SciAm author page

“NASA Eyes Electric Car Tech for Future Moon Rovers,” February 2022.

“SpaceX’s Starship Could Rocket-Boost Research in Space,” September 2021.

“Suspect List Narrows in Mysterious Bird Die-Off,” August 2021.

“Inspired by Chronic Illness, She Made Award-Winning Art about the Brain,” August 2021.

“Wave Power Charges Ahead with Static Electricity Generators,” August 2021.

“The Olympics without Fans Is Harming Athletes’ Performance,” July 2021. (Featured on a segment of Science Friday and Mexican radio)

“Spiders on Tiny Treadmills Give Scientists the Side Eye,” July 2021.

“COVID Risks at the Tokyo Olympics Aren’t Being Managed, Experts Say,” July 2021.

“Black Holes Swallow Neutron Stars in a Single Bite, New Results Suggest,” July 2021.

“A Single Gene Gave Geckos Beautiful Color—and Cancer,” June 2021.

“A Modest Proposal: Let’s Change Earth’s Orbit,” June 2021. (Featured in the August 2021 issue of Scientific American Space & Physics)

“Neck-Zapping Gadget Reduced All-Nighter Fatigue in New Study,” June 2021.

AUDIO

“During a Rodent Quadrathlon, Researchers Learn That Ground Squirrels Have Personalities,” September 2021.

“Years Before COVID-19, Zombies Helped Prepare One Hospital System for the Real Pandemic,” August 2021.

“COVID, Quickly, Episode 12: Masking Up Again and Why People Refuse Shots,” July 2021.

“COVID, Quickly, Episode 11: Vaccine Booster Shots, and Reopening Offices Safely,” July 2021.

“COVID, Quickly, Episode 10: Long Haulers, Delta Woes and Barbershop Shots,” July 2021.

“This Newly Discovered Species of Tree Hyrax Goes Bark in the Night,” June 2021.

PRINT

“Recycled Tennis Balls Could Protect Buildings from Earthquakes,” January 2022.

“What’s Brewing in a Beer Is Startling Complexity,” November 2021.

“The Venus’s Flower Basket’s Weird Fluid Dynamics Explained,” October 2021.

“Engineered Bacteria Produce a Rainbow of Colors,” September 2021.

“In Case You Missed It,” September 2021.

“The Terrible Toll of 76 Autoimmune Diseases,” September 2021.

“Misophonia Might Not Be about Hating Sounds After All,” September 2021.

“In Case You Missed It,” August 2021.

BOOK REVIEWS

“This Boy We Made,” January 2022.

“The Arts of the Microbial World,” November 2021.

“Being You,” October 2021.

STAT author page

“Here are the contenders for STAT Madness 2022. Voting begins March 1,” February 2022.

“Texas is trying to create the next research triangle for biotech. Will it work?” January 2022. (Interviewed on Texas public radio)

“As a Logic song topped the charts, helpline saw more calls and fewer suicides,” December 2021. (Featured in WaPo’s The Health 202 newsletter)

“Changing the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ is more than just semantics, experts argue,” December 2021.

“Pear makes its stock market debut & telehealth players lock arms,” December 2021.

“Despite interventions, Black and Hispanic men are contracting HIV at the same rates as 10 years ago,” November 2021.

“4 food allergy immunotherapy companies to watch,” November 2021.

“‘We all have to come together’: Experts lay out how to keep AI in health care in check,” November 2021.

“A new, gel-based wearable can catch infections before the naked eye can,” November 2021.

“Startup Spotlight: Rectify is hoping it can mend broken ABC transporters, starting in the liver,” November 2021.

“White House delays Covid-19 vaccine mandates for contractors,” November 2021.

“As ‘test to stay’ gears up nationwide, Massachusetts’ ‘rocky’ rollout raises questions,” October 2021. (Featured in WaPo’s The Health 202 newsletter)

“Could wearable tech — and AI — change how we diagnose infants with conditions like cerebral palsy?” October 2021.

“Three lessons for the effort to scale up Covid-19 rapid tests,” October 2021.

“5 health tech startups working to address chronic pain without opioids,” October 2021.

“‘Reaching a detente’ with SARS-CoV-2: Helen Branswell on covering Covid-19, misinformation and more,” October 2021.

“Biden moves to ramp up at-home Covid-19 testing,” October 2021.

“A new study points to the power of wearables to predict even presymptomatic infections, suggesting use one day against Covid-19,” September 2021.

