Petra Stock
Petra Stock reports on how climate change, energy systems and the natural world intersect with science, health and daily life for Guardian Australia. Her coverage sits at the point where technical detail and policy decisions translate into concrete risks and outcomes for people, animals and ecosystems. She approaches stories with a strong grounding in environmental science and engineering, and uses that to explain complex systems in clear, direct language. Health is present in her work as she follows how environmental disruption, energy choices and emerging diseases affect communities and species.
Climate, energy and the systems that shape daily life
At the Guardian, Stock focuses closely on the practical consequences of climate and energy policy, especially in the context of household technologies and large infrastructure. One recent piece on an electric vehicle solar sharing scheme looks at how electric car owners could save hundreds of dollars a year, tying together grid design, consumer incentives and the broader aim of cutting emissions.
She has co‑reported on a detailed interactive about a “household battery revolution” that could change energy bills and help address the climate crisis, using case studies and policy analysis to show how home batteries and renewables fit into a wider system. Her coverage of proposals to expand nuclear power examines whether planned generation would have access to enough water to run safely, treating water availability as a core constraint rather than a minor technical detail. Across these stories she returns to the question of reliability and risk: how energy choices play out under physical and climatic limits, and what that means for safety, affordability and resilience.
The reporting style is precise and fact‑driven, often built around expert studies and reports, but always anchored in tangible impacts for households and communities.
Wildlife, habitats and emerging disease
Stock also follows the way environmental pressures and disease events affect wildlife and ecosystems, giving those stories the same systematic treatment she brings to energy.
In coverage of a mass die‑off of more than 13,000 seal pups on a remote island during a bird flu outbreak, she tracks mortality figures, transmission pathways and the implications for conservation and disease surveillance, treating the event as both a wildlife crisis and a public and animal health problem. A feature on “possums in the roof, koalas in bed” uses a study of animals moving into Australian homes after habitat loss to show how land‑use change forces species into closer contact with people, with all the ecological and health risks that implies. Her science reporting extends underwater, where she has written about elusive deep‑sea goblin sharks being filmed in their habitat for the first time, drawing on interviews with marine biologists to explain why the footage matters for understanding poorly known species.
In agricultural science she has covered research into why a particular truffle industry has been unusually successful, using mycology and soil science to unpack an economic and ecological story. These pieces share a clear thread: attention to the mechanisms of change in habitats and species, and how those changes feed back into disease risk, food systems and conservation. She gives space to researchers and field data, but keeps the prose concise so the key findings and risks are easy to grasp.
Science, technology and education reporting across outlets
Beyond her climate and environment beat, Stock works across science, technology and education reporting, and this breadth shows in both her subjects and her portfolio of outlets.
Her own professional bio notes that she specialises in science, technology and education stories, and that her work has appeared not only in the Guardian but also in publications including Cosmos Magazine, The Age, Crikey, Australian Geographic, Archer, RenewEconomy, The Mandarin and The Citizen. That spread points to a reporter who moves comfortably between general‑news environments and more specialist science and policy audiences.
She has written on climate education, including how to teach climate change so 15‑year‑olds can act, connecting curriculum design, behavioural science and the urgency of the climate crisis. Earlier in her career she worked as an environmental engineer, and that technical experience underpins the way she handles data, infrastructure and risk in her reporting.
Recognition for her work includes being highly commended for Excellence in Science, Medical and Health reporting at the Melbourne Press Club Quill awards in 2025, as well as being named Student Journalist of the Year by the same organisation in 2021. Taken together, her recent output and career history mark her as a reporter whose health beat is defined through science and environment: she covers the health consequences of environmental change, the technologies designed to mitigate or adapt to that change, and the education and policy frameworks that shape public understanding.
4 more health journalists.
Alanna Smith
Alanna Smith is a national health reporter whose work links health policy and politics to real access to care, with a constant focus on health equity, infectious disease and the toxic drug crisis. She reports for The Globe and Mail on infectious diseases, hospitals and long-term care, mental health, drug policy and the pressures on health systems in Western Canada. Her stories connect big-picture decisions to patients, families, front-line workers and volunteers, showing how funding, privatization and federal standards shape public care. She has covered trauma care inequities, proposed public‑private models in Alberta, drug toxicity and overdose policy, respiratory virus surges, measles elimination, gene‑editing advances and gender‑affirming health care laws. Her work combines narrative reporting, data, legal and policy analysis, and has been recognized by national journalism and press freedom organizations.
Allan Levine
Allan Levine is a historian and author whose journalism uses the past to explain present-day issues. He writes for the Winnipeg Free Press, including the Now & Then column, which examines current events through history. His subjects include public health, disease, medical treatment, health systems, politics, social conflict, strikes, wars, antisemitism and Canadian public life. His polio reporting traces Manitoba epidemics, hospital pressures, treatment, mortality and the arrival of vaccines through archival data and medical history. He also writes about the Winnipeg General Strike and Jewish communities, including discrimination, rights and security. His work draws on books about Canadian political leaders, Jewish history and the wartime economy, including The Dollar A Year Men. He writes long-form, analytical pieces that combine dates, statistics, policy decisions and narrative storytelling to connect people and institutions with broader historical change.
Angela Amato
Angela Amato is a digital news producer with CTV News, and her coverage is distinct for linking health research and public safety concerns to legal and policy decisions that shape daily life. She reports on health, justice, politics, business, arts and culture, crime and public-interest stories. Her health work covers academic and clinical research, including studies on vaping and lung blood flow, exercise tolerance and early heart dysfunction in young adults. She also reports on motorcycle gang arrests, homicide and death investigations, Indigenous justice stories, wildfire evacuations, ambulance contracts, property taxes, labour negotiations and political advocacy rules. She explains complex findings in plain language and stays close to documents, data and expert sources. Her background includes investigative and daily newsrooms, and she has earned nominations for national journalism awards.
Apoorva Mandavilli
Apoorva Mandavilli covers the collision of infectious disease science, vaccine policy and public health agencies for The New York Times, following how research, regulation and politics shape outbreaks and access to vaccines. She reports on science and global health with a steady focus on infectious diseases and pandemics, including Covid-19, mpox, H.I.V., malaria and tuberculosis, treating them as ongoing global threats. Her work explains complex epidemiology and virology in clear narratives about risk, evidence and the consequences of scientific decisions. She repeatedly returns to vaccine policy, law and misinformation, tracing how court fights and agency disputes affect immunization schedules and public trust. She also reports on global health programs, funding cuts and inequity in care and technology. A longtime science journalist and former founding editor in chief of Spectrum, she has written widely on science and health and received major honors for medical science reporting and pandemic coverage.