The Open Desk

Margie Beilharz

Freelance editor and writer in science, environment, education, health

Category: Uncategorised

  • Science on your skin

    One of the young women who works at one of our local cafés has an equation tattooed on the front of her neck. It’s hard to read, a bit complicated – she said it’s the equation for Einstein’s theory of relativity. Personally, I’m not willing to go that far in order to communicate science (much to everyone’s…

  • My Freelance Register posting is up

    Update 2018: We now have a national directory for Australian freelance editors, which you can find at http://iped-editors.org/Find_an_editor. Yay, my posting on the Editors Victoria Freelance Register is up. Here I am.

  • Editing at Hepburn Springs, and a life science editing accreditation

    The November Editors Victoria newsletter is out! Two days of editing in Hepburn Springs: what did those lucky editors learn at Redact? Reports on the three streams: manuscript editing with Nadine Davidoff, supercharging your business with Ilona Way and editing digital content with John Ryan. And the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS)…

  • Australia’s best science writing 2015

    Australia’s best science writing 2015 If you’re in Sydney next Tuesday (27 Oct 2015), you could attend the launch of the Best Australian Science Writing 2015 anthology, edited by science journalist Bianca Nogrady. The winner of the $7000 Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing will also be announced. More info and link to registration on the UNSW Science website.…

  • Citizen science: Deciphering old specimen notes for the Natural History Museum

    Here’s another citizen science project – especially for those who have a good eye for old-fashioned handwriting. The Natural History Museum in London is being helped by online volunteers who are transcribing old hand-written descriptions of the 780,000+ bird specimens in their collection. Some of the records date back to the 1830s but they were being handwritten…

  • 2015 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science – just announced

    The recipients of the 2015 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science were announced by Ian Chubb, Australia’s Chief Scientist, at a press conference today. Congratulations to:

  • Citizen science: measure 3D beak scans to help study bird evolution

    From your computer you can help Uni of Sheffield, UK, scientists study the evolution of biological diversity in birds. They are looking at beaks, which say a lot about a bird’s ecological niche (think hummingbird, toucan or pelican). The help they are after is marking ‘landmarks’ on 3D scans of beaks from birds in museum…

  • Science videoblog comp

    Got a science story to tell? Make a short video about it and enter RiAus’s Video Blog Competition [update: old link removed]. They are after creative, inventive and entertaining stories. There’s a ‘how to videoblog’ instruction video on the competition website. Entries close 16 October – then the video entries will be up online for…

  • Two prizes for editors: October 2015 newsletter

    I sent out the Editors Victoria October newsletter recently – new committee, voting on our future, Ballarat editor Brenton Thomas and a couple of editing prizes open.Update: The October 2015 newsletter is no longer available online.

  • Talking editing at the Wheeler Centre

    I’m looking forward to talking editing on a panel for Writers Victoria next Monday 7 September, in collaboration with Editors Victoria. If you’re in Melbourne, come along for an insight into the world of editors and editing.