“Saying ‘person with schizophrenia,’ not ‘schizophrenic,’ can affect clinician beliefs, study finds," September 2021. (Featured in Advisory Board’s daily briefing”)

VICE author page

“Why Did Hundreds of Birds Die at the World Trade Center in One Morning?” September 2021.

“Gen Z Is Developing Unexplained Tics After Going Online, And Doctors Are Concerned,” September 2021. (Interviewed on Slate’s ICYMI podcast)

“The COVID-19 Lab Leak Debate Shows How Experts Failed Us,” June 2021. (Featured in The New York Times Debatable newsletter; selected as an Honorable Mention for Best Shortform Science Writing: January-June 2021)

“Doctors and Scientists Are Fighting Vaccine Misinformation on TikTok,” June 2021. (Featured in The Hill’s Hillicon Valley newsletter)

“Earth's Biodiversity Could Take Millions of Years to Recover from Human Influence,” May 2021.

“Scientists Turned Spiderwebs Into Music, And It's Hauntingly Beautiful,” April 2021.

“America’s Disastrous Vaccine Rollout Is Finally Recovering. Here’s What Went Wrong,” February 2021.

“Why We Need Quantum Tech In Space to Fight Climate Change,” December 2020.

“Why We're Finally Closing In On a Game-Changing Universal Flu Vaccine,” December 2020.

“Invasive Wasps Are Posing a 'Serious Threat' to Passenger Planes, Study Says,” December 2020.

“Homework Is Bad, Research Confirms,” November 2020.

“Trump Is Trying to Lease Arctic Land for Drilling Before Biden Takes Over,” November 2020.

“OK, What Is Room-Temperature Superconducting and Will It Change Everything?” November 2020.

“A Rogue Mars-Sized Planet Is Hurtling Through Our Galaxy,” October 2020.

“Inside the Bizarre Publishing Ring That Linked 5G to Coronavirus,” October 2020. (Featured as a quote of the day by MIT Tech Review’s The Download)

“Flying During COVID-19 Isn't Quite As Safe As United Airlines Says,” October 2020.

“Scientists Made 'Breaking Bad'-Inspired GPS Turtle Eggs to Fight Poaching,” October 2020.

“Americans Overwhelmingly Support Human-Animal Chimera Research, Survey Finds,” October 2020.

“How the USPS Reads Your Terrible Handwriting,” September 2020. (An article for a print zine about the Postal Service)

“The High Cost of Academic Publishing Leaves Africa Behind,” September 2020.

“Are Digital Pregnancy Tests a Wasteful Scam? An Investigation,” September 2020.

“The World’s Most Powerful Camera Took 3,200-Megapixel Photos,” September 2020.

“Mathematicians Made a Basic Discovery in Shapes After 2,000 Years,” September 2020.

“A Mysterious Crater Suddenly Opened Up in the Arctic Tundra,” September 2020.

“Scientists Found Rust on the Moon. That Should Be Impossible,” September 2020.

“Scientists Detected a New Kind of Black Hole Being Born in a Bizarre Event,” September 2020.

“Scientists Discovered a Massive 'Bridge' Between Galaxy Clusters,” August 2020.

“Scientists Created AI to Analyze People's Dreams on a Massive Scale,” August 2020.

“Particles From Space Are Messing With Our Quantum Computers, Scientists Discover,” August 2020.

“This Scientist Spent Decades Cataloging 57,424 Man-Made Objects in Space,” August 2020.

“A DIY Vaccine Can't Solve the COVID-19 Crisis,” August 2020.

“It’s OK if Countries Hack Each Others’ Vaccines,” July 2020. (Featured as a top ten must-read by MIT Tech Review’s The Download)

“OK, WTF Is Hydroxychloroquine and Can it Treat Coronavirus?” March 2020.

“You Can Now Access 1.4 Million Books for Free Thanks to the Internet Archive,” March 2020.

“America's Supercomputers Are Now Helping Scientists Fight Coronavirus,” March 2020.

"The World After This,” March 2020 (Healthcare section).

“People Are Trying to Make DIY Ventilators to Meet Coronavirus Demand,” March 2020.

“Doctors Have Injected DNA-Editing CRISPR Into a Live Person's Eye,” March 2020.

“She Blew the Whistle on Pathogens That Escaped From a Government Lab. Now She’s Being Fired,” February 2020.

“Scientists Discover the First Animal That Doesn’t Breathe Oxygen to Live,” February 2020.

“The Sun is Mysteriously Causing Whales to Strand and Die, Research Suggests,” February 2020.

“How a City Decides to Buy This Ridiculous $2,000 Weed-Smelling Device,” February 2020.

