{Read} {PDF EPUB} ~download Munching Maggots Noah's Flood and TV Heart Attacks and Other Cataclysmic Science by Karl Kruszelnick Munching Maggots Noah's Flood and TV Heart Attacks and Other Cataclysmic Science by Karl Kruszelnicki. Karl Kruszelnicki used to be a "proper pukka scientist, engineer and doctor", but is currently an author and science commentator on radio and television. He is the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow at the University of Sydney, in the Science Foundation of the Physics Department. Away from the media, he has worked as a physicist, labourer, roadie for bands (including Bo Diddley), car mechanic, filmmaker, hospital scientific officer, biomedical engineer (when he designed and built a machine to pick up electrical signals from the human retina), TV weatherman, and medical doctor at The Kids Hospital in Sydney. In addition to his degrees in Physics and Mathematics, Biomedical Engineering, and Medicine and Surgery, he has studied several non-degree years at various universities in Astrophysics, Computer Science and Philosophy. He speaks at primary, secondary and tertiary institutions, and is an after-dinner speaker, and corporate video writer and presenter. In the media, he was a writer and presenter for the first series of Quantum, and has been a science reporter on TV ever since (The Midday Show, Good Morning Australia, etc). In radio, he speaks on-air for about 4 hours every week. This includes a national weekly, 1-hour science talkback show on Triple J - which attracts up to 300,000 people (about 1.5% of the Australian population). This show sometimes "crashes" the switchboard, when the number of incoming calls reaches 7,000 per 15 minute window. He has made two cassettes, and written 17 books. His hobbies include travelling through the outback, family fun, fitness, music, dancing a lot, and writing for 4WD magazines. His last four popular science books have all been No. 1 Popular Science best sellers in Australia (according to the New Scientist). His 18th book "Munching Maggots, Noah's Flood and TV Heart Attacks and other cataclysmic science moments ", made him the best-selling popular science author in Australia. He is now writing his 19th book on scientific and engineering innovation. He's also loose in cyberspace, with his own official website. This is it. That's Karl. so who's Lola? Some of Karl's current radio times (local time) in Australia are: Thursday. Triple J with Sarah Macdonald 1100 - 1200, Australia wide. 2BL Sydney with Sally Loane 1015 - 1030, covering all of NSW 3LO Melbourne with Derek Guille 1430 - 1500, covering all of VIC. Karl Kruszelnicki. Karl Kruszelnicki AM (born Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki ; 1948), often referred to as "Dr Karl" , [2] is an Australian science communicator and popularizer, [2] who is known as an author, and as a science commentator on Australian radio and television. Contents. Early life Education Career Television Journalism, radio and podcasts Politics Personal life Recognition and awards Selected publications See also References External links. Kruszelnicki is the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow in the Science Foundation for Physics at the School of Physics, University of Sydney. [3] Early life. When Kruszelnicki was two years old, his parents became concerned about the risk of Sweden being overrun by Russia and decided to flee the country. Before boarding a boat bound for America, Karl became ill with fever following a smallpox vaccination. Worried for his health, his parents decided not to board the boat. "Luck has it that the next ship went to Australia, so that is where we ended up. It is amazing how fate can take you in unexpected directions." [6] On arrival in Australia, the family were tenanted at the migrant camp in Bonegilla, Victoria. They remained there for three years [7] before settling in the city of Wollongong, New South Wales. Kruszelnicki talks of his childhood as a refugee in Wollongong as being difficult, and of desperately trying to fit in. "We weren't particularly liked and I got bullied at school a lot. Anybody who was not an Irish Catholic was considered an outsider." [6] He found an escape in the Wollongong Library and his quest for knowledge began. "I got into science fiction and funny stuff like that. And the librarians looked after me." [8] Education. Kruszelnicki attended Edmund Rice Christian Brothers College in Wollongong, New South Wales. [9] After high school, he attended the University of Wollongong, completing a Bachelor of Science majoring in physics in 1968. [10] In 1980, Kruszelnicki was awarded a Master of Biomedical Engineering at the University of New South Wales. He completed