The Open Desk

Margie Beilharz

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

Tag: science

  • 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…

  • 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:

  • 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…

  • Decoy nest protects young yellow-rumped thornbills

    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…

  • 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…

  • 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 look…