freelance science journalist and author
From Nature, 20 August 2025: From the smiles, bouquets and cheers among the crowd gathered outside the Higher Regional Court of Hamm in Germany on 28 May, it might have looked like those present were celebrating a win. In fact, they had just lost a ten-year legal battle. In 2015, Saúl Luciano Lliuya, a mountain … Continue reading Securing climate justice in the courtroom
From Nature, 12 July 2024: A New Zealand court has ruled that the University of Auckland breached its obligations to protect high-profile microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles from the intense abuse and harassment she experienced while providing public information about the COVID-19 pandemic. But the court did not find that the university had suppressed Wiles’ academic freedom … Continue reading Microbiologist wins case against university over harassment during COVID
From Nature, 22 May 2024: As a vocal advocate of vaccinations for public health, Peter Hotez was no stranger to online harassment and threats. But then the abuse showed up on his doorstep. It was a Sunday during a brutal Texas heatwave in June 2023 when a man turned up at Hotez’s home, filming himself … Continue reading Harassment of scientists is surging — institutions aren’t sure how to help
From Nature, 20 May 2024: A ubiquitous household pest has unexpected origins. A cockroach that lives in human dwellings all over the world is known as the German cockroach — but it did not come from Germany originally. A study published today1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the creature … Continue reading The origin of the cockroach: how a notorious pest conquered the world
From Nature, 12 March 2024: Indigenous Australians have been using fire to shape the country’s northern ecosystems for at least 11,000 years, according to charcoal preserved in the sediment of a sinkhole. The study was published on 11 March in Nature Geoscience1. The practice of cultural burning, also known as ‘fire-stick farming’, is integral to … Continue reading Indigenous Australian fire-stick farming began at least 11,000 years ago
From Nature, 13 December 2023: When it comes to renewable energy, India is lucky to have an abundance of natural resources. It is the seventh-largest nation on Earth, occupying around 2% of the planet’s land mass, and has a mainland coastline that stretches for 7,500 kilometres. Most regions experience between 250 and 300 sunny days … Continue reading Renewable energy for the subcontinent
From Nature, 13 December 2023: Faced with a skyrocketing rate of antimicrobial resistance, which is estimated to cause or contribute to millions of deaths around the world each year, the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2017 created a classification system for antimicrobial drugs. The WHO’s system, AWaRe, places all available antimicrobials into three categories: access, … Continue reading The fight against antimicrobial resistance
From Nature, 11 May 2023: Because it makes them better hunters, scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) have evolved a unique method to avoid losing body heat when they dive for prey in deep, cold waters: they close their gills. Numerous fish and marine-mammal species are known to dive from the warm surface to deeper waters … Continue reading Hammerhead sharks are first fish found to ‘hold their breath’
From Nature Middle East, 22 March 2023: Deficiency of an enzyme vital for the integrity of the membranes that encase muscle fibres is behind age-related muscle wasting and an inherited genetic disorder that causes severe neurological and muscle problems, researchers have found.In humans, genetic mutations affecting the function of the enzyme phosphatidylethanolamine cytidyltransferase (PCYT2) lead … Continue reading Enzyme loss linked to age related muscle wasting
From Nature Middle East, 6 April 2023: Horses have long held a special place in the culture, spirituality and day-to-day lives of North America’s Indigenous people, such as the Lakota and Comanche of the American southwest and Great Plains.Until recently, horses were thought to have been introduced to North America by European colonisers. Now, an … Continue reading The plain truth about North America’s horse history
Bianca Nogrady 