freelance science journalist and author
From The Scientist, 13 July 2021: Just before Christmas last year, Julie Leven and her husband Des took their camper up to visit their son in northern New South Wales, Australia. Driving back at night to their home in Gilgandra, around 430 kilometers northwest of Sydney, they saw masses of white spots moving across the … Continue reading Mice plague eastern Australia in record numbers
From The Scientist, 1 October 2019: As droughts go, the one plaguing the antidepressant drug development landscape for the past few decades has been noteworthy. Since the advent of serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors in the 1980s and 1990s, there has been a dearth of new pharmacological therapies for mood disorders, says psychiatrist Samantha Meltzer-Brody, … Continue reading Antidepressant Approvals Could Herald New Era in Psychiatric Drugs
From The Scientist, 10 January 2020: Unprecedented Australian wildfires have extracted a heavy toll from the continent’s unique wildlife, with an estimated 1 billion animals killed, 10.7 million hectares (approximately 41,300 square miles) burned on the east coast, and more than 150 fires still burning in two states alone, according to news reports and the … Continue reading Scientists take stock of Australian wildlife devastated by fires
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