“Scientists Are Encrypting Information Using Crystals,” February 2020.

“Climate Change Predictions Have Suddenly Gone Catastrophic. This Is Why,” February 2020.

“Scientists Found Harmful 'Forever Chemicals' in Pet Cats and Dogs,” February 2020.

“Mount Everest Is a Poo-Covered Death Trap, So Climbers Are Speedrunning It,” February 2020.

“'It’s a Moral Imperative': Archivists Made a Directory of 5,000 Coronavirus Studies to Bypass Paywalls,” February 2020.

“The U.S. West Coast Is Now So Acidic That It's Dissolving Baby Crab Shells,” January 2020.

“Materials Scientists Learn We’ve Been Brewing Espresso All Wrong,” January 2020.

“Scientists Found Ancient, Never-Before-Seen Viruses in a Glacier,” January 2020.

“Ancient Humans Tried to Defend Against Rising Seas. They Failed,” December 2019.

“These Glasses Contain a Secret Video File Coded in DNA,” December 2019.

“Scientists Fed an Ancient Earth Organism Space Metals. It Started 'Dancing,'“ December 2019.

“Scientists Found a Planet Orbiting a Dead Star, a Glimpse Into Our Future,” December 2019.

“Rare Individuals Are Amazing at Reading Cats' Expressions. Are You One of Them?” December 2019.

“So, WTF Is Up With Putting a Human in ‘Suspended Animation?’” November 2019. (Selected as a Top Pick for Best Shortform Science Writing: October-December 2019)

“A Mysterious Burst of Energy in Space Has Smashed Records,” November 2019.

“Evolution Keeps Repeating Itself. Scientists Are Starting to Understand Why,” November 2019.

“Itchy? These Worms Are Suddenly Breeding in People's Eyes and Scientists Are Baffled,” November 2019.

“Global Capitalism Is Destroying Habitats for Rare Species in Brazil, Study Shows,” October 2019.

“A Brainless Blob That 'Learns' and 'Sleeps' Is on Display at the Paris Zoo,” October 2019.

“A Code Glitch May Have Caused Errors In More Than 100 Published Studies,” October 2019.

“Scientists Edited Fruit Fly Genes to Give Them Butterflies' Toxic Abilities,” October 2019.

“This Worm Has Three Sexes,” September 2019.

“A Glacier In the Alps Is Facing Imminent Collapse, Prompting Evacuation,” September 2019.

“Imelda Blanketed the Houston Area In Almost 1 Million Lightning Bolts,” September 2019.

“Bull Semen Lab Explosion a 'Blow' to Farmers,” September 2019.

“This $30 Device Turns the Cold of Outer Space Into Renewable Energy,” September 2019. (Selected as an Honorable Mention for Best Shortform Science Writing: July-September 2019)

“This Synthetic Leaf Turns Sunlight Into Drugs,” September 2019.

Inverse author page

“Future Earth 2121,” April 2021. (A series of five scenarios exploring what the Earth might look like in 100 years: a supervolcano explodes, the ice caps melt, an asteroid impacts, a pandemic wipes out 10 percent of humanity, and humans stop global warming)

“Meet the ‘most powerful’ team in Science Olympiad,” September 2020. (A Q&A profile for a sponsored Young Innovator series)

“Meet Darrion Nguyen, the Bill Nye of millennials,” September 2020. (A Q&A profile for a sponsored New Pioneers series)

“Kellie Gerardi might be the first social media star in space,” August 2020. (A Q&A profile for a sponsored New Pioneers series)

“Nadya Peek creates machines that can make (almost) anything,” August 2020. (A Q&A profile for a sponsored New Pioneers series)

“Juli Lawless knows no bounds,” August 2020. (A Q&A profile for a sponsored New Pioneers series)

“Sarah McAnulty has a tentacle in every pot,” August 2020. (A Q&A profile for a sponsored New Pioneers series)

“These teens want to solve plastic pollution through gene-editing,” August 2020. (A Q&A profile for a sponsored Young Innovator series)

“Michelle Kunimoto boldly discovers where no one has before,” July 2020. (A Q&A profile for a sponsored Young Innovator series)

“An EEG for Black people: It came to Arnelle Etienne in a dream,” June 2020. (A Q&A profile for a sponsored Young Innovator series)

“Masaki Takeuchi is using A.I. to give a voice to the voiceless,” May 2020. (A Q&A profile for a sponsored Young Innovator series)

“How does an mRNA vaccine work?” January 2021.

“Does it matter which COVID-19 vaccine you get?” January 2021.