a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery at Sydney University in 1986. [10] Career. After high school, Kruszelnicki's first job was ditch digger in the Wollongong suburb of Dapto. [11] Other odd jobs between careers included filmmaker, car mechanic, TV weatherman, and also as roadie for Slim Dusty, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. [12] He worked for a time as a taxi driver in Sydney, and on one occasion was beaten unconscious after picking up a passenger trying to escape a group of men. [1] After graduating from university at age 19, Kruszelnicki took a job as a physicist working for a steel works in his home town of Wollongong. Here he was required to test the strength of steel made for use in Melbourne's West Gate Bridge, which was under construction at the time. He designed a machine to test the steel. When asked to fake the results of his tests, he decided to resign. [11] In the early 1980s he worked for ophthalmologist Fred Hollows. His Masters of Biomedical Engineering allowed him to design and build a machine to pick up electrical signals off the human retina to diagnose certain eye diseases. [13] He commenced his degree in medicine at the University of Sydney at the age of 32, graduating in 1986. From here he began work at a number of hospitals around Sydney, including the Children's Hospital in Camperdown. [14] He talks fondly of his time as a children's doctor, however he left this profession after witnessing the first child die from whooping cough in twenty years. This came about, he says, after a television program tried to create controversy by presenting the efficacy of vaccinations with a false balance. This caused a drop in herd immunity, and eventually the death of this child. "That very strongly influenced me to go into the media, because I felt like I could do more good there (convincing people to vaccinate). And as a result, I gave up the best job of my life, which was being a doctor in a kids' hospital, so I could do more good in the community." [15] Television. Kruszelnicki presented the first series of Quantum (replaced by Catalyst ) in 1985. As a science communicator and presenter, he appears on the Seven Network's Weekend Sunrise and on ABC TV. From early 2008 to 2010 he co-hosted a TV series called Sleek Geeks with Adam Spencer. Journalism, radio and podcasts. Kruszelnicki does a number of weekly radio shows. His hour-long show on ABC radio station Triple J has been going on in one form or another since 1981; this weekly science talkback show is broadcast on Thursday mornings from 11:00 am to midday and attracts up to 300,000 listeners; it is also available as a podcast. [16] Kruszelnicki also often helps with other science and education Triple J promotions such as the Sleek Geek Week roadshow with Adam Spencer and Caroline Pegram. He and Adam Spencer released the Sleek Geeks podcast regularly until December 2015. [17] For many years, until March 2020, Kruszelnicki appeared on a live weekly late-night link-up on BBC Radio 5 Live's Up All Night , usually with Rhod Sharp (Thursdays 03:00 – 04:00 UK time), answering science questions. [18] Kruszelnicki writes a regular column for Australian Geographic magazine, called 'Need to Know', which is republished as a blog on the magazine's website. [20] He has also written for the Sydney Morning Herald ’s Good Weekend magazine. [21] Politics. Kruszelnicki was an unsuccessful candidate for the Australian Senate in the 2007 Australian federal election. He was placed number two on the Climate Change Coalition ticket in New South Wales. [22] In 2015, Kruszelnicki appeared in an Australian Government advertising campaign, for the recently published intergenerational report. He had previously agreed to do the campaign, believing it would be a “non-political, bipartisan, independent report.” After its publication however, he backed away from the campaign, describing it as “flawed”. “How can you possibly have a report that looks at the next 40 years and doesn't mention climate change? It should have acknowledged that climate change is real and we cause it and it will be messy.“ [23] Personal life. He met his wife Mary in his first year of medical school. They have three children together: Karl, Alice and Lola. [24] Kruszelnicki is a sufferer of the condition prosopagnosia, meaning he lacks the ability to recognise faces. To help him recognise co-workers, he has been known to carry a seating map of familiar office spaces. [25] He puts the cause of his condition down to having an unhappy, lonely childhood, saying that it impeded the development of the part of his brain responsible for remembering faces. [14] Recognition and awards. In 2000, the Australian Financial Review Internet Awards awarded Kruszelnicki the Best Science and Technology Website. [26] In the 2001 honours list, he was awarded the Centenary Medal "for major service in raising public awareness of the importance of science and technology". [27] One of Kruszelnicki's more notable undertakings was his part in a research project on belly button fluff, for which he received the tongue-in-cheek Ig Nobel Prize in 2002. He received the Australian Father of the Year award in 2003. In the 2006 honours list, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia. [28] [29] In 2006, the Australian Skeptics recognized him as the Australian Skeptic Of The Year. [2] [30] In 2012, Main-belt asteroid 18412 Kruszelnicki was named in his honour. [32] In 2014, Readers Digest readers voted Kruszelnicki as the ninth-most-trusted person in Australia [33] In 2016, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Sunshine Coast. [34] Kruszelnicki won UNESCO's 2019 Kalinga Prize for science communication. [35] Selected publications. Kruszelnicki, Karl (1991). Latest great moments in science . Illustrated by Kerrie Lester. Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Spacescape , Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, (Australia), 1992, ISBN 0-7295-1100-6. Absolutely Fabulous Moments in Science , Australian Broadcasting Corporation Enterprises, Sydney, Australia, 1994, ISBN 0-7333-0407-9. Sensational Moments in Science , Australian Broadcasting Corporation Enterprises, Sydney, Australia, 1995, ISBN 0-7333-0456-7. Pigeon Poo the Universe & Car Paint – and other awesome science moments , HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 1996, ISBN 0-7322-5723-9. Flying Lasers, Robofish and Cities of Slime – and other brain-bending science moments , HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 1997, ISBN 0-7322-5874-X. Dr Karl's Collection of Great Australian Facts & Firsts Munching Maggots, Noah's Flood and TV Heart Attacks and other cataclysmic science moments , HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 1998, ISBN 0-7322-5858-8. Fidgeting Fat, Exploding Meat & Gobbling Whirly Birds – and other delicious science moments - New Moments in science 4 , 1999. Q&A With Dr. K – Why It Is So. Headless Chickens, Bathroom Queues and Belly Button Blues , HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 2001, ISBN 0-7322-5855-3. Dr. Karl's Collection of Great Australian Facts & Firsts , HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 2002, ISBN 0-207-19860-8. Bumbreath, Botox and Bubbles and other Fully Sick Science Moments , HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 2003, ISBN 0-7322-6715-3. Great Mythconceptions – Cellulite, Camel Humps and Chocolate Zits , HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 2004, ISBN 0-7322-8062-1. Dis Information and Other Wikkid Myths: More Great Myths In Science , HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 2005, ISBN 0-7322-8060-5. It Ain't Necessarily So Bro , HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 2006, ISBN 0-7322-8061-3. Please Explain , HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 2007, ISBN 0-7322- 8535-6. Science Is Golden , HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia 2008 ISBN 978-0-732-28536-4 Never Mind the Bullocks, Here's the Science , HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 2009, ISBN 0-7322-8537-2. Dinosaurs Aren't Dead , Pan Macmillan Pty Limited, Australia, 2010 ISBN 978-0-330-42579-7 Curious and Curiouser , Pan Macmillan Pty Limited, Australia, 2010 ISBN 978-1-742-61170-9 Brain Food , Pan Macmillan Pty Limited, Australia, 2011 ISBN 978-1-742-61039-9 50 Shades of Grey Matter , Pan Macmillan Pty Limited, Australia, 2012 ISBN 978-1-742-61138-9 Game of Knowns , Pan Macmillan Pty Limited, Australia, 2013 ISBN 978-1-742-61334-5 Dr Karl's Big Book of Science Stuff and Nonsense , Pan Macmillan Pty Limited, Australia, 2013 ISBN 978-1-742-61368-0 House of Karls , Pan Macmillan Pty Limited, Australia, 2014 ISBN 978-1-743-51951-6 Dr Karl's Short Back & Science , Pan Macmillan Pty Limited, Australia, 2015 ISBN 978-1-743-53334-5 The Doctor , Pan Macmillan Pty Limited, Australia, 2016 ISBN 978-1-743-54742-7 Karl, The Universe and Everything , Pan Macmillan Pty Limited, Australia, 2017 ISBN 978-1-925-48132-7 Vital Science , Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited, Australia, 2018 ISBN 978-1-760-78122-4 Dr Karl's Random Road Trip Through Science , HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty Limited, Australia, 2019 ISBN 978-0-7333-4032-1 Dr Karl's Surfing Safari Through Science , HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty Limited, Australia, 2020 ISBN 978-0-7333-4033-8 Kruszelnicki, Karl (May–June 2014). "Cervical cancer vaccine". Your AG. Inventions. Australian Geographic . 