freelance science journalist and author
From ABC News in Science, 3 August 2017: Trapdoor spiders are reluctant travellers, but millions of years ago one species appears to have made an epic journey from Africa across the vast Indian Ocean to call Australia home. The Australian trapdoor spider — Moggridgea rainbowi — which is found on Kangaroo Island is famously provincial, … Continue reading Australian trapdoor spider may be a seafaring castaway from Africa
From ABC News in Science, 29 July 2017 A compound that may form cell wall-like structures has been detected in the dense atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan. The discovery, reported today in Science Advances, was made using the highly sensitive Atacama Large Millimeter Array radio telescope in Chile. Saturn’s largest moon has long been considered … Continue reading Molecule found in Titan’s atmosphere may form cell-like membranes
From KnowHow magazine: The ever-growing importance of plant biosecurity in Australia can be seen from the gradual evolution of the Cooperative Research Centres dedicated to it. What began as the Tropical Plant Pathology CRC in 1992 morphed into the CRC for Tropical Plant Protection in 1999, then into the CRC for National Plant Biosecurity in … Continue reading Securing Australia’s agricultural future
From The Guardian, 30 June 2017: When the US president, Donald Trump, announced his intention to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, one might have anticipated a hearty cheer from industry around the world relieved that business as usual could continue. Instead the opposite has happened. Across the United States, the business community is taking … Continue reading No more business as usual: the corporates stepping up to save the planet
From ABC Science, 8 June 2017: Astronomers have used the gravitational warping of light, predicted by Einstein nearly a century ago, to measure the mass of a distant star for the first time. The team, led by Kailash Sahu of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, measured the mass of a white dwarf star … Continue reading Einstein’s ‘impossible’ hope: Light bending theory directly observed in distant stars for first time
From ABC Science, 31 May 2017: Mummies from ancient Egypt have revealed another secret — some of them share very little of the sub-Saharan African ancestry that dominates the genetic heritage of modern Egyptians. The discovery, published today in Nature Communications, suggests the African heritage evident in modern Egyptian populations may have been the result … Continue reading Who were the ancient Egyptians? Mummy DNA reveals surprising clues
From ABC Science, 30 May 2017: Arctic peatlands may become a substantial source of a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide when they thaw, a new study suggests. The study by a team of Scandinavian scientists indicated that thawing permafrost could release nitrous oxide (N2O) — also known as ‘laughing gas’ — … Continue reading Arctic peatlands may release potent greenhouse gas as permafrost thaws
From The Guardian, 19 June 2017: Traffic congestion and social isolation are two concepts that don’t immediately appear to be connected. But in 2012, the Grattan Institute’s Social Cities report drew a direct line between inefficient urban transport and less time spent with friends and family. One estimate suggested every 10 minutes of commuting equates … Continue reading Smart city: using technology to tackle traffic and social isolation in Melbourne
From The Guardian, 13 June 2017: To illustrate the impact of battery storage on the electricity network in Australia, Prof Guoxiu Wang likes to compare it to the invention of refrigeration. “Before people invented the fridge, we produced food, we consumed food immediately,” says Wang, director of the Centre for Clean Energy Technology at the … Continue reading Battery storage and rooftop solar could mean new life post-grid for consumers
From The Guardian, 19 May 2017: Nearly a century ago, British scientist JB Haldane saw an energy future in which wind power would be used to generate hydrogen; a fuel he described as, weight-for-weight, the most efficient known method of storing energy. He thought this future was four hundred years away, but the so-called “hydrogen … Continue reading How Australia can use hydrogen to export its solar power around the world
Bianca Nogrady 