The 9pm Frog and Covid with Upulie Divisekera

Upulie Divisekera
Upulie Divisekera and a science machine. (Photo: Nathan Fulton / Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade used under a Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 license)

The spring series continues with two brand new species of frog and some reflections on COVID-19 with special guest Upulie Divisekera, science communicator and woman of much intelligence and smarts.

We talk about trees, evolution, the distance to the Sun, the sadness of scientific names, and infectious diseases. And frogs, of course. There’s quite a bit about frogs.

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Upulie has been on the podcast several times before. You might like to listen.

Episode Links

  • A bioindicator is any species (an indicator species) or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment.
  • Southern Smooth Froglet. A small species of frog reaching up to 3.5 cm in body length.
  • Xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue in vascular plants, the other being phloem. The basic function of the xylem is to transport water from roots to stems and leaves, but it also transports nutrients.
  • Photosynthesis (/?fo?t??s?n??s?s/ FOH-t?-SINTH-?-sis) is a biological process used by many cellular organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy, which is stored in organic compounds that can later be metabolized through cellular respiration to fuel the organism's activities.
  • The occipital lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The name derives from its position at the back of the head, from the Latin ob, 'behind', and caput, 'head'. The occipital lobe is the visual processing center of the mammalian brain containing most of the anatomical region of the visual cortex.
  • The human eye is a sensory organ, part of the sensory nervous system, that reacts to visible light and allows humans to use visual information for various purposes including seeing things, keeping balance, and maintaining circadian rhythm.
  • [4 November 2023] COVID is again on the rise across Ballarat as an "exponential increase" in the number of cases indicates the eighth wave of the virus sweeping across Australia has reached the city.
  • Estimates of deaths range from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in history.
  • Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1 (SARS-CoV-1), previously known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), is a strain of coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the respiratory illness responsible for the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak.
  • [1 November 2023] Boris Johnson agreed with some Tory MPs who thought Covid was "nature's way of dealing with old people", the inquiry into the pandemic has been told.

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Thank you, Media Freedom Citizenry

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This episode it’s thanks to Matthew Crawford for his contribution. Please consider joining him by pledging your support.

Series Credits