Science WritingI have always loved writing about astronomy, and wrote my first articles for the West Yorkshire Astronomical Society's monthly magazine, Phobos, at the age of ten. During my undergraduate studies, at Durham University, I resurrected the University's astronomical society, and produced a regular magazine for the members in my free time.
Since moving to Australia, in 2010, I have returned to my love of science writing. When the Australian research news website 'The Conversation' launched, in 2011, I took the opportunity to regularly pitch articles, and have continued to publish with them in the decade since. To date, I have written more than 90 articles for The Conversation, which have reached a cumulative audience of more than four million over the years. These include articles for younger readers (as part of The Conversation's Curious Kids series), a number of 'Explainers' (such as "Explainer: why meteors light up the night sky", in February 2015), as well as pieces on recent research news, and an annual meteor shower calendar. My articles have been republished widely online, appearing on Space.com, IFLScience, Science Alert, and the ABC New Website, among others. Thanks to The Conversation's policy of publishing their articles under a Creative Commons licence, they have even been republished in print media around the world - I still remember the delightful e-mail I got from an older gentleman in the far south of New Zealand thanking me for the excellent article that appeared in his local regional newspaper! The catalogue of my articles for The Conversation can be found here, with particularly well received pieces including "Curious Kids: Are there living things on different galaxies" (published November 2018) and "I've always wondered: why are the stars, planets and moons round, when comets and asteroids aren't?" (published July 2021). In the last two years, I have also begun writing for SpaceAustralia.com, an excellent website dedicated to highlighting the work of the Australian Space community. I am currently writing an occasional series on SpaceAustralia about some of astronomy's great myths, starting with an article on my own work investigating whether Jupiter truly acts as a friend to the Earth ("Jupiter's Complicated Relationship With Life on Earth", published in October 2021). |
A screenshot of my catalogue of articles at The Conversation, as of 26th December, 2021. Feel free to click on the image to go to my Conversation profile, in order to take a look at some of the things I've written to date!Screenshot of the first of a series of articles for SpaceAustralia.com, discussing some of the great myths that surround our knowledge of the universe around us. To read the article, simply click on the image!Screenshot of the opening of an article I wrote in February, 2011, with my friend and mentor Prof Barrie Jones, for Astronomy & Geophysics. Again - if you want to read the article, simply click the image! |