So excited and honored to be awarded the Australia Museum Eureka Prize for Science Journalism in Sydney last week. The prize was for my 2022 piece for Griffith Review on the quest for a million year old ice core – Buried Treasure: A Journey Into Deep Time. It’s a story about both the smallness of … Continue reading
Category Archives: Science
Best Australian Science Writing 2023
It’s always a thrill to have my work included in this fabulous annual anthology published by NewSouth press. Now in its 13th year, this is the eighth edition where I’ve been lucky enough make an appearance – seven as a storyteller, one as editor. As a special bonus this year, one of my recent students … Continue reading
Buried Treasure: The quest for oldest ice in Antarctica
UPDATE: Tune into ABC RN Big Ideas on 23 November for a discussion on this! In 2007 and again in 2008/09 I was lucky enough to spend time in Antarctica researching stories on Australia’s scientific work there, reporting on changes to the polar ice and Southern Ocean, and what they can tell us about our … Continue reading
Dry At The Mouth: Witnessing the ecological collapse of The Coorong
I’ve hooked up with Dr David Paton’s annual summer surveys of the sublime Coorong area of South Australia several times over the years, most memorably taking my kids along as volunteers when they were small. They plucked tiny birds out of mist nets and weighed them, sifted the water for tiny larvae, released pygmy possums … Continue reading
UNSW Bragg Prize for Science Writing
Thrilled to have been runner-up for the 2018 UNSW Bragg Prize for Science Writing. Congratulations to the winner, Andrew Leigh, and fellow runner-up Margaret Wertheim. Also to fellow shortlisters, Richard Guilliatt, Nick O’Malley and James Mitchell Crow. You can read more about the prize here. The shortlist is selected each year from Best Australian Science … Continue reading
The last hard yard to wipe out polio
Earlier this year I went to northern Nigeria to research a story on the final push to wipe out wild poliovirus from the last crucibles of disease in terrorised parts of Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Commissioned by Undark magazine, it was co-published in The Atlantic. Continue reading
The Totten Hots Up
“Find a nice, self-sufficient hilltop and fortify it.” – John Wyndham, ‘The Kraken Wakes’. My article in the latest edition of The Monthly – delving into the fast-flowing science of glacial melt, ice dynamics, warming oceans, and sea level rise. This piece has not been unlocked from behind the paywall: Link here. Continue reading
Betting The Farm: ABC Background Briefing
While working on a story on the impact of CSIRO cuts for Good Weekend a couple of months ago, I came across some startling science describing the scale and speed of shifts occurring on the Australian landscape as climate change bites. That was the kernel of what has become my second-ever radio documentary for ABC … Continue reading
Peter Doherty, 20 years after the Nobel Prize
One of the perks of the job is to meet the likes of Peter Doherty, and I’ve had the great luck to interview and chat with him a dozen times or so over the past several years. Indeed he kindly wrote a lovely endorsement of my climate book, a few years back. A gorgeous, brilliant, … Continue reading
Best Australian Science Writing 2016
It was a privilege and great fun to be asked to edit this 6th edition of NewSouth Books’ highly successful ‘Best Australian Science Writing‘ series. It’s been a long haul, but you can find it now at all good bookshops – just in time for Christmas! Long list of big names included in this edition, … Continue reading