books – Margie Beilharz

Plantastic!

I enjoyed writing the Teacher Notes for CSIRO’s new picture book, Plantastic! A to Z of Australian plants. I took the opportunity to speak to the author, Cat Clowes, and the illustrator, Rachel Gyan, about producing the book. You can read my article and check out the book on the CSIRO blog.

Book review: ‘Wedderburn’ by Maryrose Cuskelly

Maryrose Cuskelly has chosen a difficult topic for this book: the murders in late 2014 of Greg Holmes and Greg’s mother and stepfather, Mary and Peter Lockhart. The killer was Ian Jamieson – a farming neighbour and former friend of Peter Lockhart’s. Their farms were south of Wedderburn in central Victoria, and the rural settingContinue reading “Book review: ‘Wedderburn’ by Maryrose Cuskelly”

Book review: Make grammar great again

What do you do when Donald Trump becomes president of the United States? Stop watching the news? Book a flight into space? Hope the next four years will pass really quickly? Melbourne copyeditor Meredith Forrester took a more proactive approach. Irritated by the President’s language-mangling tweets, she took it upon herself to respond with corrections.

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’sContinue reading “Science on your skin”

Review: Junkyard Planet

My review of Adam Minter’s Junkyard Planet: travels in the billion-dollar trash trade is out on Science Book a Day today: Do you recycle? Separate out your paper, cans and labelled plastic from your landfill waste? Take your computer waste to a resource recovery centre? Go you! I do too, and every little bit helps,Continue reading “Review: Junkyard Planet”

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.Continue reading “Australia’s best science writing 2015”

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?

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.

Uncertainty in the mail

I had a nice parcel in the mail today — Michael Brooks’ new book At the edge of uncertainty: 11 discoveries taking science by surprise. I’ve offered to review it for Science Book a Day, a project run by George Aranda (aka PopSciGuy), so I’ll read it with my notebook by my side. The book’s premise is to lookContinue reading “Uncertainty in the mail”