Clare is a freelance journalist and fact-checker specialising in science, health and medicine.

Most recently, Clare has been selected for the Oxford Climate Journalism Network. Her work also features in the Best Australian Science Writing anthologies of 2021, 2022 and 2023.

 

I have a background in biomedical research but traded my pipettes for a pen after a series of close encounters with an astronomer, a turtle conservation project, and an MRI machine.

Now, my reporting covers everything from seafood fraud and energy deficiencies in elite athletes, to the hype about green hydrogen and stem cell therapies.

I’ve written stories for Undark (republished in TIME and Smithsonian Magazine), The Guardian, Nature News, Nature Medicine, Australian Geographic, New Scientist, Hakai Magazine, and more.

I also write regularly for ScienceAlert and Cosmos Magazine, two of Australia’s leading science news outlets.

 

Based on the east coast of Australia, in a steel-making university town, I’m drawn to stories where science collides with culture, community, the law, and everyday life. In other work I’ve been pulling back the curtain on how science operates, the biases academia perpetuates, and initiatives trying to change that.

In 2020, I completed the MIT Knight Science Journalism Fact-Checking Workshop, which included best practices for fact-checking online news and print features.

In 2024, I’m participating in the Oxford Climate Journalism Network, a six-month training program for journalists around the world covering climate change, run by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.

Underneath it all, my work is shaped by people’s lived experiences and grounded in my experience learning from and working with people and families involved in clinical trials and medical research.

Awards

Professional affiliations:

Science Journalists Association of Australia, 2020 — present
(Committee member, 2023 and 2024)

Professional guidelines That I follow:

Follow me on Twitter @clarewhatson or better yet, on Bluesky

Blimp used to spot sharks, ABC RN The Science Show (Paul Jones/UOW)

Facilitating Frankin Women’s 2019 Wikipedia Edit-a-thon (Tim Levy)

Chasing opal in the Australian Outback, Undark (Robert A. Smith/Jenni Brammall/Australian Opal Centre)