120 : 124. See also. Sleek Geeks Adam Spencer. Related Research Articles. The University of Wollongong is an Australian public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney. As of 2017, the university had an enrolment of more than 32,000 students, an alumni base of more than 131,859 and over 2,400 staff members. Julius Sumner Miller was an American physicist and television personality. He is best known for his work on children's television programs in North America and Australia. John Birmingham is a British-born Australian author, known for the 1994 memoir He Died with a Felafel in His Hand , and his Axis of Time trilogy. Australian Skeptics is a loose confederation of like-minded organisations across Australia that began in 1980. Australian Skeptics investigate paranormal and pseudoscientific claims using scientific methodologies. This page covers all Australian skeptical groups which are of this mindset. The name "Australian Skeptics" can be confused with one of the more prominent groups, "Australian Skeptics Inc", which is based in Sydney and is one of the central organising groups within Australian Skeptics. Brian Martin is a social scientist in the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, at the University of Wollongong (UOW) in NSW, Australia. He was appointed a Professor at the University in 2007, and in 2017 was appointed Emeritus Professor. His work is in the fields of peace research, scientific controversies, science and technology studies, sociology, political science, media studies, law, journalism, freedom of speech, education and corrupted institutions, as well as research on whistleblowing and dissent in the context of science. Martin was president of Whistleblowers Australia from 1996 to 1999 and remains their International Director. He has been criticized by medical professionals and public health advocates for promoting HIV/AIDS denialism and vaccine hesitancy in the context of his work. Donald Richmond Horne was an Australian journalist, writer, social critic, and academic who became one of Australia's best known public intellectuals, from the 1960s until his death. Michael Robert Hamilton Holmes à Court was a South African-born Australian entrepreneur who became Australia's first billionaire, before dying suddenly of a heart attack in 1990 at the age of 53. Hugh Clifford Mackay is the founder of the Australian quarterly research series The Mackay Report 1979-2003, which later became The Ipsos Mackay Report . He is a psychologist, social researcher and writer. He was a weekly newspaper columnist for 25 years and is a regularly appearing commentator on radio and television. Kerryn Lyndel Phelps is an Australian medical practitioner, public health and civil rights advocate, medical educator and politician. David Andrew Day is an Australian historian, academic and author. Journalism in Australia is an industry with an extensive history. Reporters Without Borders placed Australia 26th on a list of 180 countries ranked by press freedom in 2020, ahead of both the United Kingdom and United States. Print media in the country is generally owned by Nine Entertainment Co and News Corp Australia. Albert Productions , a division of music publishing and recording company Albert Music, is one of Australia's longest established independent record labels to specialise in rock and roll music. The label was founded in 1963 by Ted Albert, whose family owned and operated the Sydney music publishing house J. Albert & Son. Sir Albert Edward Chadwick , CMG, MSM was an Australian rules footballer in the (then) Victorian Football League (VFL). Gerald Louis Stone was an American-born Australian television and radio journalist, television executive and author. Sleek Geeks is an Australian science television series, hosted by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and Adam Spencer. The fourteen-part series aired from 3 January 2008, and was based on Kruszelnicki and Spencer's Sleek Geek Week travelling roadshow, as well as Kruszelnicki's Great Moments in Science broadcasts on Triple J radio. The show was co-hosted by fellow "geeks" Yumi Stynes, Ruben Meerman and Dr Stephen Bosi. Peter Robert Corris was an Australian academic, historian, journalist and a novelist of historical and crime fiction. As crime fiction writer, he was described as "the Godfather of contemporary Australian crime-writing", particularly for his Cliff Hardy novels. Emma A. Jane , previously known as Emma Tom, is an Australian professor, author, and journalist. Betty Roland was an Australian writer of plays, screenplays, novels, children's books and