Writing
Featured Work:

How DNA in dirt is shaking up the study of human origins
Nature, March, 2026
Researchers are pulling clues from genetic material in ice age soils and rewriting chapters of human history. Read more...

Is this the future of food? 'Sexless' seeds that could transform farming
Nature, September, 2025
Scientists are tinkering with plant genes to create crops that seed their own clones, with a host of benefits for farmers. Read more...

Bone idol
The Monthly, June, 2025
Looking for dinosaur bones with the volunteer whose prehistoric amphibian discovery became Victoria’s fossil emblem. Read more...

Unethical studies on Chinese minority groups are being retracted — but not fast enough, critics say
Nature, January, 2024
Campaigners who want scrutiny of biometrics research on Uyghurs, Tibetans and other groups are frustrated by slow progress. Read more...

Humanity’s oldest art is flaking away. Can scientists save it?
Nature, December, 2023
Ancient humans painted scenes in Indonesian caves more than 45,000 years ago, but their art is disappearing rapidly. Researchers are trying to discover what’s causing the damage and how to stop it — before the murals are gone forever. Read more...

Unvaxxed: Trust, truth and the rise of vaccine outrage
Hardie Grant Books and Crikey, June, 2022
Unvaxxed is a nuanced, timely look at vaccine hesitancy and how uncertainty and misinformation have influenced the Australian experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more...