“What the Dippin’ Dots ‘cold chain’ can teach us about COVID-19 vaccines,” December 2020. (Interviewed on Marketplace, featured on Apple News Today, selected as a Top Pick for Best Shortform Science Writing: July-December 2020)

“Why sports fans cling to superstitions,” September 2020 (Fall 2020 Print Issue).

Massive author page

“How did birds become birds? An interview with Jingmai O’Connor,” September 2020. (Q&A with vertebrate paleontologist produced in partnership with Science Friday)

“Thinking of applying for the AAAS Mass Media Fellowship? Get inside tips from former fellows,” December 2019 (Q&A with four former AAAS Mass Media Fellows)

“Climate change is heartbreaking. We can turn that pain towards action,” September 2019. (Q&A with climate activist Katharine Wilkinson)

“The Blob, and other effects of climate change that we aren’t talking about,” September 2019.

“When antibiotics stopped working, these viruses saved a girl’s life,” July 2019. (Republished in Salon and featured in ScienceSeeker’s weekly “best posts” roundup)

“By 2100, the ocean will be a different color,” June 2019. (Republished in Salon, Pacific Standard and Thompson Earth Systems Institute)

LAB NOTES

“Historical paintings can tell us how our food evolved,” July 2020.

“Worried about coronavirus? Try shaving,” February 2020.

“Coronavirus update: widespread diagnostic testing, bioRxiv, and two public health futures,” February 2020.

“Just like your dog, some wolf puppies can play fetch,” September 2019.

“The summer slump happens in scientific publishing, too,” August 2019.

“Can we take down the dude wall? Can universities glorify anyone besides white men?” August 2019.

“What the ‘millennials are growing horns’ story can teach us about scientific literacy,” July 2019.

“RelativelyRisky points out the fine print in medical studies,” July 2019.

“A ‘jumping’ gene helped this fish live in freshwater,” June 2019.

“The gypsy ant is dead! Long live the itiner-ant!,” June 2019.

“A photographic treatment for people with dementia,” August 2018. (En Español)

“Too cute? Colleges, courts grapple with the role of companion animals,” August 2018.

“Juul and the vape debate: Choosing between smokers and teens,” August 2018.

“Amid seizures, man sketched his ‘beautiful’ hallucinations,” August 2018.

“Vitamin D: Deficiency, food sources and what you need to know,” August 2018. (En Español)

“Glued to our screens, and trying to get unstuck,” July 2018. (En Español)

“The myth of the sunscreen pill,” July 2018. (En Español)

“Liver disease deaths spike among young Americans,” July 2018.

“California keeps close eye on whooping cough after infant’s death,” July 2018.

“Woman’s tingling legs turned out to be parasite in her back,” July 2018. (En Español)

“Liver cancer death rate in US surged 43% in 16 years,” July 2018. (Featured in WaPo’s The Health 202 newsletter)

“Wisconsin reports first death from Rocky Mountain spotted fever,” July 2018.

“Sunscreen 101: Your guide to summer sun protection and sunburn care,” June 2018.

“What is Percocet? Drug facts, side effects, abuse and more,” July 2018.

“What It Feels Like to Boost Your Testosterone,” Men’s Health, January 2022 print issue.

“Are Quintuple Jumps in Figure Skating Even Possible?” Slate, February 2022.

“Engineering complex communities by directed evolution,” Chang CY, Vila JCC, Bender M, Li R, Mankowski MC, Bassette M, Borden J, Golfier S, Sanchez PG, Waymack R, Zhu X, Diaz-Colunga J, Estrela S, Rebolleda-Gomez M, Sanchez A. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2021.

The Curie Society, MIT Press, 2021. (Wrote a section of the glossary for a graphic adventure novel for young adults.)

“Slowing the spread of a virus: Phone calls, empathy, contact tracing,” Yale Public Health Magazine (Fall 2020 Issue), October 2020.

“Consider the Hot Dog,” The Yale Daily News, September 2020.

“Coronavirus second waves emerge in several US states as they reopen,” New Scientist (UK), June 2020.

“What Jewish medical ethics can teach us about coronavirus,” The Forward, April 2020.

“Tuberculosis: Symptoms, Treatment & Prevention,” Live Science, October 2019.

“What is epilepsy?” Live Science, August 2019. (Updated an article from 2015)

“Cradle of Humankind fossils can now be dated,” EARTH, February 2019.

“Climate cooling a driver of Neanderthals’ extinction,” EARTH, November 2018. (Featured in EARTH’s monthly print magazine)