Bianca Nogrady – författare

Man-made global warming is advancing inexorably. Are there ways to halt it?In this invaluable, one-stop guide Bianca Nogrady analyses the science of climate change and offers a concise overview of the ways in which our carbon emissions might be reduced. She examines the challenges posed by food and energy production and the cutting-edge technologies that could mitigate their polluting effects. She looks at initiatives to create green industry and transport. She explains the economics of emissions trading schemes and the practicalities of geoengineering plans to trap greenhouse gases. And she addresses the fundamental question: is it possible to safeguard our future before it's too late?

How does dust connect the cosmos with our bed sheets? Why do lobsters do the Mexican Wave backwards? Can we live without a pulse? And what makes us feel ‘wetness’ when there’s no such thing as ‘wet’ nerve receptors?Now in its fifth year, The Best Australian Science Writing 2015 draws on the knowledge and insight of Australia’s brightest thinkers in examining the world around us. From our obsession with Mars to the mating habits of fish, this lively collection covers a range of topics and delights in challenging our perceptions of the planet we think we know.With a foreword by Adam Spencer, this year’s collection includes the best of Australia’s sciencewriting talent: Tim Low, Elizabeth Finkel, Trent Dalton, John Pickrell, Christine Kenneally, Michael Slezak and many more.

Good science writing makes you feel. It makes you delight in the discovery of a black hole munching on a star, laugh at the image of aliens puzzling over golf balls on the Moon, wonder at the mystery of the Spanish influenza’s deadly rampage, grieve for baby shearwater chicks dying with plastic-filled stomachs, rage at the loss of the Great Barrier Reef and cheer for the clitoris’ long-overdue scientific debut.This ninth edition of The Best Australian Science Writing showcases the most powerful, colourful, insightful and brilliant news, feature, essay and poetry writing from Australian writers and scientists. It roams the length and breadth of science, revealing how a ceramic artist is helping to save the handfish, what is so dangerous about the hype around artificial intelligence and whether too much exercise is bad for the heart. It makes us think, feel and hopefully act.

A fascinating exploration of the universal human experience of death. We sat around and on the bed, laughing and joking as if this was a typical family gathering. The shrunken form of our dying grandmother lay on the bed, breathing fast and shallow, her once-bright eyes half closed and sunken in their sockets. To some it might have seemed disrespectful to be treating her as part of the furniture as she took what were her very last breaths on this earth. But to us, it seemed almost normal that we should carry on being her boisterous, jovial grandchildren, filling her ears with the sounds of normality as she slipped away.Looking back on that experience, Bianca Nogrady realised she had so many questions. Was her grandmother in pain? Could she hear them? Did she know they were there? Was she aware of what was happening to her? What was she experiencing as the spark of life that had sustained her for 87 years finally flickered out?We know so much about birth - generations of women have shared their experiences with their sisters, daughters and grand-daughters, medicine has exhaustively explored and documented every possible angle of birth, and it is a joyous moment that is shared with friends and family. But at the other end of a life, death is hidden, taboo, mysterious, fearful, rarely shared and often a lonely, dark book-end. Death will come to all of us - it is one of few experiences that unites every single being on the planet. But we don’t talk about it, we try not to think about it and anyone who breaks these unspoken taboos is viewed as being unnecessarily morbid. Yet many who have been present at the death of a loved one talk of it as being a gift, they have taken part in a profound moment. The End is an exploration of that experience, exploring the human experience of death from every angle - the spiritual, the historical, the physical, the metaphysical; from the perspective of those who have witnessed it, those who face it, and those who have somehow stepped back from it. The End investigates an experience common to every single one of us and does so in a way that is engaging, compelling, a bit funny and a bit quirky in places, heartbreaking in others, but most of all fascinating. The End provides a different framework through which to view death instead of the fear and mystery that so often shrouds this incredibly important moment of life.

Man-made global warming is advancing inexorably. Are there ways to halt it?In this invaluable, one-stop guide Bianca Nogrady analyses the science of climate change and offers a concise overview of the ways in which our carbon emissions might be reduced. She examines the challenges posed by food and energy production and the cutting-edge technologies that could mitigate their polluting effects. She looks at initiatives to create green industry and transport. She explains the economics of emissions trading schemes and the practicalities of geoengineering plans to trap greenhouse gases. And she addresses the fundamental question: is it possible to safeguard our future before it's too late?