comics. Peter Daryl Evans is an Australian conspiracy theorist, chef, and former television presenter, who is best known as a former judge of the competitive cooking show My Kitchen Rules . Evans has been heavily criticised for spreading misinformation about vaccinations and promoting pseudoscientific dieting ideas such as the paleolithic diet. He lives in Round Mountain, New South Wales. Munching Maggots Noah's Flood and TV Heart Attacks and Other Cataclysmic Science by Karl Kruszelnicki. From and To can't be the same language. That page is already in . Something went wrong. Check the webpage URL and try again. Sorry, that page did not respond in a timely manner. Sorry, that page doesn't exist or is preventing translations. Sorry, that page doesn't exist or is preventing translations. Sorry, that page doesn't exist or is preventing translations. Something went wrong, please try again. Try using the Translator for the Microsoft Edge extension instead. Karl Kruszelnicki. Karl Kruszelnicki AM (born Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki ; 1948), often referred to as "Dr Karl" , [2] is an Australian science communicator and popularizer, [2] who is known as an author, and as a science commentator on Australian radio and television. Kruszelnicki is the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow in the Science Foundation for Physics at the School of Physics, University of Sydney. [3] Kruszelnicki ( Polish pronunciation: [kruʂɛlˈɲitskʲi] ) was born in Helsingborg, Sweden, [ when? ] to Polish parents, Rina and Ludwik. Kruszelnicki's background was hidden from him for a long time, with his mother having told him that she was Swedish and a Lutheran but she was, in fact, Polish and Jewish. [1] Both his parents were Holocaust survivors. [4] His father Ludwik, a Polish Gentile, was turned in to the Gestapo for smuggling Jews out of Poland and was imprisoned at Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp used mainly for political prisoners. As the end of World War II approached, Ludwik avoided execution by swapping identities with a dead person. [5] Rina escaped the Auschwitz concentration camp when the Nazis ran out of Zyklon B that was used to gas prisoners. [5] They separately fled to Sweden, where they met, and where Karl was later born. [5] When Kruszelnicki was two years old, his parents became concerned about the risk of Sweden being overrun by Russia and decided to flee the country. Before boarding a boat bound for America, Karl became ill with fever following a smallpox vaccination. Worried for his health, his parents decided not to board the boat. "Luck has it that the next ship went to Australia, so that is where we ended up. It is amazing how fate can take you in unexpected directions." [6] On arrival in Australia, the family were tenanted at the migrant camp in Bonegilla, Victoria. They remained there for three years [7] before settling in the city of Wollongong, New South Wales. Kruszelnicki talks of his childhood as a refugee in Wollongong as being difficult, and of desperately trying to fit in. "We weren't particularly liked and I got bullied at school a lot. Anybody who was not an Irish Catholic was considered an outsider." [6] He found an escape in the Wollongong Library and his quest for knowledge began. "I got into science fiction and funny stuff like that. And the librarians looked after me." [8] Kruszelnicki attended Edmund Rice Christian Brothers College in Wollongong, New South Wales. [9] After high school, he attended the University of Wollongong, completing a Bachelor of Science majoring in physics in 1968. [10] In 1980, Kruszelnicki was awarded a Master of Biomedical Engineering at the University of New South Wales. He completed a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery at Sydney University in 1986. [10] After high school, Kruszelnicki's first job was ditch digger in the Wollongong suburb of Dapto. [11] Other odd jobs between careers included filmmaker, car mechanic, TV weatherman, and also as roadie for Slim Dusty, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. [12] He worked for a time as a taxi driver in Sydney, and on one occasion was beaten unconscious after picking up a passenger trying to escape a group of men. [1] After graduating from university at age 19, Kruszelnicki took a job as a physicist working for a steel works in his home town of Wollongong. Here he was required to test the strength of steel made for use in Melbourne's West Gate Bridge, which was under construction at the time. He designed a machine to test the steel. When asked to fake the results of his tests, he decided to resign. [11] In the early 1980s he worked for ophthalmologist Fred Hollows. His Masters of Biomedical Engineering allowed him to design and build a machine to pick up electrical signals off the human retina to diagnose certain eye diseases. [13] He commenced his degree in medicine at the University of Sydney at the age of 32, graduating in 1986. From here he began work at a number of hospitals around Sydney, including the Children's Hospital in Camperdown. [14] He talks fondly of his time as a children's doctor, however he left this profession after witnessing the first child die from whooping cough in twenty years. This came about, he says, after a television program tried to create controversy by presenting the efficacy of vaccinations with a false balance. This caused a drop in herd immunity, and eventually the death of this child. "That very strongly influenced me to go into the media, because I felt like I could do more good there (convincing people to vaccinate). And as a result, I gave up the best job of my life, which was being a doctor in a kids' hospital, so I could do more good in the community." [15] Television. Kruszelnicki presented the first series of Quantum (replaced by Catalyst ) in 1985. As a science communicator and presenter, he appears on the Seven Network's Weekend Sunrise and on ABC TV. From early 2008 to 2010 he co-hosted a TV series called Sleek Geeks with Adam Spencer. Journalism, radio and podcasts. Kruszelnicki does a number of weekly radio shows. His hour-long show on ABC radio station Triple J has been going on in one form or another since 1981; this weekly science talkback show is broadcast on Thursday mornings from 11:00 am to midday and attracts up to 300,000 listeners; it is also available as a podcast. [16] Kruszelnicki also often helps with other science and education Triple J promotions such as the Sleek Geek Week roadshow with Adam Spencer and Caroline Pegram. He and Adam Spencer released the Sleek Geeks podcast regularly until December 2015. [17] For many years, until March 2020, Kruszelnicki appeared on a live weekly late-night link-up on BBC Radio 5 Live's Up All Night , usually with Rhod Sharp (Thursdays 03:00 – 04:00 UK time), answering science questions. [18] Kruszelnicki writes a regular column for Australian Geographic magazine, called 'Need to Know', which is republished as a blog on the magazine's website. [20] He has also written for the Sydney Morning Herald ’s Good Weekend magazine. [21] Kruszelnicki was an unsuccessful candidate for the Australian Senate in the 2007 Australian federal election. He was placed number two on the Climate Change Coalition ticket in New South Wales. [22] In 2015, Kruszelnicki appeared in an Australian Government advertising campaign, for the recently published intergenerational report. He had previously agreed to do the campaign, believing it would be a “non-political, bipartisan, independent report.” After its publication however, he backed away from the campaign, describing it as “flawed”. “How can you possibly have a report that looks at the next 40 years and doesn't mention climate change? It should have acknowledged that climate change is real and we cause it and it will be messy.“ [23] He met his wife Mary in his first year of medical school. They have three children together: Karl, Alice and Lola. [24] Kruszelnicki is a sufferer of the condition prosopagnosia, meaning he lacks the ability to recognise faces. To help him recognise co-workers, he has been known to carry a seating map of familiar office spaces. [25] He puts the cause of his condition down to having an unhappy, lonely childhood, saying that it impeded the development of the part of his brain responsible for remembering faces. [14] In 2000, the Australian Financial Review Internet Awards awarded Kruszelnicki the Best Science and Technology Website. [26] In the 2001 honours list, he was awarded the Centenary Medal "for major service in raising public awareness of the importance of science and technology". [27] One of Kruszelnicki's more notable undertakings was his part in a research project on belly button fluff, for which he received the tongue-in-cheek Ig Nobel Prize in 2002. He received the Australian Father of the Year award in 2003. In the 2006 honours list, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia. [28] [29] In 2006, the Australian Skeptics recognized him as the Australian Skeptic Of The Year. [2] [30] In 2012, Main-belt asteroid 18412 Kruszelnicki was named in his honour. [32] In 2014, Readers Digest readers voted Kruszelnicki as the ninth-most-trusted person in Australia [33] In 2016, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Sunshine Coast. [34] Kruszelnicki won UNESCO's 2019 Kalinga Prize for science communication. [35] Karl Kruszelnicki. Karl Kruszelnicki AM / k r ʊ ʃ ə l n ɪ t s k iː / (born 20 March 1948), [3] often referred to as Dr Karl , [4] is a well-known Australian science communicator and populariser, [4] who is best known as an author and science commentator on Australian radio and television. