Why does mint make your mouth feel like it's full of ice even though it doesn't change the temperature in your mouth?

In this episode, host David Boldeman sits down with science journalist Ellen Phiddian to unpack the strange sensory science hiding behind everyday flavors. They dig into the trigeminal nerve, the hidden receptors that mix up heat, cold, and pain, and why your tongue is doing a lot more than just tasting.

And you'll get the answers to a whole lot more:

• Why does wasabi shoot up your nose?
• Why are fizzy drinks not really about the bubbles?
• Why do garlic and mustard have a spicy kick?
• Can you build up a tolerance to chilli?

READ MORE: https://connectsci.au/news/news-parent/4296/Why-does-mint-make-your-mouth-feel-cold-and-why-do

It Starts With... is a ConnectSci podcast. ConnectSci delivers trusted, fact-based content, including peer-reviewed journal articles, eBooks and science news articles. It is operated by CSIRO Publishing, a not-for-profit, editorially independent publisher based in Australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Knowledge built over time, skills practiced and risks taken help prepare us for the challenges of life. Resilience, therefore, is not something that emerges when things go wrong but takes a lifetime to develop according to this week’s podcast guest Richard de Crespigny.

Richard de Crespigny knows all about resilience in challenging situations. He was captain of Qantas Flight 32, the Airbus A380 that in 2010 suffered a catastrophic, uncontained explosion in its engine on a flight from Singapore to Sydney.

Despite more than 50 cascading system failures and severe wing damage, the 5-pilot crew landed safely. All of the 469 people on board disembarked without a single injury.

In this episode of It Stars With… David Boldeman speaks to Richard about how resilience is built and why it is more important than ever in an age of AI and automation.

Richard de Crespigny has written a book on the topic, Fly! The Elements of Resilience.

It Starts With... is a ConnectSci podcast. ConnectSci delivers trusted, fact-based content, including peer-reviewed journal articles, eBooks and science news articles. It is operated by CSIRO Publishing, a not-for-profit, editorially independent publisher based in Australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Professor Volker Hessel is working on one of the biggest challenge in future space exploration, how do we support human life beyond Earth.

Volker is a chief investigator at the ARC Center of Excellence in Plants for Space. Plants for Space brings together researchers who are looking at we can eat and drink in space, and how we could grow food.

He is also looking at how this research can be used back on earth, including droughts, vertical farming and personalised farming.

It Starts With... is a ConnectSci podcast. ConnectSci delivers trusted, fact-based content, including peer-reviewed journal articles, eBooks and science news articles. It is operated by CSIRO Publishing, a not-for-profit, editorially independent publisher based in Australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Explore Australia’s hidden world of native bees with Dr Kit Prendergast and Clancy Lester.

Kit is a native bee scientist, ecologist and passionate advocate for Australia’s bee diversity. Clancy is a science communicator helping Australians discover the extraordinary pollinators living all around us.

They discuss with David how to make a good bee hotel for native species and the surprising answer to what is a bee.

Want to know more?

• Follow Kit on Insta
• Follow Clancy on Insta or Linkedin
• Watch Kit's Birds & the Bees show
• Buy Kit's book Creating a Haven for Native Bees
• Facebook group The Buzz on Wild Bees

It Starts With... is a ConnectSci podcast. ConnectSci delivers trusted, fact-based content, including peer-reviewed journal articles, eBooks and science news articles. It is operated by CSIRO Publishing, a not-for-profit, editorially independent publisher based in Australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Microplastics are everywhere – in water, food, air and even our bodies. But are microplastics as scary as some news headlines would have us believe?

In this episode of the It Stars With… podcast, David Boldeman chats with science journalist Ellen Phiddian about microplastics.

Ellen gives us the latest facts and figures on microplastics: where they’ve been found and how much have polluted our planet.

Everywhere microplastics have been found – oceans, soil and even the human body – scientists are beginning to build a picture of the damage they can cause to the ecosystem and organisms that encounter the tiny fragments.

Understanding these microscopic fragments of plastic – where they come from, why they don’t break down, where they’re appearing, how they affect organisms – is the key to being able to resolve an increasingly complex environmental and health problem brought on by their proliferation.

It Starts With... is a ConnectSci podcast. ConnectSci delivers trusted, fact-based content, including peer-reviewed journal articles, eBooks and science news articles. It is operated by CSIRO Publishing, a not-for-profit, editorially independent publisher based in Australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Science journalist and author Smriti Daniel explains what actually separates a robot from a smart toaster and why the most useful robots don't look human at all.

Smriti also discussed with host David Boldeman how robots are already fighting bushfires, working inside Fukushima, and collecting whale snot.

She also shares her five favourite robots, some are quite bizarre.

Smriti has written the book Robot Responders aimed at kids aged 8 to 12. It is published by CSIRO Publishing and is available in print or eBook.

CSIRO has created the online game CSIRO Robot Responders and unplugged card game, where players design, test and refine robots to complete missions inspired by real-world science and engineering. It is recommended for 10 to 14 year olds.

It Starts With... is a ConnectSci podcast. ConnectSci delivers trusted, fact-based content, including peer-reviewed journal articles, eBooks and science news articles. It is operated by CSIRO Publishing, a not-for-profit, editorially independent publisher based in Australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bees aren't the only pollinators. There’s a whole host of birds and insects, from flies and beetles to moths and even mosquitoes, which move between and feed on flowers while helping plants proliferate.

In this episode of the It Starts With… podcast, David Boldeman is joined by biologist and naturalist Peter Bernhardt to discuss the thousands of species of insects and other creatures which pollinate. They are, as he calls them, the “unsung heroes” of pollination.

This even includes mosquitoes. Not only do these blood-sucking insects feed on our vital fluids, but one species gets its energy from sugars in a specific orchid’s nectar.

Many plants have a special relationship with particular pollinators. David and Peter discuss how understanding those relationships is key to protecting biodiversity and native species. This could even be as simple as choosing which plants to plant in your garden. It all has an impact on the pollinators and their symbiotic relationship with flowering plants.

Peter is author of the book Unsung Heroes of Pollination, published by CSIRO Publishing. It is available in print or eBook.

It Starts With... is a ConnectSci podcast. ConnectSci delivers trusted, fact-based content, including peer-reviewed journal articles, eBooks and science news articles. It is operated by CSIRO Publishing, a not-for-profit, editorially independent publisher based in Australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Great Southern Reef wraps around most of southern Australia and rivals the Great Barrier Reef in size and biodiversity — yet most Australians have never heard of it.

David Boldeman speaks with marine ecologist Scott Bennett in this episode of It Starts With… to understand the hidden world of the Great Southern Reef.

Scott is Chair of the Great Southern Reef Foundation which aims to promote understanding and protection of this marine environment.

The Great Southern Reef itself was only identified by science in 2015. It’s not an interconnected coral reef like the tropical Great Barrier Reef, but a temperate collection of rocky reefs. It is home to a stunning array of biodiversity, including the vulnerable kelp forests off Tasmania’s coast.

It Starts With... is a ConnectSci podcast. ConnectSci delivers trusted, fact-based content, including peer-reviewed journal articles, eBooks and science news articles. It is operated by CSIRO Publishing, a not-for-profit, editorially independent publisher based in Australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.