Canberra radio science, from memory research to blackberries.
Fuzzy Logic Science Show comes out of Canberra's 2XX, and its idea of science reaches well past the lab bench: the neuroscience of memory, invasive weeds in native grassland, a rally to protect the city's western edge. Different people front different episodes, and the mood is chatty, curious and quick to laugh.
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Fuzzy Logic Science Show is a science program from 2XX in Canberra, and on air it calls itself 'your science on a Sunday'. The phrase is modest. The range of subjects is not. In 'Remember this', a postdoctoral fellow from the Eccles Institute of Neuroscience at the ANU explains why memories tied to strong emotion stick. Fear comes up as a survival tool, and so does the reward and punishment system that shapes how both people and animals learn. Tara, who is studying for a PhD at the University of Canberra, joins the conversation, and the episode opens on a gag about forgetting which station the show is on. 'Landcare' is earthier. Rod describes years of crossing the country by motorbike, bicycle, car and plane and noticing how little of the land people have left untouched, and the talk moves to St John's wort, blackberries and native grasslands in trouble. The detail is practical: a weed site has to be revisited for years, and a blackberry thicket can sometimes be habitat worth leaving alone. Some episodes leave the studio. 'Saving the Western Edge' is recorded at a rally outside the ACT Legislative Assembly. Simon Copland of the Conservation Council of the ACT region explains what is at stake for endangered woodland, while rally-goers Helen and Linda talk about urban sprawl, morning walks on Coolaman Ridge and the future they want for their children. 'What makes a radio station?' is recorded in a paddock near the Barton Highway, at the site of the transmitter where 2XX began in 1976. There, one of the station's early technicians recalls a 1983 split, nicknamed 'World War III', after which some of those who left went on to form Artsound. Civic life is fair game too. Syaban Shadikillah, an Indonesian campaigner for science and freedom of expression, describes fleeing persecution, receiving death threats online, and having a Queensland driver's licence ruled invalid because his photo shows the colander he wears as a follower of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Tom Street leads that interview warmly, and it closes on a plea for individual freedom whatever a person's politics or religion. National Science Week also gets an episode of its own. In the preview, Camille and Rod Taylor pack the studio with an associate professor from the ANU, a co-president of Robo Girls in the ACT and the director of the BOLD Festival, all of them lined up to present during the August event. The voice changes with whoever is fronting an episode, but every one stays friendly and loose. For a first listen, 'Remember this' shows the studio side of the show, and 'What makes a radio station?' shows its habit of taking the microphone out into the field. Behind those two sits a large archive that is worth browsing by subject.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants science rooted in a particular place: a neuroscience chat one week, weed control or a conservation rally the next. It also suits someone happy to let the conversation wander into free expression, local politics and the history of a radio station.
What sets it apart: It treats Canberra as its beat, taking the microphone to a rally outside the ACT Legislative Assembly and to the paddock where 2XX's first transmitter stood. Land care, civil liberties and the station's own past all count as science-show material.
Get your science on Fuzzy Logic Science Show from Canberra’s Radio 2xx, 98.3fm
Pavlov's dogs one day, blackberry thickets another: your curiosity can leave its itinerary at home.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A driver's license fight turns a satirical faith into a pointed test of free expression.
Siobhan Shadykiller's story turns on a strangely literal point of conflict: an Australian driver's license photo in which he wears a spaghetti colander as religious headwear, and the Queensland Road Safety Authority says no.
A Canberra conservation rally makes a grounded, human case for protecting the western edge from urban sprawl.
Canberra's western edge comes through as a place caught between suburban pressure and a landscape that still feels substantially intact. From a rally outside the ACT Legislative Assembly, Simon Copland of the Conservation Council of the ACT region sets out what is at stake: a…
A grounded conversation about weed control and the planning Landcare requires.
Landcare becomes a way to read how deeply people have reshaped the Australian landscape in Fuzzy Logic Science Show's conversation with Tom Baker of Radio Landcare on 2XX.
A grounded station history shaped by transmitters, volunteer work, factional conflict, and memories that refuse to settle too neatly.
The episode anchors station XXX's history in a paddock near the Barton Highway, where the first transmitter gave the station its practical beginning on 2 July 1976.
A lively, accessible tour of memory, from fear and reward to music that feels stored in the fingers.
Memory is treated as a living system here, not a cassette tape: broad enough to cover recognizing a bedroom, remembering danger, learning through reward, and playing thousands of musical notes after training. Dr.
Particle accelerators, compost piles and Queen's guitarist, all explained.
Steven Novella and a rotating panel dissect weekly science news and debunk pseudoscience claims.
APA's Kim Mills interviews psychology researchers on tipping, crying, and extremism.
This episode of Fuzzy Logic Science Show features interviews with guests presenting at National Science Week events, including robotics and dance.
A speaker engages an audience with an interactive talk on climate change, using a straw poll to gauge perceptions of environmental seriousness.
An interview with Tilman Ruff, a founding member of the organization that campaigned for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, discussing the treaty's success and the existential threat of nuclear weapons.
Tom Street speaks with Siobhan Shadikillah, who says Indonesia charged him under Criminal Article 156A after an open social-media letter asking for Pastafarianism to become the seventh recognized religion.
Fuzzy Logic Science Show's “Saving the Western Edge” follows a Canberra rally led by Simon Copland and Avine Crimmins of the Conservation Council ACT region.
Rod opens by saying he has seen Landcare logos across the Australian landscape but did not know what Landcare actually was.
Kimmo van Oonen traces XXX back to the first transmitter site at Barton Highway and the early Drill Hall setup, where Terry McGee and Chris Deacon built studios on a low budget.
The Fuzzy Logic Science Show episode "Remember this" centers on Dr.
Ecologist and herpetologist Emma Carlson explains that Canberra reptiles including shinglebacks and snakes brumate through winter.
ACT Frogwatch Coordinator Anka Maria says volunteers identify local frogs by their distinct calls and have tracked them since 2003.
Fuzzy Logic Science Show’s National Science Week preview features ANU researcher Damien Farine, RoboGaels co-president Amy McWilliams, and dance director Liz Lear.
Valerie Albrecht discusses her book 'One Voice Medicine' and her experiences with traditional healers, including a Navajo medicine man.