Louise Thomas

FREELANCE SCIENCE WRITER  

T/A Wordwise Science Communication

new works

KAREN case studies
Gazing at galaxies far, far away
Music without borders
Defending our borders
Growing the next generation of scientists
International CCS Seminar

Carbon Capture and Storage: Where are we now? (PDF 5MB).

Proceedings of the International CCS Seminar held in Wellington.
RSNZ Alpha
The energy we use in New Zealand homes. Alpha 134 - Royal Society of New Zealand
This ALPHA uses science to explore the ways we use energy in our houses and ask questions about the energy issues that face New Zealand in the future.
CRL Energy

December 2009:

Annual Research Review for CRL Energy Ltd. Work included writing and layout design.
Alpha 133:
Our place in space
Space research in New Zealand (PDF 750KB). Research by the ESA, NASA and others in the Southern Hemisphere. Work included writing and layout design.

ScienceLearn Hub science news
New Zealand science news for ages 12 to 16 years, added weekly see:

Kiwi ingenuity and future space vehicles

12/07/2010
Canterbury University’s Associate Professor Susan Krumdieck has been appointed as lead investigator working on heat shields for the next generation of space vehicles that will replace the space shuttles.

World’s largest radio telescope

02/07/2010
The Square Kilometre Array project is planning to build the world’s largest radio telescope. New Zealand and Australia have been shortlisted as a possible joint host for this project.

NZ swamp kauri reveals climate secrets

14/06/2010
British scientists are studying the rings of New Zealand swamp kauri preserved in peat bogs. This will provide information on climate fluctuations over the last 30,000 years.

Earthquakes

See my latest work on earthquakes at the Science Learning Hub

Inside the Earth
Seismic Waves
Moulding the Earth
Louise Thomas began freelance science writing in July 1998, since then she has completed numerous commissions about New Zealand science and technology for various mainstream media. In addition, she is a regular writer for the Royal Society of New Zealand's Alpha and Gamma series for secondary school science programmes.
Louise also enjoys writing for young children — two children’s science stories originally published in New Zealand have been published in the United States and Canada. Louise is the New Zealand Correspondent for the South Pacific Science Press in Australia, publishers of Position magazine and Spatial Business.

Louise also contracts for many organisations within the science community—contributing to newsletters, annual reports, research reports and press releases. These include the Association of Crown Research Institutes (ACRI), Coal Association of New Zealand (CANZ), CRL Energy Ltd, Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), Ministry of Research, Science and Technology, National Science and Technology Roadshow, Victoria University of Wellington, and the Wellington School of Medicine.

She has developed a science communication course, which was launched in 2007, for the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand.

Louise has a B.Sc in Earth Sciences from Massey University and a postgraduate certificate in Environmental Management from Victoria University of Wellington. Before becoming a freelance science writer she has worked in mineral observing, soil mapping, and seismic surveying fields, she has written and edited for various organisations including three and a half years as the communications adviser and Web master for the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology.

In 1999, Louise was awarded the Science Communicator of the Year by the New Zealand Association of Scientists — "for an outstanding contribution to advancing general appreciation of science in New Zealand".

She is a member of the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ) and the Science Communicators Association of New Zealand (SCANZ).

Other recent work

Creation of ‘synthetic’ cells landmark science

17/08/2010
A team of scientists led by Dr Craig Venter has created a synthetic life form that can survive and reproduce on its own. This is a landmark achievement in biology and biochemistry.

Space probe crash lands in Aussie outback

10/08/2010
A Japanese space probe that collected samples from a near-Earth asteroid crash landed in the Australian outback. Scientists are hoping that its sealed capsule will contain some asteroid fragments and dust.

Awesome Forces upgrade

02/08/2010
The Awesome Forces exhibition at Te Papa has been upgraded to reflect new scientific findings and to tell new stories about New Zealand’s geology, unique fauna and flora, and weather.

Carnivorous sea sponge singled out

20/07/2010
A carnivorous New Zealand sea sponge has been included in the top 10 most notable new species in the world, fully described and published in 2009.

Kiwi ingenuity and future space vehicles

12/07/2010
Canterbury University’s Associate Professor Susan Krumdieck has been appointed as lead investigator working on heat shields for the next generation of space vehicles that will replace the space shuttles.

World’s largest radio telescope

02/07/2010
The Square Kilometre Array project is planning to build the world’s largest radio telescope. New Zealand and Australia have been shortlisted as a possible joint host for this project.

New way of dating old things

28/06/2010
GNS Science recently launched a new accelerator mass spectrometer at its National Isotope Centre. The spectrometer can date samples containing carbon accurately up to 50,000 years old, plus or minus 35 years.

NZ swamp kauri reveals climate secrets

14/06/2010
British scientists are studying the rings of New Zealand swamp kauri preserved in peat bogs. This will provide information on climate fluctuations over the last 30,000 years.

9-year-old discovers new human ancestor

08/06/2010
The partial skeletons of 2 hominids were found in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa. The fossilised hominids have been tentitively labelled as Australopithecus sediba.

NZ’s rarest tree back from the brink

31/05/2010
One female specimen of Pennantia baylisiana was discovered in 1945. Propagation and selective treatment with hormones resulted in the production of self-fertile seedlings. When these seedlings mature, there may be a male tree among them.

New archaeological site on Auckland’s North Shore

24/05/2010
Moa bones, fish hooks and an adze head were found in Devonport, Auckland, in April 2010. This is a rare ‘first-settlement site’ close to the water’s edge.

Solander Island – an extinct volcano

17/05/2010
Geologists have recently visited the Solander Islands. The islands are eroded remnants of an extinct volcano and the only volcano in the Pacific Ring of Fire that is south of Mount Ruapehu.

Counting tagged giant kōkopu

10/05/2010
NIWA scientists are trying to locate tagged giant kōkopu that they had previously released into the Nukumea Stream in Ōrewa to test whether the native fish can be reintroduced into a stream.

Blackcurrants for beating asthma

03/05/2010
New research has shown that a compound found in blackcurrants may reduce lung inflammation and help people suffering from allergy-induced asthma.

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Site last updated: 23 August, 2010.
©  2010 Louise Thomas. All rights reserved.