John Pickrell

John Pickrell is a freelance writer based in Sydney and the author of Flames of Extinction: The Race to Save Australia’s Threatened Wildlife. He was a science writing intern at Science News in 2002.

All Stories by John Pickrell

  1. Earth

    Killer Cocktails: Drug mixes threaten aquatic ecosystems

    Trace amounts of pharmaceutical drugs in waterways may work together to deform and kill native microscopic organisms.

  2. Materials Science

    Gems of War

    While international bodies grapple with regulatory schemes to stem the diamond trade that funds ongoing civil conflicts in African countries, scientists are attempting to develop methods for identifying gems from conflict zones.

  3. Humans

    Terrorism Repercussions: Scientists consider threats, opportunities after Sept. 11

    A new report from the American Association for the Advancement of Science considers the potential effects on academic research of government policies proposed in response to the terrorism attack of Sept. 11, 2001.

  4. Earth

    Monsoon Warning: Data hint at wet and blustery future

    Asian monsoons have been intensifying over the last 400 years, and they're slated to get worse.

  5. Health & Medicine

    More than Skin Deep? Beauty products may damage fetal development

    A new report shows that many cosmetics contain phthalates—a class of chemicals known to cause developmental deformities in animals.

  6. Animals

    Pesticides Mess with Immunity: Double whammy promotes frog deformities

    Agricultural pollutants may conspire with parasites to cause the epidemic of limb deformity that's sweeping through North America's frog populations.

  7. Earth

    Teenage Holdup: Pollution may delay puberty

    A new study of adolescents suggests that widespread environmental pollutants such as PCBs and dioxins may delay sexual development.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Cell-Phone Buzz: Contradictory studies heat up radiation question

    A new long-term animal study of cell-phone radiation suggests that emissions don't cause cancer, but studies by a second team hint that cell phones may cause damage in other ways.

  9. Tech

    Tiny rockets may advance minisatellites

    A new type of miniaturized rocket may bring microspacecraft one step closer to reality.

  10. Plants

    Mirror Image: Flowers with opposite styles have a fling

    Scientists have discovered a gene that controls whether flowers lean to the left or the right.

  11. Anthropology

    Searching for the Tree of Babel

    Researchers are using new methods of comparing languages to reveal information about the ancestry of different cultural groups and answer questions about human history.

  12. Earth

    Shelter from Space Storms: Energy rebounds from Earth

    NASA satellite observations show that Earth's outer atmosphere interacts dramatically with the solar wind and shields the planet from it.