The prestigious annual prize for non-fiction science writing was shared for the first time since its inception.
Three writers have shared the 2026 UNSW Press Bragg Prize for science writing for their work on oceans and the Challenger space shuttle disaster.
James Bradley's essay about the rhythms and cycles that shape the ocean, An Oceanic Tempo, and Challenger: The Disaster Five People Saw Coming by Jonathan Webb and Fiona Pepper will share the award for the first time since it started in 2012.
Bradley said, ever since he was a child, the ocean has been fascinating to him and that interest has only increased as he has aged.
His essay, first published in Aeon , examines the concept of time through the cycles of the ocean.
"When you're near it (the ocean) you can feel that in the pulse of the waves, the rhythm of the tide, that sense of constant change and transformation. But it's also there in the larger cycles," Bradley said.
"You see it in the diel migration, the immense daily movement of life up and down between the surface and deep water, in the migrations of fish and other animals, in the blooms of phytoplankton with the seasons, in the annual rhythm of the sea ice."
He said thinking with the ocean was a way to look at some of the issues of our time.
"Climate change, plastics, even the green transition: they're all about mismatches between human timescales and larger, planetary time scales. Thinking with the ocean seemed to offer a way of getting at some of those questions in a new way."
"I'm completely thrilled to win the Bragg. One of the real privileges of being able to write about the work of scientists is being able to share in the wonder of the world that science reveals," Bradley said.
The Challenger Legacy shares prize
Bradley shared the prize with the ABC's Science Editor Jonathan Webb who wrote a piece on the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster with podcast host Fiona Pepper.
The story is about five engineers who foresaw the crash but, despite their repeated attempts to halt the launch, the group's safety concerns were dismissed due to organisational culture, power structures and financial interest.
Ms Pepper created the podcast series The Challenger Legacy, about the tragic missteps that led to the explosion.
"The Challenger disaster isn't only significant for those who remember it, or for space nerds; this is a deeply human story about the problems that exist in all organisations," Ms Pepper said.
"A lesson for managers is that when your frontline workers are sounding an alarm - listen. Warnings should be heeded. And if they aren't, the consequences can be huge and life changing."
Webb said it had been a privilege to sit down and find the words for the story, based on Fiona's "incredible reporting."
"I'll never forget listening to those interviews, again and again, not just because of how viscerally the engineers and others remembered what happened - but also because of their bravery in reflecting on it and, in various ways, going back to work and wanting things to be better," Webb said.
The pair expressed their gratitude to people who were willing to share their difficult memories and were thrilled that the judges felt they had done justice to those stories.
Runner up prizes were awarded to Silent Spring by Kate Evans and Stromatolites. So what now?! by Caitlin Maling.
The essays will be published in The Best Australian Science Writing 2026 , NewSouth's annual collection of the finest science writing of the year, edited by Fiona McMillan-Webster and with a foreword by Professor Sujatha Raman.
The winners will share the $7000 prize, and runners up will each receive $1500.
The prizes and associated events are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and UNSW Science.
