Mike McRae

Mike McRae

ScienceAlert

Mike McRae is a part-time Journalist at ScienceAlert. He has been telling science stories in one form or another for more than 20 years, and expertly navigates a broad range of subjects, from health and neuroscience to the weirdness of quantum physics. From classroom teacher to journalist, Mike has contributed to the CSIRO's magazines, The Guardian, the ABC and Australian Financial Review. He is the author of popular science books "Tribal Science: Brains, Beliefs," and "Bad ideas and Unwell: What Makes a Disease a Disease?" Mike is slowly building a collection of cephalopod tattoos on his right arm and swears there's still room for a nautilus or two.

Latest articles by Mike McRae

'Alice and the Cheshire Cat', c1910. From Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.

Physicists give Schrodinger's cat a cheshire grin

By Mike McRae published

Physicists have shown how a particle might show its face in a corner of an experiment without needing its body anywhere in sight, like a grin without a cat.

Physics & Mathematics
Human-made "stuff" now outweighs all biomass on Earth.

Human-made stuff now outweighs every living thing on Earth

By Mike McRae published

Planet Earth
Duckbill dinosaurs evolved in North America, spreading to South America, Asia, Europe and finally Africa.

The fossil of a duckbill dinosaur has been found on the 'wrong' continent

By Mike McRae published

The final chapter of dinosaur history is a tale stretching across two very different worlds, each a vast supercontinent dominated by its own unique mix of predators and herbivores.

Fossils
Shown here, a mole called Talpa europaea, which is in the same genus as the Iberian mole (Talpa occidentalis).

Female moles grow testicles to fight through their brutal underground existence

By Mike McRae published

To help moles fight in the brutal underground world, evolution has granted the female mole a generous dose of 'roid rage' by tacking some testicles onto her ovaries.

Land Mammals
Man doing a forearm stretch.

More humans are growing an extra blood vessel in our arm that 'feeds' our hands, study shows

By Mike McRae published

Scientists have found an artery that temporarily runs down the center of our forearms while we're still in the womb isn't vanishing as often as it used to.

Heart & Circulation
Streptococcus pyogenes, or scarlet fever, infection

Scarlet fever is making a comeback. Bacterial 'clone' could be to blame.

By Mike McRae published

Scarlet fever seems to be making a comeback, and scientists have found a bacterial "clone" could be the culprit.

Viruses, Infections & Disease
A transmission electron microscopy image of a human coronavirus.

How COVID-19 might sabotage the immune system of young, healthy people

By Mike McRae published

Researchers have identified a crucial immune system mechanism that could help explain why the coronavirus is so lethal for some people.

Coronavirus
A subatomic particle illustration.

First experimental evidence of a new type of dark boson possibly found

By Mike McRae published

Two experiments hunting for a whisper of a particle called a dark boson that prevents whole galaxies from flying apart recently published some contradictory results.

Particle Physics
Spotted kitten playing.

Fate of Schrödinger's cat probably isn't in the hands of gravity, experiment finds

By Mike McRae published

Can we blame gravity for one of quantum physics' most brain-numbing paradoxes — Schrödinger's cat?

Gravity