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Nicky Phillips

Nicky Phillips is Science Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald.

How five Aussie icons will fare in a warmer world

Nicky Phillips For the first time scientists have revealed the limits of some of Australia's most iconic landmarks to adapt to climate change.

Thundersnow: rare weather event hits Blue Mountains

Thundersnow: a rare weather event where snow falls during a thunderstorm.

Nicky Phillips A rare meteorological spectacle swept across the Blue Mountains last night, bringing snow in the midst of a dramatic thunder and lightening storm.

Big freeze blasts large parts of NSW

Snowpocalyse: snow falls in Hampton in the Central Tablelands.

Nicky Phillips A blanket of snow has fallen across large parts of NSW from the central tablelands to the Victorian border and more is expected to fall later on Sunday. 

Dead and dying: the slow demise of river red gums in the Macquarie Marshes

Ghostly: Decades of river regulation and the drying climate have devastated the wetland forests.

Peter Munro and Nicky Phillips Nearly half of the river red gums, a keystone species for the 200,000-hectare Macquarie Marshes, have died in the past 20 years.

Citizen scientists: How you can contribute to climate science

Animal selfie: an inquisitive kangaroo captured on a remote-sensing camera.

Nicky Phillips You're probably familiar with celebrity selfies, or those posted by your Facebook friends, but soon the internet will be flooded with a new kind - animal selfies. 

How climate change could alter the food on your plate

Climate change will affect food production.

Nicky Phillips and Simon Letch Climate change will significantly affect food production. Here's how the food on your plate may change.

What climate change will do to your loaf of bread

The larger loaf on the right was made with wheat grown in today's conditions. The loaf on the left was grown in high carbon dioxide conditions.

Nicky Phillips If the promise of higher temperatures, rising sea levels and more frequent natural disasters doesn't convince you of the urgent need for the world to act on climate change, maybe this picture will.

Sydney weather: Unseasonably warm ocean temperatures won't last much longer

A man at Merewether Ocean Baths dips a toe in the water to check the temperature this morning.

Nicky Phillips If you prefer your ocean temperature on the warm side, you had better get in quick for a final swim.

Novice runner embarks on Herald half marathon to raise funds for endangered rhinos

In South Africa, poachers kill one rhino every eight hours.

Nicky Phillips Since Danielle Fryday went to Africa in 2007, rhinos number have plummeted. But she has a plan to revive their numbers.

Alarms do not deter whales from fishing lines and nets: study

SH NEWS. August 7, 2014. Humpback whales in Sydney on August 5, 2014. Photo:

Nicky Phillips Whales, it seems, just do not want to listen. Even when it is for their own good.

Corals near dredge sites have twice as much disease, study

Nicky Phillips An independent study has revealed the significant impact dredging has on coral reefs, contradicting claims made by the federal government and port developers that dredging at Abbot Point would have...

'Curiosity': the cat-killing bait to protect native species

Proponents say curiosity can reduce feral cat numbers by 80 per cent.

Tom Arup and Nicky Phillips A lethal bait called "curiosity" designed to kill feral cats will be the initial focus of a new national commissioner to save threatened species.

Wally Lewis' daughter participates in world-first study of cochlear implants

Nicky Phillips Almost two decades after the daughter of rugby league legend Wally Lewis, Jamie-Lee, received a cochlear implant researchers will peer inside her brain to learn how it has adapted to the...

Where to spot whales in Sydney

Humpback Whales breach off the coast of Sydney.

Nicky Phillips For someone who studies animals, Rob Harcourt has the unusual advantage of being able to observe his subjects from home.

Little penguins big in scientific studies

Nicky Phillips The kill takes no more than a few seconds. When little penguins are about to snaffle a fish they speed up on their prey before stopping mid-water where, with head down and tail up, they swallow their...

Toxic estuaries in NSW making rock oysters infertile


Nicky Phillips High concentrations of metals in Port Jackson, Port Kembla and Botany Bay are having a major impact on marine life, researchers have found.

Tasmanian tiger's cousin was a more ferocious killer

Nicky Phillips The Tasmanian tiger had the fierce name, but new research has found a distant cousin was a far more ferocious killer.

Thorny issue of finding a new frog


Nicky Phillips Jodi Rowley can barely contain her excitement when she describes the bizarre new species of frog she helped discover in Vietnam.

Dog gone: scientists confirm the dingo is a unique species


Nicky Phillips Since the arrival of westerners in Australia more than 200 years ago, the dingo has been known as Australia's native dog. But it turns out that our native mutt is not really a mutt.

Climate change to make downpours more violent: expert


Nicky Phillips If you're sick of the heavy rain, you better get used to it. The intense downpours and flash flooding Sydney and the Illawarra experienced over the past few days are going to become more frequent, a...