The Best Australian Science Writing 2016

From the furthest reaches of the universe to the microscopic world of our genes, science offers writers the kind of scope other subjects simply can't match. Good writing about science can be moving, funny, exhilarating or poetic, but it will always be honest and rigorous about the research that underlies it. Now in its sixth year, The Best Australian Science Writing 2016 brings together knowledge and insights from Australia’s brightest thinkers as they explore the intricacies of the world around us. This lively collection of essays covers a wide range of subjects and challenges our perceptions of the world and how we exist within it.

Jo Chandler is an award-winning freelance Australian journalist, author and editor and an Honorary Fellow at Deakin University’s Contemporary Histories Research Group. She has filed news and features from assignments across sub-Saharan Africa, Papua New Guinea, rural and remote Australia, Antarctica and Afghanistan. She has earned distinctions as an essayist, profile writer and narrative journalist, and is recognised for work across a range of specialty areas: science; environment; health; human rights; women’s and children’s issues; aid and development. In late 2015 she was invited as a guest lecturer to Columbia University to discuss her work in PNG with students in the journalism and anthropology programs. Chandler is presently developing several freelance writing projects and producing her first radio documentary for ABC Radio National’s Background Briefing program.