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Mathematics and a Master of Science (Qualifying) degree in Astrophysics from the University of Wollongong, a Master of Biomedical Engineering from the University of New South Wales, and Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees from the University of Sydney. He has worked as a physicist, a tutor/research assistant, a filmmaker, a car mechanic, a road manager, a taxi driver, a scientific officer in a hospital, a T-shirt manufacturer, a doctor, an academic, an author, a public speaker, a television presenter and reporter, a script writer, a weather man, a radio panelist, science reporter, writer and presenter, and a script consultant. [5] Kruszelnicki is the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow in the Science Foundation for Physics at the School of Physics, University of Sydney. [6] Contents. Early life. Kruszelnicki was born in Helsingborg, Sweden, to Polish parents. His mother's background was hidden from him for a long time, with his mother having told him that she was Swedish and a Lutheran but was, in fact, Jewish. Both of his parents were Holocaust survivors. [1] The Kruszelnicki family emigrated to Australia when Karl was two years of age. The family were tenanted at the migrant camp in Bonegilla, Victoria for the first three years [7] [8] before they settled in the city of Wollongong, NSW where the young Karl grew up. After high school, his first job was as a ditch-digger in the summer between the end of high school and the start of university, using pick and shovel to dig and lay sewerage pipes in the Wollongong suburb of Dapto. [9] After University, the 19-year-old's first job as a physicist was working for a steel works in his home town of Wollongong where he had to test the strength of steel made for use in Melbourne's West Gate Bridge, which was under construction at that time. Kruszelnicki designed a machine to test the steel but its results suggested that the steel did not meet specifications. His boss at the time asked him to recheck the results but when the steel continually failed to meet the specifications his boss asked him to fake the data. Kruszelnicki refused and eventually quit. [9] (The West Gate Bridge collapsed during construction but the fault was found to have occurred due to structural failure not due to the quality of the steel used.) Education. 1960 to 1964: Secondary school education at Edmund Rice Christian Brothers College in Wollongong, New South Wales. Received a Commonwealth Scholarship for university. 1965 to 1967: Tertiary education at the Wollongong campus of the University of New South Wales, studying for a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and mathematics 1968 to 1969: Master of Science (qualifying) in astrophysics at the Wollongong campus of the University of New South Wales. (MSc (Qual.)). 1977: Studied as a miscellaneous student in computer science at the University of New South Wales. 1978: Commenced studies for a Master of Biomedical Engineering degree at the University of New South Wales (part-time). 1979–1980: Full-time student at the University of New South Wales. Received two scholarships – Commonwealth Government Scholarship in 1979 and Lions Fellowship in 1980. Studied under Peter Gouras in January and February 1980 at Columbia University's Presbyterian Physician's and Surgeon's Hospital in New York to gain extra knowledge in the field of electroretinography (detecting electrical signals from the human retina). Designed and built an electroretinograph. This device is still in use at the Prince of Wales Hospital, in association with the Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation. Completed degree of Master of Biomedical Engineering. (M. Biomed. E.). 1981 to 1984: Degree in medicine and surgery at the University of Sydney. Awarded the Grafton Elliot Smith Memorial Prize for Anatomy in 1982. Awarded the Alexander James Scholarship for Community Medicine in 1984. 1982: Elected as a member of the Australian Institute of Physics (MAIP). 