Science – Page 2 – Bianca Nogrady

Australian researchers push to end politicians’ power to veto grants

March 15, 2022No Comments

From Nature, 10 March 2022: Researchers in Australia have endorsed a proposal to remove government ministers’ power to veto grant-funding decisions made by expert science committees. They say this veto ability is just one example of Australia’s political overreach in research, and is a threat to academic freedom. Legislators in Australia are considering whether to … Continue reading Australian researchers push to end politicians’ power to veto grants

‘I hope you die’: how the COVID pandemic unleashed attacks on scientists

October 14, 2021No Comments

From Nature, 14 October 2021: Infectious-diseases physician Krutika Kuppalli had been in her new job for barely a week in September 2020, when someone phoned her at home and threatened to kill her. Kuppalli, who had just moved from California to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, had been dealing with online abuse … Continue reading ‘I hope you die’: how the COVID pandemic unleashed attacks on scientists

First ancient human DNA found from key Asian migration route

September 17, 2021No Comments

From Nature, 26 August 2021: The 7,000-year-old skeleton of a teenage hunter-gatherer from Sulawesi in Indonesia could be the first remains found from a mysterious, ancient culture known as the Toaleans, researchers report this week in Nature1. The largely complete fossil of a roughly 18-year-old Stone Age woman was found in 2015 buried in a … Continue reading First ancient human DNA found from key Asian migration route

Book Talk Today: talking about climate change and carbon zero

April 1, 2021April 1, 2021No Comments

I was delighted to be invited on the Book Talk Today podcast, to talk with Aun Abdi about climate change, how we can get to carbon zero, and my new book with Wired UK and Penguin Random House UK.

Talking about clitori, mosquitos, and women in STEMM on Triple J

November 28, 2019No Comments

With Dr Karl off accepting his well-deserved UNESCO Kalinga Prize for the popularisation of science, I got to step into his shoes and take science questions from Triple J listeners this week, along with the delightful Linda Marigliano. Listen here.

Female researchers in Australia less likely to win major medical grants than males

October 23, 2019October 23, 2019No Comments

From Nature News, 23 October 2019: Female scientists in Australia were less likely to win a major type of medical-research grants this year than their male counterparts, despite an overhaul of the country’s science funding that was supposed to address gender inequity. The funding imbalance occurred in the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) … Continue reading Female researchers in Australia less likely to win major medical grants than males

Artificial intelligence shakes up drug discovery

September 11, 2019September 11, 2019No Comments

From The Scientist, 1 May 2019: Australia’s government drug safety watchdog sounded the alarm about the oral antifungal agent terbinafine in 1996. The drug, sold under the brand name Lamisil by pharma giant Novartis, had come onto the market in 1993 for the treatment of fungal skin infections and thrush. But three years later, the … Continue reading Artificial intelligence shakes up drug discovery

Navigating the world: why we all really need to get lost

June 3, 2019June 4, 2019No Comments

From the Sydney Morning Herald, 1 June 2019: ‘‘Get lost’’ is an insult most commonly flung around a primary-school playground. But according to science journalist M. R. O’Connor’s latest book, Wayfinding, it could be the very thing that holds the secret to our species’ intelligence, and its survival. ‘‘At a time of social change and … Continue reading Navigating the world: why we all really need to get lost

The biotechnologists making their mark on the international stage

May 30, 2019May 30, 2019No Comments

From Nature, 29 May 2019: Western nations claim much of the glory when it comes to biotechnology, but scientists elsewhere are making substantial progress. Meet five amazing biotechnology scientists working in Jamaica, Nepal, Malaysia, South Africa and Thailand. Read more.

Stem-cell and genetic therapies make a healthy marriage

May 20, 2019May 20, 2019No Comments

From Nature, 15 May 2019: Aside from a 20-second exposure to the outside world at birth, David Vetter spent his entire life cocooned in plastic. Afflicted by severe combined immunodeficiency or SCID, a hereditary disease that severely compromises or destroys the immune system, the ‘boy in the bubble’ was exquisitely vulnerable to infection. Eventually, a … Continue reading Stem-cell and genetic therapies make a healthy marriage