freelance science journalist and author
Science reporting
From ABC News in Science, 22 November 2016: The production of cement is a major source of carbon dioxide, but new research suggests the material that makes up our concrete jungles also plays an important role in reabsorbing carbon emissions. But as cement ages and weathers over time, it also absorbs carbon dioxide in … Continue reading Concrete products reabsorb nearly half CO2 released in cement manufacture
From ABC Science, 8 November 2016: You may struggle to see your computer screen as you get older, but we are not the only primates to suffer from declining vision as we age. The discovery, published today in the journal Current Biology, challenges the idea that we live longer after the end of our reproductive … Continue reading Bonobos suffer from failing eyesight as they get older
From the Guardian, 4 November 2016: In July 2010, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) took a $32m gamble on geothermal energy, investing in Australia’s first demonstration of geothermal electricity generation. Six years later, the wells in South Australia’s Cooper Basin have been filled with concrete and abandoned, and the geothermal exploration company involved – … Continue reading ‘The heat is there’: is there a future for geothermal energy in Australia?
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, 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
(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 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
From ABC News in Science, 31 May 2016: Ancient charred grains of rice and mung beans excavated from Madagascar provide the first archaeological evidence that ancestors of people living on the East African island known as Malagasy came from South-East Asia, scientists say. The findings, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of … Continue reading Ancient rice ‘first evidence’ Madagascan ancestors crossed Indian Ocean from South-East Asia
From ABC Science, 12 May 2016: The oldest fossils of cosmic dust ever discovered provide a glimpse into atmospheric conditions above the Earth more than 2.7 billion years ago and could do the same on other planets. A group of Australian and British researchers uncovered the micrometeorites — which are barely the width of a … Continue reading World’s oldest fossil micrometeorites ever found contain hints of oxygen in early Earth’s atmosphere
Bianca Nogrady 