What sparked from a poster seen at a medical conference in 2023 eventually led to a news feature in 2025. * Article: Will miracle HIV drug go on the PBS? * Outlet: The Saturday Paper * Length: 1400 words * Turnaround time: Two days * Number of interviews: Six “When you’re saving a person’
The most famous scientist you’ve never heard of. Making sense of the brain * Outlet: Australian Geographic * Length: 1979 words * Turnaround time: Eight weeks * Number of interviews: Four, all with the same person over a three-year period. “Never has a bodily organ been so adored as the brain – not since
Stand-off between councils, the NSW Rural Fire Service, state government and Auditor General. Stalemate over rural fire fleet * Outlet: The Saturday Paper * Length: 1395 words * Turnaround time: One week * Number of interviews: Four for quoting, two on background only, three who responded with a joint statement, and one who declined
I wonder if Putin knows my name now? Mounting evidence suggests Sputnik COVID vaccine is safe and effective * Outlet: Nature * Length: 1639 words * Turnaround time: Was supposed to be one week but ended up being two weeks. * Number of interviews: Three, with another five that never responded to requests for
With my own garden still a blackened ruin, I wrote about how Australia was scarred by the Black Summer of 2019/2020. The day Australia burned * Outlet: WIRED (UK) * Length: 4400 * Turnaround time: Four weeks * Number of interviews: 14 * Published: 21 April 2020 “In a really terrifying voice she said
A day-by-day how-to for reporting on medical/scientific conferences One of the joys of being a science/medical reporter is going to scientific and medical conferences. I’m not kidding – I genuinely love them. They are a frenetic and exciting hothouse of new ideas and information, where researchers who have
How my electricity retailer's app led me down a grid-scale rabbit hole to discover why my state’s power network is in so much trouble. Fossil fuels are unreliable backstops in the energy transition * Outlet: The Saturday Paper * Length: 1600 * Turnaround time: One week * Number of interviews: Seven
"Eat a bat and die, b*tch" – documenting the parallel pandemic of online abuse of scientists. ‘I hope you die’: how the COVID pandemic unleashed attacks on scientists * Outlet: Nature * Length: 3300 * Turnaround time: Seven weeks * Number of interviews: 22, including one by email, one anonymous, one who
Once a month I'm going to do a round-up of stuff I've been writing, reading, listening to and watching. This will be bonus content for paid subscribers, but this first one's for free. [First published on Substack on 7 December 2023] “You gotta set
Getting to the heart of the grey/white/pink matter. 'We need their brains': donating to the brain bank in search of a dementia cure [First published on Substack on 4 August 2023] * Outlet: The Guardian, 14 November 2018 * Length: 1750 words * Turnaround time: 10 weeks * Number of
"That time of the month, love?" [First published on Substack on 30 July 2023] * Title: The Chemical Question * Outlet: The Griffith Review, May 2021 * Length: 2500 words * Turnaround time: Two weeks * Number of interviews: Four ‘It’s my hormones, doc. It’s my hormones, and no one’s
Nematodes, HIV, fatherhood, electric cars and climate finance ... all in five days. [This piece was first posted on 29 July, 2023] Last week I wrote four pieces in five days – one biology, one social sciences, and two environmental pieces – and got ready to cover a major medical research conference this