Catalyst

Thursday, 20 November 2008
8.00pm

Dr Alice Roberts' intimate tour of the human body continues with this practical guide on how all of our organs work in unison.

Thursday, 13 November 2008
8.00pm

How do our 'stone-age bodies' work and deal with the challenges of modern life?
Young English doctor and anatomist Dr Alice Roberts continues her intimate tour of the human body, revealing how to keep our bodies working at peak performance. This week, she looks at the hidden structure of our bodies - the bones, muscles and joints - that account for more than half of all reported pain.

Thursday, 06 November 2008 08:00pm

A natural history special: The rapid decline of reef fish stocks in Asia; the secret life of Australia's ladybeetles; and some surprising facts about seahorses.

From Bait to Plate

Thursday, 30 October 2008 08:00pm

Marijuana Madness - The Verdict
Can marijuana send you mad? In the 1970s cannabis was presented as being cool and a harmless lifestyle herb. But the data of a new scientific study seems to suggest that cannabis causes psychosis, and scientists can even tell you how it does and who is most at risk.

Test Tube Sharks

Thursday, 23 October 2008 08:00pm

The Tuberculosis Resurgence
New and deadly forms of Tuberculosis are threatening Australia. The deadliest of them all is a strain called XDR-TB (extensively drug resistant TB). One person inflicted with this terrible bacterium has already been found in Australia, and doctors fear it won't be the last. Potentially deadly, TB is an insidious disease which has been present in humans for at least 10,000 years, but failure to adequately treat this ancient bacterium has allowed it to mutate into a virulent strain. Dr. Maryanne Demasi travels to the north of Australia to meet a doctor dealing with the problem on the frontline.

Attack Of The Heavy Metal Invaders

Thursday, 16 October 2008 08:00pm

CHEMICAL WHALES

Thursday, 09 October 2008 08:00pm

GAMBLING
The modern 'pokie' bears only a passing resemblance to the one-armed bandits of the past. Entire teams now work on the design, music and features of poker machines, to make what is a very slim chance of winning a large jackpot, seem tantalisingly close. However, even when punters know they're more likely to lose than win, they often continue to play, but why? Dr Graham Phillips goes in search of what makes someone think they can beat the odds and finds a gambler who lost $350,000 on the pokies. He meets a psychologist who is researching how things like arousal and the size of crowds in gaming venues can affect our brains. And he finds out what's being done to help people stop gambling.

TASMANIAN TIGER MOUSE

Thursday, 11 September 2008
08:00pm

Catalyst presents a unique television event, crossing to the International Space Station for a chat with a NASA astronaut in residence on the International Space Station.

Millennium Seeds
On 31 May this year, the Space Shuttle Discovery was launched with four very Australian seed types on board as part of an experiment by NSW Botanic Gardens Trust and NASA. The Millennium Seed Bank Project, based in the UK, is exploring the possibilities of 'seedbanking' and germination of the earth's staple foods like rice and wheat on other planets in the case of global warming. Paul Willis catches up with scientists from the NSW Seedbank to find out why samples of our nation's flora have been exposed to extra-terrestrial conditions.

Space Retrospective

Thursday, 04 September 2008
08:00pm

WHAT MAKES YOUR BODY CLOCK TICK?
Inside every one of us is a cellular time keeper, managing waking, sleeping, metabolism, mood - even the firmness of our handshake. We evolved as slaves to a 24 hour rhythm. So what happens when the body clock comes unsprung? Is bipolar disorder caused by a faulty ticker? And working against the clock, in shift work, has been linked to diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Striking new discoveries about the workings of the body clock are starting to explain how shift work makes people sick. Jonica Newby investigates.

