Science journalist, author and communicator

My TED talk

Posted on April 17

In April I gave a TED talk to the TED meeting in Vancouver, Canada. The speakers were told beforehand that this was the ‘Mount Everest of public speaking’ and I can confirm this is true: a 12 minute memorised, filmed talk in front of a theatre of 2000 VIPs is pretty intense. I spoke about a strand from my book The Life Project: what the studies of British children have shown about how to do the best for our children.

The meeting and the talk were an incredible experience – and you can see how I did in early October, when the talk will be published on the TED.com site!

Other News

Editor of the Year award

Posted on August 22

I was delighted to win Editor of the Year at the Association of British Science Writers awards in 2022. This was for my work as Chief Magazine Editor for Nature,…

What to Believe – my new book

Posted on October 20

I’m starting on a new book, provisionally called What to Believe, to be published by Princeton University Press. The book will tell the story of how multiple disciplines have embraced…

Nature at 150 lectures

Posted on October 19

This year, Nature celebrates its 150th anniversary. As part of this I was lucky enough to be invited to give a public lecture at the University of Dunedin in New…

TED Summit 2019

Posted on August 19

Red Circle Speaker Community Workshops at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders. July 21-25, 2019, Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo: Bret Hartman / TED I attended the TEDSummit 2019 in Edinburgh from July…