freelance science journalist and author
From ABC Science, 5 October 2016: Can’t resist a chicken korma but pass up on a sweet dessert? A study, published today in Nature Communications, looked at the effect on human dietary preferences of a mutation in the gene for the melanocortin-4-receptor (MC4R). The MC4R is found on nerves in the brain, and influences what we … Continue reading Gene mutation drives compulsion to eat fatty foods
From Nature Index, 17 July 2016: Performing a medical procedure on a live animal isn’t for a faint hearted researcher. So when a village dog in rural India bit Ryan Boyko’s thumb, he figured it was a small price to pay (although he got a tetanus shot to be safe) for the opportunity to explore … Continue reading Tracing bloodlines for the roots of an age-old friendship
From BBC Future, 25 October 2016: “What’s on your mind?” This is how Facebook greets its 1.7 billion active users every day. It’s also a question that countless psychiatrists, psychologists and counsellors have asked their clients at the start of a session; a question we instinctively ask of a friend or family member looking troubled. … Continue reading Your Facebook status can reveal hidden signals about you
From BBC Future, 11 October 2016: Antibiotic resistance was around long before we started using antibiotics with a frequency and enthusiasm that borders on addiction. The same genes that modern bacteria are currently loading up on to protect themselves against antibiotics have been found in ancient bacteria frozen in Arctic permafrost for over 30,000 years. … Continue reading All you need to know about the ‘antibiotic apocalypse’
From BBC Future, 4 October 2016: Science fiction writers and moviemakers have shown us countless visions of humanity spread out across the Universe, so you might be forgiven for thinking that we’ve already got this in the bag. Unfortunately, we still have more than a few technical limitations to overcome – like the laws of … Continue reading The myths and reality of interstellar travel
From BBC Future, 18 October 2016: A diamond-encrusted iPhone can set you back $95m – but if this piece of i-bling is a little out of your price range, don’t feel despondent. Every smartphone contains precious metals including gold, silver, copper, platinum and palladium. This is more than just an amusing detail about the device … Continue reading Your old phone is full of untapped precious metals
(An edited version of this was delivered as a speech at the 2016 Rose Scott Women Writers’ Festival) So I’m a huge nerd, both in the writing sense and the science sense. In highschool, I used to write essays … for fun. I used to read books about science, purely for the delight I took in learning … Continue reading The privilege and responsibility of being a science journalist
From ABC News in Science, 1 September 2016: The oldest fossils known to date have been discovered in 3.7 billion-year-old rocks in Greenland by an Australian-led team of researchers. The discovery of the fossilised bacterial communities, known as stromatolites, could be the first clear biological evidence of the earliest known life on Earth, according to … Continue reading World’s oldest known fossils found in Greenland push evidence for life back by 220 million years
From ABC Health and Wellbeing, 19 August 2016: There’s an uncomfortable truth to modern medicine. That drug you take for your high blood pressure, the vaccine to prevent infectious disease, the pill to avoid pregnancy, the medical ointment for your skin condition, or even the pacemaker keeping your arrhythmia in check — all of those … Continue reading Could animal testing ever be phased out?
From Nature Outlook, 1 September 2016: If there is one buzzword dominating the political airwaves in Australia at the moment, it’s ‘innovation’. Since the launch of the government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda in December 2015, the idea that Australia needs innovation to drive the economy has been hammered into the public consciousness with all … Continue reading Australian research funding: a balancing act
Bianca Nogrady 