Policy Forum Pod

Can scientists make facts great again in an era of fake news? How can we get more young people and women studying STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths? Is humanity heading towards a science utopia or dystopia? It’s National Science Week in Australia, and on this podcast we hear from four scientists working across physics, psychology, engineering, and climatology: Susan Scott, Eryn Newman, Elanor Huntington and Mark Howden. In a wide-ranging interview, hosts Maya Bhandari and Sue Regan lead a discussion on how researchers can make themselves heard by the public and respected by policymakers, why science must find more common ground with the humanities, and why we need a new engineering for the 21st century. Professor Susan Scott specialises in gravitational physics at the ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering. Susan was part of the team behind the breakthrough discovery of gravitational waves, winning awards for the way the science was presented to the media. Professor Elanor Huntington i