Nicky Phillips Follow
Nicky Phillips is a Science Reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.
Sci-tech
Shot in the arm for mission to take stem cells from embryos
Nicky Phillips Scientists have used caffeine to achieve a stem cell breakthrough that many researchers thought impossible but which could lead to new therapies for many crippling diseases.
Science
Brain creates circuits to bypass areas of damage
Nicky Phillips Scientists have described for the first time how the brain can respond to damage in one area by forming complex new circuits in another brain region, away from the injured site.
Computing
Faster than a speeding atom: breakthrough to revolutionise computing
Nicky Phillips Australian scientists have developed a breakthrough technique to read information stored on single atoms that will significantly improve the accuracy of future quantum computers.
Sci-tech
Quantum leap in quest for super computer
Nicky Phillips Sydney engineers have established a technique to write and retrieve information on the nucleus of a single atom, a significant advance in the global race to build super-powerful quantum computers.
CSIRO accused of more shabby tactics
Linton Besser and Nicky Phillips In late 2004, Sylwester Chyb was teaching at the prestigious Imperial College in England when the award-winning entomologist was presented with an exciting opportunity - becoming a molecular cell...
Science second in toxic CSIRO work culture
Linton Besser and Nicky Phillips. Midway through last year, a loose alliance of disgruntled former staff - including some very prominent scientists - created a website called victimsofcsiro.
Exclusive
Call for inquiry as CSIRO comes under the microscope
Nicky Phillips and Linton Besser Confidential reviews of the CSIRO by some of the world's most accomplished scientists show that the once great institution is now unable to act in the best interests of advancing research.
Accusations CSIRO puts dollars before distinctions
Nicky Phillips and Linton Besser Publish or perish.
Novartis, minister launch inquiries
Linton Besser and Nicky Phillips Global drug giant Novartis has begun an ''internal investigation'' into a five-year deal it signed with a CSIRO spin-off company to buy an anti-counterfeit technology that the CSIRO and its partner...
Drug giant to probe deal with CSIRO spin-off
Linton Besser and Nicky Phillips Global drug giant Novartis has confirmed it has begun an "internal investigation" into a five-year deal it signed with a CSIRO spin-off company to buy an anti-counterfeit technology which the CSIRO...
CSIRO partner company placed in trading halt after global drugs giant duped
Linton Besser and Nicky Phillips DataDot Technology Ltd, a partner company to the CSIRO, has been placed in a trading halt by the Australian Securities Exchange after a Herald investigation revealed it and the country's peak...
An experiment in vial behaviour
Linton Besser and Nicky Phillips Things had not been going well for DataTraceDNA until a glimmer of hope appeared in 2006.
CSIRO duped global drug firm with generic chemicals as 'secret formula'
Linton Besser and Nicky Phillips The CSIRO has duped one of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies into buying anti-counterfeit technology that could be easily compromised - passing off cheap chemicals it had bought from China...
How the CSIRO cheated a global drugs giant
Linton Besser and Nicky Phillips The CSIRO has duped one of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies into buying anti-counterfeit technology which could be easily compromised - passing off cheap chemicals it had bought from...
Space
Students take rovers for test drive on museum's red planet
Nicky Phillips Few people can say they have driven a rover on Mars, but Jasmin Ramage, a year 10 student from Armidale, has come close.
Sci-Tech
Are microwave ovens bad for you?
Nicky Phillips There is no evidence that microwave exposure causes, or promotes, cancer.
The brain's task now is to reveal its own secrets
Nicky Phillips Over the past two centuries, modern science has charted vast quantities of our solar system and constructed detailed models of the invisible particles that make up the world's matter.
Sci-Tech
Obama offers $100m to map human brain
Nicky Phillips President Barack Obama announces ''Brain Initiative'', a bold new plan - with $100 million initial funding - to conquer the human body's most mysterious frontier.
De-extinction
Alive as a dodo
Nicky Phillips For more than 3 billion years since single-cell organisms first appeared on the planet, life has evolved in one direction only. When a plant or animal becomes extinct, there is no coming back.
