The Best Australian Science Writing 2013

Contributions from neuroscientists, climate commentators, psychologists, and science journalists share the billing with pieces from comedians, novelists, and poets in this collection of the best science writing in Australia. Rather than dry or abstract scientific theory, these essays address relevant, engaging, even entertaining topics such as Could the dodo make a comeback? What does science have to say about the sex in Fifty Shades of Grey? Is giving up meat really the greenest option? Do birds make art? and Can a psychologist interpret farts? With a foreword by comedian, musician, and self-confessed science nerd Tim Minchin, this provocative collection is brimming with intrigue, curiosity, and controversy.

Tim Minchin is an Australian actor, composer, comedian, and musician. He wrote the music and lyrics for the Tony Award–winning musical Matilda. Jane McCredie is an award-winning science journalist and the author of Making Girls and Boys: Inside the Science of Sex. She is the executive director of the New South Wales Writers’ Centre and writes a weekly blog on medicine for the Medical Journal of Australia’s electronic sister publication. Natasha Mitchell is the host of the Australian daily radio program Life Matters and the vice president of the World Federation of Science Journalists. She is the recipient of an MIT Knight Fellowship.