Why the WHO took two years to say COVID is airborne
Nature, April, 2022
Early in the pandemic, the World Health Organization stated that SARS-CoV-2 was not transmitted through the air. That mistake and the prolonged process of correcting it sowed confusion and raises questions about what will happen in the next pandemic. Read more...
A more comprehensive list:
Nature
A full list of my Nature publications can be accessed here.
Did Homo erectus and Denisovans mate? Tooth proteins hint at ancient trysts, Nature, May 2026
How DNA in dirt is shaking up the study of human origins, Nature, March 2026
Is this the future of food? 'Sexless' seeds that could transform farming, Nature, September 2025
First ever skull from ‘Denisovan’ reveals what ancient people looked like, Nature, June 2025
Brain cells given an ‘invisibility cloak’ fix Parkinson’s symptoms in rats, Nature, April 2025
Mysterious human fossil found in Taiwan was a Denisovan, Nature 2025
‘It can feel like there’s no way out’ — political scientists face pushback on their work (with Alison Abbott), Nature, June 2024
A 27,000-year-old pyramid? Controversy hits an extraordinary archaeological claim, Nature, November 2023
Why is Delhi’s air pollution so bad right now? Nature, November 2023
Menopausal chimpanzees deepen the mystery of why women stop reproducing, Nature, October 2023
Australia’s feral horses need ‘urgent’ control: scientists welcome latest report, Nature, October 2023
Seize the moment: researchers have a rare opportunity to make progress in protecting global biodiversity, Nature (editorial), October 2023
A new human species? Mystery surrounds 300,000-year-old fossil, Nature, September 2023
Australia grapples with how to investigate scientific misconduct, Nature, August 2023
Threatened coastal species absent from Chinese protection lists, Nature, August 2023
Short arms and lanky legs: the genetic basis of walking on two legs, Nature, July 2023
How to educate the world: prioritize funding and data, Nature (editorial), July 2023
Ancient-DNA researcher fired for ‘serious misconduct’ lands new role, Nature, June 2023
‘Science was heard’: Woman who was convicted of killing her children pardoned after inquiry, Nature, June 2023
New Zealand volcano: science agency pleads guilty to risk-assessment charge, Nature, June 2023
Biggest ever study of primate genomes has surprises for humanity, Nature, June 2023
Why is India dropping evolution and the periodic table from school science? Nature (editorial), May 2023
India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks — experts are baffled, Nature, May 2023
China is using satellites to police the protection of nature — but will it work? Nature, May 2023
China’s souped-up data privacy laws deter researchers, Nature, May 2023
Wuhan market samples fail to shed further light on COVID origins, Nature, May 2023
Australian researchers welcome plan to curb politicians’ power to veto grants, Nature, April 2023
Global scholars decry funding ban on influential Indian research centre, Nature, April 2023
COVID-origins data from Wuhan market published: what scientists think, Nature, April 2023
Facelift for T. rex: analysis suggests teeth were covered by thin lips, Nature, March 2023
Beethoven’s cause of death revealed from locks of hair, Nature, March 2023
Humans have lived on the Tibetan Plateau for 5,000 years, Nature, March 2023
Who’s the most infectious of all? The COVID super-superspreaders, Nature, March 2023
Indoor air is full of flu and COVID viruses. Will countries clean it up? Nature, March 2023
Big dino, little dino: how T. rex’s relatives changed their size, Nature, February 2023
Sea life bounced back fast after the ‘mother of mass extinctions’, Nature, February 2023
There’s no room for COVID complacency in 2023, Nature (editorial), December 2022
67-million-year-old fossil upends bird evolutionary tree, Nature, November 2022
Ancient skull uncovered in China could be million-year-old Homo erectus, Nature, November 2022
Charge dropped against New Zealand science agency after deadly volcano eruption, Nature, October 2022
Climate justice: UN rules Australia violated islander rights, Nature, October 2022
What scientists have learnt from COVID lockdowns, Nature, September 2022
Why the WHO took two years to say COVID is airborne, Nature, April 2022
The COVID pandemic has harmed researcher productivity – and mental health, Nature, November 2021
Science agency on trial following deadly White Island volcano eruption, Nature, October 2021
Long COVID and kids: scientists race to find answers, Nature, July 2021
Mix-and-match COVID vaccines: the case is growing, but questions remain, Nature, July 2021
Does vaccinating adults stop kids from spreading COVID too? Nature, June 2021
Why indoor spaces are still prime COVID hotspots, Nature, March 2021
Superspreading drives the COVID pandemic — and could help to tame it, Nature, February 2021
Contact-tracing apps help reduce COVID infections, data suggest, Nature, February 2021
COVID-19 rarely spreads through surfaces. So why are we still deep cleaning? Nature, January 2021
What new COVID variants mean for schools is not yet clear, Nature, January 2021
Nature's 10: ten people who helped shape science in 2020 – Jacinda Ardern, Nature, December 2020
Why many countries failed at COVID contact-tracing — but some got it right, Nature, December 2020
Why schools probably aren’t COVID hotspots, Nature, October 2020
Censored: Australian scientists say suppression of environment research is getting worse, Nature, September 2020
China’s coronavirus vaccine shows military’s growing role in medical research, Nature, September 2020
Australia is cracking down on foreign interference in research. Is the system working? Nature, August 2020
Mounting evidence suggests coronavirus is airborne — but health advice has not caught up, Nature, July 2020
Is the coronavirus airborne? Experts can’t agree, Nature, April 2020
Citizen crowds flock to assist coronavirus research, Nature Index, April 2020
Coronavirus outbreak: what’s next, Nature, January 2020
Catastrophic Australian bushfires derail research, Nature Index, January 2020
‘Deathly silent’: Ecologist describes Australian wildfires’ devastating aftermath, Nature, January 2020
Australian biobank repatriates hundreds of ‘legacy’ Indigenous blood samples, Nature, December 2019
Head of ancient-DNA lab sacked for ‘serious misconduct’, Nature, December 2019
