Blog
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FameLab Australia
If you’re a young researcher passionate about science, want to up your presentation and media skills and fancy a trip to the UK’s leading science festival… read on. Applications for FameLab Australia 2015 are open Tuesday 27 January – Friday 27 February 2015. http://au.live.solas.britishcouncil.net/programmes/science/famelab. [Update – old link removed]
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Photonics, music, discovery: creativity in science
Just in case you still think that creative people do arts and the sciences are for people who are good at knowing stuff but lack imagination, have a look at this RiAus interview with physicist (and cellist) Tanya Monro. Apart from being the only person (perhaps apart from Ian Thorpe) who I’ve heard attribute their…
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Freelancers thank the bustling times
In the Guardian’s list of “authorisms”: The top 10 words invented by writers Freelance: i) One who sells services to employers without a long-term commitment to any of them. ii) An uncommitted independent, as in politics or social life. The word is not recorded before Sir Walter Scott introduced it in Ivanhoe, which (among other…
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Making molecules crystal clear
Crystallography is one of those mysterious scientific techniques you hear about – and 2014 has been the International Year of Crystallography. But what is it really? CSIRO have posted a great explanation of how we can bounce X-rays off crystals to see the structure of the component molecules when they are too small to be…
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Redesign
I hope you like the new design. I’ve changed to a new WordPress theme called Editor – it seemed appropriate, and I like the look of it.
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The good and bad of global recycling
Soon I’ll be reviewing Adam Minter’s new book Junkyard Planet for Science Book a Day – just waiting for that parcel in the mail! George Aranda has already posted a synopsis and book trailer – they’re new thing, have you noticed?
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Decoy nest protects young yellow-rumped thornbills
These little brown birds, seen flitting around woodlands and occasionally my garden, are clever architects whose nest deceives potential predators. I discovered this after I chose to write a piece on the yellow-rumped thornbill for the Bimblebox 153 Birds Project—a conservation meets art project highlighting the bird species recorded in Bimblebox Nature Refuge in Queensland, which is…
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Yellow-rumped thornbill: Bimblebox Art Project
This is the text of my audio piece on the yellow-rumped thornbill for the Bimblebox 153 Birds Art Project, which is touring around Queensland to raise awareness of the Bimblebox Nature Refuge, which is threatened by coal mining. 153 species of birds have been spotted in the reserve. Yellow-rumped thornbills (Acanthiza chrysorrhoa) are endemic to Australia and widespread, particularly…
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Book review: ‘At the edge of uncertainty’
My review of Michael Brooks’s book At the edge of uncertainty: 11 discoveries taking science by surprise was posted on Science Book a Day today. You can find it at http://sciencebookaday.com/2014/10/23/margie-beilharz-reviews-at-the-edge-of-uncertainty-11-discoveries-taking-science-by-surprise/ Thanks Science Book a Day George Aranda, it was fun to write. Read my other review posts.
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Ten or more of just about everything science communication
You know how blogs posts/tweets etc entice you in with a number in the heading (ten best …, five tips on …)? Here’s even better: a compilation of lists and articles on all aspects of science communication from this week [update – old link removed], put together by Kirk Englehardt, Director of Research Communication and Marketing at Georgia Institute of…
Margie Beilharz – The Open Desk: Freelance editing and writing 