Claire Ainsworth

Claire Ainsworth is a freelance science journalist focusing on biology and biomedicine. After gaining a degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, Claire spent a year studying biology at the University of Heidelberg, before completing a doctorate in developmental biology at the University of Oxford. She joined New Scientist in 1999 as a trainee subeditor, later becoming a news reporter and then a features editor. She moved to Nature to work as a senior reporter and editor before going freelance. Claire's writing has appeared in a variety of outlets including New Scientist, Nature, Science, The Observer and The British Medical Journal, and she has made a number of appearances on BBC science radio. She has won awards from the Medical Journalists' Association and the Association of British Science Writers, and was Highly Commended in the 2022 MJA awards for best feature in a specialist publication. Her reporting has taken her from the Komodo dragon enclosure at London Zoo to hunting for extreme lifeforms in her dishwasher, and some of her favourite stories involve the extraordinary creatures that live in the sea.