Cosmos
A selection of articles published in the now-defunct Cosmos Magazine:
Strategies behind the great vaccine race, Cosmos Magazine, August 2020
Role Models in a time of pandemic, Cosmos Magazine, June 2020
COVID-19: the open data pandemic? Cosmos Magazine, May 2020
Diverse genomes open new window into human history, Cosmos Magazine, March 2020
Indonesian rocks show ubiquity of ancient human art, Cosmos Magazine, March 2020
Tiny bird-like dinosaur smallest ever found, Cosmos Magazine, March 2020
Skulls and skills varied in archaic Homo erectus, Cosmos Magazine, March 2020
Distant human relative mixed with our cousins, Cosmos Magazine, February 2020
West Africans share genes with ancient mystery man, Cosmos Magazine, February 2020
Stone tools reveal intrepid travels of the Neanderthals, Cosmos Magazine, January 2020
Children’s graves reveal genetic diversity of ancient West Africa, Cosmos Magazine, January 2020
Java Man not so old after all, Cosmos Magazine, January 2020
Java Man’s last stand, Cosmos Magazine, December 2019
The world’s oldest hunting scene, Cosmos Magazine, December 2019
Did bad luck kill the Neanderthals? Cosmos Magazine, November 2019
Ancient enamel sheds light on extinct giant ape, Cosmos Magazine, November 2019
Sacred Egyptian ibises were wild birds, Cosmos Magazine, November 2019
Likely human homeland identified, Cosmos Magazine, October 2019
How mammals inherited the Earth, Cosmos Magazine, October 2019
Huge genomic changes an afterglow of archaic human pairings, Cosmos Magazine, October 2019
Bunny bone bonanza shows Neanderthals skinned rabbits, Cosmos Magazine, October 2019
Early Cretaceous predator discovered in Thailand, Cosmos Magazine, October 2019
There was life, but not as we know it, Cosmos Magazine, October 2019
No bones about it: a first glimpse of what Denisovans looked like, Cosmos Magazine, September 2019
An ancestor ‘modern in many ways’, Cosmos Magazine, September 2019
Massive genome study reveals South Asia’s prehistory, Cosmos Magazine, September 2019
Why are fossils more often male? Cosmos Magazine, September 2019
We’ve been changing the planet for thousands of years, Cosmos Magazine, August 2019
Ape-like face of early human ancestor revealed, Cosmos Magazine, August 2019
Lifting the lid on primate brains, Cosmos Magazine, August 2019
Humans pushed cave bears towards extinction, Cosmos Magazine, August 2019
European pigs shook off their ancestry, Cosmos Magazine, August 2019
Living the high life in the stone age, Cosmos Magazine, August 2019
A Millennium Falcon from back in the Cambrian, Cosmos Magazine, August 2019
What makes this dragon fierce, Cosmos Magazine, July 2019
Ancient ancestors cared about their kids, Cosmos Magazine, July 2019
The peopling of the Americas, Cosmos Magazine, July 2019
Ancient DNA sheds light on early cattle, Cosmos Magazine, July 2019
The oldest known modern human in Europe, Cosmos Magazine, July 2019
A rare dental trait lives on, Cosmos Magazine, July 2019
Ancient DNA sheds some light on a Mediterranean mystery, Cosmos Magazine, July 2019
Some prehistoric crocs were vegetarians, Cosmos Magazine, June 2019
Early humans may have shared Europe with a giant bird, Cosmos Magazine, June 2019
Neanderthal groups more closely related than we thought, Cosmos Magazine, June 2019
Monkey tool design changed over millennia, Cosmos Magazine, June 2019
Ediacaran organisms grouped together to access food, Cosmos Magazine, June 2019
Gender inequality arose 8000 years ago, Cosmos Magazine, June 2019
For those about to rock: the birthplace of humanity’s tool kit found, Cosmos Magazine, June 2019
Jawbone puts Denisovans on the Tibetan Plateau at least 160,000 years ago, Cosmos Magazine, May 2019
DNA remnants of three separate Denisovan populations found in human genomes, Cosmos Magazine, April 2019
New fossil human relative found in the Philippines, Cosmos Magazine, April 2019
Two millennia pile-on at burial mound, Cosmos Magazine, April 2019
Warm weather pushed Neanderthals into cannibalism, Cosmos Magazine, March 2019
Claim that Australia was settled 60,000 years earlier than thought disputed, Cosmos Magazine, March 2019
Chinese fossil site rivals Burgess Shale, Cosmos Magazine, March 2019
Grass, shrubs and dryness: a year in the life of a giant sloth, Cosmos Magazine, February 2019
Ape-like or human? Disagreement erupts over Neanderthal posture, Cosmos Magazine, February 2019
Ancient humans, fearless squirrel hunters, Cosmos Magazine, February 2019
Are these Denisovan teeth? We may never know, Cosmos Magazine, January 2019
Neanderthal genes influence human head shape, Cosmos Magazine, December 2018
Revealed at last: Australia’s fearsome marsupial lion, Cosmos Magazine, December 2018
Humans and Neanderthals were frequent lovers, genetics reveals, Cosmos Magazine, November 2018
Ancient African extinctions: humans off the hook, Cosmos Magazine, November 2018
Neanderthal head injury less common than thought, Cosmos Magazine, November 2018
Primates of the Caribbean: dead monkeys do tell tales, Cosmos Magazine, November 2018
Surprise find: Neanderthals show evidence of lead contamination, Cosmos Magazine, November 2018
Out-of-Africa wasn’t much of a tough gig, findings suggest, Cosmos Magazine, October 2018
Madagascar: claims for early settlement debunked, Cosmos Magazine, October 2018
Making do, at a pinch: Neanderthal used precision grips, not power, Cosmos Magazine, September 2018
Claim for early humans in Madagascar disputed, Cosmos Magazine, September 2018
Bring back that loving feeling, Cosmos Magazine, December 2017
Neanderthal extinction a fizzle, not a bloodbath, Cosmos Magazine, November 2017
Schizophrenia, cholesterol, eating disorders and a nice tan – our Neanderthal legacy, Cosmos Magazine, October 2017
Neanderthals’ DNA makes its presence felt, Cosmos Magazine, February 2017
Jawbone and teeth reveal Hobbit’s 700,000-year-old ancestors, Cosmos Magazine, June 2016
Where did we come from? A primer on early human evolution, Cosmos Magazine, June 2016
Others
The Monthly
Bone Idol, June 2025
Bait and Switch, November 2019
UnDark
An Identity Crisis for the Australian Dingo, August 2019 (republished in The Atlantic)
Science
Relocating Australian tortoise sets controversial precedent, Science, August 2016
Small mammals vanish in northern Australia, Science, September 2014
Heat wave forecasts debut in scorching Australia, Science, February 2014