1986: Completed Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. (MB, BS). [5] Journalism, television, and radio. Television. Kruszelnicki wrote and presented the first series of Quantum (replaced by Catalyst ) in 1985. As a science communicator and presenter, Dr Karl appears on Channel 7's Weekend Sunrise programme & on ABC television. From early 2008 to 2010 he co-hosted a TV series of Sleek Geeks with Adam Spencer. Kruszelnicki fronts the Roads and Traffic Authority microsleep awareness campaign and presents segments on The Weather Channel. Due to his fame, Dr Karl has had cameo appearances in a number of television series, including Pizza and on Neighbours . In the Neighbours episode, he was confused with the Dr Karl character of that series. Radio & podcasts. Dr Karl does a number of weekly radio shows. His hour-long show on ABC radio station Triple J has been going on in one form or another since 1981. This weekly science talkback show, is broadcast on Thursday mornings from 11am to 12 noon and attracts up to 300,000 listeners; it is also available as a podcast. [10] Dr Karl also often helps with other science and education Triple J promotions, such as the Sleek Geek Week roadshow with Adam Spencer and Caroline Pegram. He and Adam Spencer release the Sleek Geeks podcast regularly (about once a week). [11] In the United Kingdom, he appears on a live weekly late-night link-up on BBC Radio 5 Live's Up All Night , usually with Rhod Sharp (Thursdays 03:00 - 04:00 UK time), answering science questions. [12] Journalism. He writes regular science stories for Australian Geographic and National Geographic Kids magazines. Politics. Kruszelnicki was an unsuccessful candidate for the Australian Senate in the 2007 Australian federal election. He was placed number two on the Climate Change Coalition ticket in New South Wales. [13] Kruszelnicki made the decision to enter the world of politics because he wanted to trade the influence he already had on the world of science, for actual power and the ability to influence things inside the parliament. He likens this attempt to people such as Peter Garrett who used his public influence to successfully move into the world of politics. [4] He now reflects that his decision to run was made without thinking things through, and he immediately realised that his prior work and family commitments would clash with this new commitment. He regards this time as a great learning experience, especially with regard to the medias and the negative response they had to him personally. [4] Science communicator Robyn Williams wrote this about Kruszelnicki's political career: "Personally I hope Dr Karl, who is standing for the Climate Change Coalition in the Senate, gets nowhere in politics, however worthy his intentions. His influence on air, in books and newspapers is tremendous, and to be similarly successful in politics he would have to combine the talents of Schwarzenegger, Mandela and Hillary Clinton. But it is as a mentor we should treasure our most visible science sprier." [4] [14] Recognition and awards. In 1994 at the Michael Daley Awards for Science, Technology and Engineering Journalism, Kruszelnicki won the awards for Best Entry (print or broadcast) relating to the topic “Remote Sensing”, the field of the 1995 Australia Prize, Best Radio Entry (news, feature or documentary) for “Tsunamis” and “Science Talkback” (joint award, shared with Elizabeth Finkel of Ockham’s Razor). [5] In 2000, the Australian Financial Review Internet Awards awarded him the Best Science and Technology Website. [5] In 2002, the earliest usage of the word selfie appeared in Karl Kruszelnicki's 'Dr Karl Self-Serve Science Forum', an Australian internet forum (ABC Online) on 13 September 2002. [15] [16] One of Kruszelnicki's more notable undertakings was his part in a research project on belly button fluff, for which he received an Ig Nobel Prize in 2002. He received the Australian Father of the Year award in 2003. In the 2001 Honours list, he was awarded the Centenary Medal "for major service in raising public awareness of the importance of science and technology". [17] In the 2006 Honours list, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia. [18] [19] In 2007, the Australian Skeptics recognized him as the Australian Skeptic Of The Year. [4] [20] Also in 2012, Main-belt asteroid 18412 Kruszelnicki was named in his honour. [22] In 2014, Readers Digest readers voted Kruszelnicki as the ninth most trusted person in Australia [23] Writing. As of mid-2015, Kruszelnicki has written 36 books, (with more on the way) along with numerous lecture series (using material that often ends up in his books, or vice versa). Some of these lecture series and books have been televised for events such as Australia's National Science Week, with him supplying voice-overs and sometimes appearing in claymation. Kruszelnicki's earlier work focused on interesting scientific curiosities, but recently his writing has moved towards the theme of scientific myths and misconceptions, a term which was already in use by the magazine Fortean Times, [24] but which Kruszelnicki also came up with independently. [4]