Hayley Birch is a freelance science writer and editor based in Bristol. She has written for Nature, New Scientist, the Observer, the Telegraph and BBC Focus, and in the past five years has written over 100 articles for the Royal Society of Chemistry’s magazine, on everything from recycling tea leaves to synthetic cells. She has also written and recorded several podcasts for the ’Chemistry in its Element’ series, and co-authored The Big Questions in Science (Carlton, 2013). In addition to her freelance work, Hayley regularly writes news and in-depth reports for the Science for Environment Policy News service published by the European Commission.