The road curves like a question mark through the dark forest. Sonya Sanders squints into the beam of her headlights. A shape sprawls on the bitumen up ahead. She’s here in response to a report of a dead koala. Now she thinks, heart sinking, that she’s found it. She knows she’ll have to step right … Continue reading
The RV Franklin bobbed gently on the surface of the Pacific Ocean. The sky darkened as night fell over the Manus Basin off the coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG). It was April 2000. The team of researchers onboard the Franklin were led by chief scientist Dr Ray Binns and was made up of experts from Australia and PNG. … Continue reading
Of late, I’ve been editing more often than writing my own pieces. It’s been very rewarding – never more so than when designing and producing these beautiful, accessible, multimedia-rich feature articles that celebrate CSIRO’s world-class research. We’re swimming through ocean forests in danger, driving a multi-resolution mapping revolution in space, visiting the world’s biggest telescope … Continue reading
Key points Glen Nagle will always remember the time he met Neil Armstrong. Backstage at an event, Glen knelt beside the iconic astronaut, and watched as Neil paged through a book Glen had brought along. It included profiles about people who had made it into space. Neil paused to sign a relevant photograph in the … Continue reading
Ofa Fitzgibbons was 39 years old when she first met her son. Today, Ofa is a Senior Advisor with our Strategic Partnerships Program but in 2019 she was a Communication Advisor. “I struggled with infertility for a decade and had given up hope of ever having a family of my own,” Ofa explained. But then … Continue reading
Sinéad Williams was born profoundly deaf. Then, in 2020, she lost what little hearing she had. The doctors told her she had developed sudden sensorineural hearing loss. “My world turned upside down. I was living in a silent world,” Sinéad recalled. It was one of the most anxious periods of her life. She was struggling … Continue reading
Rhys Nicholson, stand-up comedian and RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under judge, still remembers the first time they watched The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert — at the age of six. The iconic 1994 Australian comedy stars Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce as two drag queens, and Terence Stamp as a transgender woman, following their … Continue reading
“We’re probably walking above someone’s swimming pool now.” Roger Burrows has become used to walking on “icebergs” on dry land. In many areas of “super-prime” London, where the city’s super-rich have their homes, planning restrictions and conservation guidelines mean you can’t extend your property laterally or add floors on top. The solution? Dig down. Burrows … Continue reading
They flicked on the television just in time to see the second plane crash into the World Trade Centre. Moments before, 14-year-old Abdul Abdullah and his brother Abdul-Rahman Abdullah (older by nine years) had been playing Gran Turismo on their PlayStation at home in Perth; now they watched in horror as smoke poured out of … Continue reading
There are some people who would be nervous to hear the food they are about to eat has “a high grapple factor”. Fuchsia Dunlop is not one of them. Dunlop is a celebrated expert in Sichuan cuisine and the author of a number of bestselling cookery books. An ingredient like duck tongue, she explains, requires … Continue reading
Smriti Daniel 