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The Best Australian Science Writing 2024
What lurks in a house of slime hidden in the middle of a forest? Why are AI scientists talking about the formula p(doom) – and what does it mean for humanity? Is there a place for psychedelics in our medicine cabinets?
The best science writing doesn’t just answer questions, it cracks them open. It dissects them, probes them and solves their mysteries. It takes you on a journey of discovery.
Science is a deeply human endeavour and the stories we tell about it can be powerful, lifechanging forces for good. At times they can also be worrying glimpses of what might lie ahead. They can show us the climate models that are predicting our future, how emojis might empower a new generation of Kaytetye language speakers, as well as how scientists create your favourite chip flavour.
This much-loved anthology – now in its fourteenth year – selects the most riveting, entertaining, poignant and fascinating science stories from Australian writers, poets, and scientists.
With a foreword by DeadlyScience founder Corey Tutt OAM, this anthology covers an extraordinary year filled with major moments in science.
**Includes the shortlisted entries for the 2024 UNSW Press Bragg Prize and the 2023 student prize-winning essay.**
The best science writing doesn’t just answer questions, it cracks them open. It dissects them, probes them and solves their mysteries. It takes you on a journey of discovery.
Science is a deeply human endeavour and the stories we tell about it can be powerful, lifechanging forces for good. At times they can also be worrying glimpses of what might lie ahead. They can show us the climate models that are predicting our future, how emojis might empower a new generation of Kaytetye language speakers, as well as how scientists create your favourite chip flavour.
This much-loved anthology – now in its fourteenth year – selects the most riveting, entertaining, poignant and fascinating science stories from Australian writers, poets, and scientists.
With a foreword by DeadlyScience founder Corey Tutt OAM, this anthology covers an extraordinary year filled with major moments in science.
**Includes the shortlisted entries for the 2024 UNSW Press Bragg Prize and the 2023 student prize-winning essay.**
- GenresNonfiction
336 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2024
15 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 18, 2025
Once again, an eclectic collection of science writing. This year's was a little less climate change focused, although James Purtill's bleakly short "Western Australia had its hottest summer ever, but climate change barely made the news" may be partly why science writers are no longer motivated to write pieces they feel will exhaust them with misery and disappear without a trace.
But some of the 'lighter'pieces here are really interesting - Belinda Smith on how chip flavours are made; Bianca Nogrady on how coffee flavours are made and perhaps the best "how it is done"piece, Matthew Ward Agius on solar challenges and what they are really achieving.
Others cover work that gives you hope, especially India Shackleford on Indigiemogis and language revival. And there are a few nicely thoughtprovoking big picture pieces, including Tabitah Carvan on how the wild creates our home.
But some of the 'lighter'pieces here are really interesting - Belinda Smith on how chip flavours are made; Bianca Nogrady on how coffee flavours are made and perhaps the best "how it is done"piece, Matthew Ward Agius on solar challenges and what they are really achieving.
Others cover work that gives you hope, especially India Shackleford on Indigiemogis and language revival. And there are a few nicely thoughtprovoking big picture pieces, including Tabitah Carvan on how the wild creates our home.
January 3, 2025
Partly science and those articles are good, as is the chance to learn about less known science topics. Sadly the selected articles are actually mainly opinion and not really science.
March 11, 2025
Full of interesting information, well written. This lets you know about contemporary science research.
December 3, 2024
[Review for Tasmanian Times]
Overwhelmed and disgusted by politics, climate inaction, and the looming collapse of global human civilisation? Unless you’re a sociopath, of course you are.
Yes, there are the usual cures for existential angst, but heroin is illegal, alcohol is expensive, and both will kill you.
Losing yourself in a good novel is a worthy option, but the gains from good science writing will take you into the world of ideas to discover deeper insights about ourselves and our universe. Science is also a fundamental counter to the dis- and misinformation that continuously pours into our lives via various media.
Which brings us to this year’s anthology from UNSW – The Best Australian Science Writing 2024.
This engaging, thoughtful and witty collection includes 34 essays and poems from scientists and science journalists, and includes a host of topics – the quirks of AI, the mysteries of slime mold, medical whodunnits, why dogs might be the best people, asks if covid was really a lab leak, holds Big Pharma to account, and so much more.
The editors, Jackson Ryan and Carl Smith, preface the brief essays with a foreword from Deadly Science founder, Corey Tutt, who calls out the failure of STEM education and industries to create ‘an equitable and inclusive environment’ for indigenous science. If that strikes the reader as ‘woke’ (a meaning-free signifier for Sky After Dark viewers to ignore reality), spend enough time on the frontlines of the non-indigenous exploitation of the land, and you might note we’re destroying what indigenous people cared for over the last six millennia in just two short centuries. In short, if we give a damn about our future, we (indigenous and non-indigenous alike) need Australian First Nations scientific perspectives as foundational to our learning and decision-making. Good science needs to be decolonised.
Overwhelmed and disgusted by politics, climate inaction, and the looming collapse of global human civilisation? Unless you’re a sociopath, of course you are.
Yes, there are the usual cures for existential angst, but heroin is illegal, alcohol is expensive, and both will kill you.
Losing yourself in a good novel is a worthy option, but the gains from good science writing will take you into the world of ideas to discover deeper insights about ourselves and our universe. Science is also a fundamental counter to the dis- and misinformation that continuously pours into our lives via various media.
Which brings us to this year’s anthology from UNSW – The Best Australian Science Writing 2024.
This engaging, thoughtful and witty collection includes 34 essays and poems from scientists and science journalists, and includes a host of topics – the quirks of AI, the mysteries of slime mold, medical whodunnits, why dogs might be the best people, asks if covid was really a lab leak, holds Big Pharma to account, and so much more.
The editors, Jackson Ryan and Carl Smith, preface the brief essays with a foreword from Deadly Science founder, Corey Tutt, who calls out the failure of STEM education and industries to create ‘an equitable and inclusive environment’ for indigenous science. If that strikes the reader as ‘woke’ (a meaning-free signifier for Sky After Dark viewers to ignore reality), spend enough time on the frontlines of the non-indigenous exploitation of the land, and you might note we’re destroying what indigenous people cared for over the last six millennia in just two short centuries. In short, if we give a damn about our future, we (indigenous and non-indigenous alike) need Australian First Nations scientific perspectives as foundational to our learning and decision-making. Good science needs to be decolonised.
October 12, 2025
Most of these short essays were informative, but some of them really came across as opinion pieces. Not as informative as previous versions, and if I wanted to read an opinion column I'd pick up a newspaper.
April 13, 2025
Some really interesting chapters, I got to learn about slime moulds!! An overall great read!
Read by Mahli
Read by Mahli
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews