Science Reporting

Science Writing Science

The quest to improve our tsunami warning systems. The fight to save the Pinta tortoise from oblivion. The rise of predatory journals. A rabble-rouser’s shakeup of systems biology. Whether focusing on seismology, conservation biology or synthetic biology, my goal is to clearly articulate the significance and context of new advances, challenges and controversies. My work has appeared in publications like Scientific American, Nature, Nature Reports Stem Cells, Science News, Science News for Kids, NBCNews.com, Newsday and Chemical Heritage.

Featured Stories

Photo: Marrkl31/IStock/Getty Images Plus; Adapted by L. Steenblik Hwang

Proud to be different in STEM

Science News for Students, May 14, 2019

LGBTQ+ scientists and engineers are coming out and becoming visible to support the next generation.

Photo: Kyodo News/AP File

Our tsunami warning system is faulty. Can these scientists fix it?

NBCNews.com, May 17, 2018

In the open ocean, tsunamis race along at speeds of up to 500 miles per hour. So while distant coasts might have hours of advance warning, coastal areas near the epicenter of a tsunami-triggering quake can be inundated within minutes. Emerging technologies promise faster, more reliable life-saving alerts.

Photo: Jari Nummelin / ZenRobotics

How robots are reshaping one of the dirtiest, most dangerous jobs

NBCNews.com, April 17, 2018

New recycling robots are just as accurate as human workers and up to twice as fast. With continued improvements in the bots’ ability to spot and extract specific objects, they could become a formidable new force in the effort to divert tens of millions of tons of recyclable materials from landfills or incinerators every year.

Photo: Milleflore Images/iStock Photo

Cool jobs: Puzzling over proteins to study life and death

Science News for Students, Sept. 28, 2017

Three research groups are discovering how tiny machines power cells, people and other animals.

Art: Sahachat Saneha/Shutterstock.com

Rise of the predators

Cancer Cytopathology, April 4, 2016

Business is booming in the murky global market of suspect and sham publishers and journals (Part 1 of a 3-part series on the origins, impacts, and opponents of predatory journals).

Illustration by Thomas Porostocky

Synthetic biology: Cultural divide

Nature, May 7, 2014

Synthetic biology is facing a tug of war over whether to patent its discoveries or embrace open-source innovation.

Photo: Bryn Nelson

Natural disasters: A calculated risk

NatureJobs, March 13, 2013

Scientists and engineers with an analytical bent are increasingly sought after in natural-hazard risk assessment.

Photo: Lynette Cook, NASA

Black plants and twilight zones

Scientific American, December, 2010

Astronomers have long searched for a planet that could harbor life outside our solar system. When reports came in earlier this fall of the not too hot, not too cold exoplanet Gliese 581g, it was like the answer to a dream.

Photo: Nick Piggott via Flickr Creative Commons

The lingering heat over pasteurized milk

Chemical Heritage Magazine, Spring, 2009

In the 16 March 1907 issue, The Outlook asked its New York City readers, ‘Should the city cook its milk?’ Forty-five years had passed since a French chemist named Louis Pasteur tested the heating process that would eventually bear his name. More than a century later the uncertainty of this question still reverberates through farmers’ markets and online forums as public health officials and consumers battle over safety, nutrition, and taste.

Photo: Merck & Co.

Personal genomes: A disruptive personality, disrupted

Nature, November 5, 2008

In need of an escape from the mental gymnastics of hardcore genome analysis, Eric Schadt, executive scientific director of research genetics for Rosetta Inpharmatics, is clear about what works for him — careering down a steep mountainside on a snowboard.

Photo: Bryn Nelson

Tortoise genes and island beings [PDF]

Science News, November 10, 2007

Not far from where the Galápagos Islands’ most famous loner spends his days, tourists disembark by the inflatable boatload at a modern dock. A path takes them past marine iguanas sneezing brine from their salt-caked nostrils and striated herons roosting in the red mangroves to the Charles Darwin Research Station in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island. Within the station, another walkway leads to a natural enclosure sheltering a misanthropic Galápagos tortoise named Lonesome George.

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Additional Stories

Big buzzword on campus: Is ‘convergence’ a revolution in science or simply jargon?

Scientific American, July 18, 2011

Researchers push for a fuller integration of life, engineering and physical sciences.

Building blocks

NatureJobs, December 2, 2009

The growing allure of synthetic biology.

Data sharing: Empty archives

Nature, September 9, 2009

Why many scientists choose not to share.

Scientists look to sperm to power nanobots

MSNBC.com, January 2, 2008

How the motor behind the whip-like tail of sperm could power nanobots.