freelance science journalist and author
From Monash Magazine, February 2015: One question being asked over and again by governments and agencies about the Ebola epidemic is: how many more cases to expect? Between the asking and the answering lie hugely complex calculations. These must take into account all that has happened with the spread of the virus so far, and … Continue reading The human numbers of Ebola
From Monash Magazine, February 2015: Cancer chemotherapy is far from subtle. It effectively means carpet-bombing the body with a toxic regimen that kills cancer cells, but also obliterates a lot of healthy cells in the process. The ultimate hope with this approach is that the cancer surrenders before the patient does. But what if cancer … Continue reading Medicine enters the nano world
From ABC News in Science, 11 February 2015: Australian scientists say they have unravelled a key mechanism in mice that may explain how obesity can be passed from a mother to her children. The mechanism may also provide insight into why obese women find it difficult to fall pregnant. According to their study, obese mothers … Continue reading Obesity damage to mum’s eggs passes to offspring
From ABC News in Science, 10 February 2015: A study of the most frequently used words across 10 different languages proves that we do always look on the bright side of life. Researchers from the Hedonometer Project, which aims to measure the real-time happiness of populations, used native speakers to rate their emotional response to … Continue reading Language proves we’re all optimists at heart
From ABC News in Science, 5 February 2015: Our brain’s reaction to pictures of angry or fearful faces could help predict our risk of developing depression or anxiety in response to stressful life events, a new study suggests. Researchers used MRI scans to examine activity levels in a part of the brain associated with our … Continue reading Angry faces may forecast mental health risk
From ABC Health and Wellbeing, 27 January 2015: Sixty years ago, childhood leukaemia was a uniformly fatal illness. With nothing in the medical arsenal to treat the disease, it killed just about every child who developed it. If a child is diagnosed with leukaemia today, they have around an 80 per cent of surviving beyond … Continue reading Being a ‘guinea pig’ in a clinical trial
From ABC Health and Wellbeing, 9 December 2014: “You’re too young to be in here.” I couldn’t agree more. I look around the cardiologist’s waiting room, guessing that I’m the youngest person by at least 20 years. Everyone else is slightly crumpled; soft, wrinkled and grey. But, despite my youthful vigour – well, maybe slightly … Continue reading When health anxiety set my mind (and heart) racing
From Australian Doctor, 21 November 2014: When Archie Cochrane attempted what he later described as his “first, worst and most successful clinical trial” among fellow prisoners of war in World War II suffering from jaundice and oedema, he might have been reassured that whatever the outcomes of his efforts, the majority of his study subjects … Continue reading The race to find a cure for Ebola
From ABC News in Science, 26 November 2014: Vultures manage to survive exposure to a host of nasty bacteria by keeping their own team of gut bacteria that outcompete even the most deadly pathogens, new research shows. The study of the gut microbiome of New World vultures, published today in Nature Communication, reveals a remarkably … Continue reading Vultures survive toxic diet with bacterial help
From Nature Outlook, 13 November 2014: At first glance, a child with sickle-cell disease may appear healthy. But what you cannot see — and what dominates the child’s life — are bursts of searing, crippling pain that strike without warning. These episodes require trips to hospital, and even the highest doses of the most powerful … Continue reading Life beyond the pain of sickle cell disease
Bianca Nogrady 