn Williams

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The power of palaeontology

2 months ago | abc.net.au | Robyn Williams

* Science in Australia’s federal election campaign* Feeding coral and how spawning is coordinated* Palaeontology – revealing the past, helping predict the future* Machines identify images and soundsEuan Ritchie: I would think, unfortunately, science has been conspicuous in its absence. I think it's quite distressing and problematic that climate change, the biodiversity decline and extinction crises, which affect all of us in Australia, will affect our economy.
New findings show how genetic mutations drive autoimmunity.

2 months ago | abc.net.au | Robyn Williams

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A new approach for democracy, tracing ancient dead stars and does the soil have a biome?

2 months ago | abc.net.au | Robyn Williams

* Greed has failed us. How about compassion? * Tracing the history of invisible dead stars* How the Golden-fronted Bowerbird was rediscovered * Caring for soil brings great benefit to produce and human healthRobyn Williams: Long ago, Patricia Holmes, granddaughter of Sir Henry Parkes, father of Federation, said this: ‘We must believe in the fundamentals, wearing sandals and eating lentils’. The prescription continues in today's Science Show.