After someone agreed to publish my first novel, The Wages of Genius, I panicked. Writing literary fiction didn’t seem like a very good career plan. Yet I loved learning and writing about science, so I joined the staff of Popular Science magazine, and worked there for several years as a columnist and editor. (Journalism was another questionable career move, but I wouldn’t figure that out until a few years later.) Since 2005, I’ve been a contributing editor for the venerable old PopSci, and I’ve also written for The Atlantic Monthly, Wired, Scientific American, Discover, National Geographic Adventure, Women’s Health, Boston, and the Boston Globe.
One of my articles, about Hollywood science consultant John Underkoffler, was featured in the 2007 edition of The Best American Science Writing. Others, including this piece on brain implants, have received honorable mentions in collections of the year’s best science journalism. Here are a few other personal favorites:
How scientists tracked down rare asteroid fragments in a remote desert.
A journey through Ireland’s myths, hills, lakes, and waves.
Profile of physicist and software entrepreneur Stephen Wolfram. Sitting down with Wolfram, a true polymath, for two hours was an incredible experience.
And here are some samples of my writing in other areas:
You should update this page more often with recent articles. For example, this one about that awesome female roboticist, in Technology Review magazine:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602100/robo-swarm/
Great idea. I’ll try to do that. Thanks for the tip.