Robyn Williams: Let me introduce you to a couple of young folk I confidently expect to be scientific stars in the near future. They work on slime moulds.
Mia O'Brien: I like slime moulds because they don't always look the same, they change. So when they're babies they look like creepy-crawlies, and then they start changing into different shapes.
Owen Loxton: We went behind the science room and we found slime moulds were on the leaves and bark, and we found ones we haven't found at school yet. And then we took them back into the science room and we put them in small dishes and then we put them in a dark box.
Robyn Williams: Owen and Mia are at primary school in Melbourne, and they are both just ten.
Today's Science Show is about nature all around you, and your neighbours, young and old, doing remarkable things.
First stop here in Kiama, New South Wales, in a shed full of boats. Ron Kelly over there is 77, and I haven't asked Lynelle Johnson her age, but she used to be in the ABC and worked with Ray Martin. They are both making the first bigger electric boats. The outboard motor industry worldwide is worth about $9 billion a year now, and soon may be up to $12 billion.
Lynelle, what over there is that boat?
Lynelle Johnson: That is actually a Pride Cheetah, it's an older boat, about 14 feet, and it has been converted to be the first electric runabout in Australia.
Robyn Williams: And when did that happen?
Lynelle Johnson: It's happening now. It has a 15-kilowatt engine on the back, it's in a 30-horsepower frame, and we are converting that to forward controls, and we've built a battery box to contain the lithium-ion portable batteries that go in.
Robyn Williams: Where do you get the batteries from?
Lynelle Johnson: We get them custom-made in China. The engines we make here from components that are all over the world, but the lithium-ion batteries, and these are all 96 volt, which is not a common voltage, and so it's very specialised to get the battery management systems. Petrol or internal combustion engines are polluting, they are noisy, they are not the future. So just like electric vehicles are starting to come into people's consciousness as a way to mitigate climate change and also have an amazing experience. If you have driven an electrical or hybrid car, if you are lucky enough to have sat in a Tesla, the experience is so much better than a petrol engine, and this is the same. It makes boating much more pleasant for the user, as well as a tremendous environmental impact effect.
Robyn Williams: Well, some people like to go chug-chug or just neeeeeoooowwwww on the water, don't they, as well?
Lynelle Johnson: Well, they do, and obviously there's people we won't convince, however there's a lot of people who find that, particularly sailors, they have been out on a lovely day sailing and then they've got to put a noisy engine on as opposed to keeping quiet. There are fumes and people have died from petrol fumes. And then of course there's the marine life.