THE BIGGEST SQUID

Thursday, 28 August 2008
08:00pm

A Brilliant Young Mind - The World of Asperger's
On Catalyst tonight, meet an extraordinary young man who's highly gifted mathematically but really struggles with his people skills. He has Asperger's syndrome - a newly understood form of autism, which is thought to have been shared by some of the world's great thinkers - like Albert Einstein and George Washington. But what causes it? One Cambridge scientist thinks he has the answer - and his theory is highly controversial. Jonica Newby travels to the UK to investigate.

Emu Bay Fauna

Thursday, 21 August 2008
08:00pm

BACKYARD SCIENTISTS
We often hear about Australia's contribution to scientific research, but what about the amateur scientists? Catalyst meets a backyard astronomer from Broken Hill who has achieved a feat which even NASA could not, and a Queensland grain and beef farmer whose interest in fossils led to the discovery of rare Pleistocene specimens on the Darling Downs, and has now had a species- the Perameles sobbei - named after him.

THE SHINE DOME - NOT JUST A FLYING SAUCER
Each year hundreds of Australia's top scientists gather in Canberra to celebrate Australian science at the Shine Dome, the headquarters for the Australian Academy of Science. At the very heart of the nation's scientific community and home to the most celebrated scientists in Australia, the ABC's very own Robyn Williams will take you inside this elite club for an intimate tour.

AUSTRALIA'S TOP SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS

Thursday, 31 July
8.00pm

The Winning Edge
In terms of population, Australia is a relatively small country. Yet when it comes to our Olympic sportsmen and women, we punch amazingly well above our weight. Australia's real secret weapon is the quality of our scientists at the Australian Institute of Sport. AIS Director, Peter Fricker, says "the scientists really are the unsung heroes". When 0.1% in performance can make the difference between first and last he believes, "there's a real sense of our scientists that they really have contributed to a gold medal performance". Jonica Newby goes behind the scenes at the AIS, getting rare access to view the winning formulas our sports scientists have been concocting for two of Australia's Olympic athletes.

Doping for Gold

Thursday, 24 July
8.00pm

In series 2 of Don't Die Young hip young English doctor and anatomist Dr Alice Roberts returns with this user's guide to our essential organs, and takes a closer look at how the organs deal with the challenges of modern life, and what we can do to look after them.

In episode five, it's the turn of the ear, nose and throat.
First, Alice dons a pair of specially designed headphones to simulate deafness, and attempts to carry on daily life as normal - discovering just how difficult it is to live with hearing loss as she struggles to order a drink at a bar and do some clothes shopping.

Thursday, 17 July
8.00pm

In series 2 of Don't Die Young hip young English doctor and anatomist Dr Alice Roberts returns with this user's guide to our essential organs, and takes a closer look at how the organs deal with the challenges of modern life, and what we can do to look after them.

In episode four, Dr Alice gets to see inside her own stomach by swallowing a tiny camera - one of the latest diagnostic tools in modern medicine. The pictures recorded reveal that she is an anatomical curiosity - a fact which makes her, as an anatomist, quite proud! Using dissection, drawing and an intestinal race involving sweet corn and a stop watch we find where the stomach and intestines are, how big they are and how best to look after them - and exactly what difference it makes to your bowels to eat healthily! Since bowel cancer is the second most common cause of death from cancer, it's a message we all need to hear.

Thursday, 17 July
8.00pm

In series 2 of Don't Die Young hip young English doctor and anatomist Dr Alice Roberts returns with this user's guide to our essential organs, and takes a closer look at how the organs deal with the challenges of modern life, and what we can do to look after them.

In episode four, Dr Alice gets to see inside her own stomach by swallowing a tiny camera - one of the latest diagnostic tools in modern medicine. The pictures recorded reveal that she is an anatomical curiosity - a fact which makes her, as an anatomist, quite proud! Using dissection, drawing and an intestinal race involving sweet corn and a stop watch we find where the stomach and intestines are, how big they are and how best to look after them - and exactly what difference it makes to your bowels to eat healthily! Since bowel cancer is the second most common cause of death from cancer, it's a message we all need to hear.