When hundreds of snow geese landed in and subsequently died from Berkeley Pit’s toxic water, some of the microbes the geese carried found a home in the Butte, Montana lake and started soaking up the lake’s toxins. Bioremediation, however, isn’t the subject of Radiolab senior producer Soren Wheeler’s story, “Even the worst laid plans?” Instead, [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews 
Tags: Environment, Frederick, Guest Contributor, Podcast, Radiolab, Wheeler, Writer Interview, Wu 
No Comments »Reporting from the trenches in the war over dolphin rights, freelance science writer Erik Vance relates the story of Lori Marino and Diana Reiss, dolphin researchers who have spent most of their careers as close colleagues and friends, but whose agendas diverged after Marino moved away from research on captive dolphins and immersed herself in a [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Discover, Drafts, Environment, Erdmann, Narrative, Vance, Writer Interview 1 Comment »Is there a science writer alive who has not been schooled by John McPhee? Both of us began our writing careers with a collection of McPhee’s books and articles on our shelves, and over the years, we’ve both returned to his works many times, for pleasure and for sustenance. Writing at the excellent blog Last Word [...]
Posted in Other Resources Tags: Carpenter, Environment, Erdmann, Longform, McPhee, Structure, Writer Interview 2 Comments »You never know when a story idea will land on your doorstep—or in your mailbox. When award-winning journalist Michelle Nijhuis learned about caver and microbiologist Hazel Barton from a friend, she had no idea Barton would be her ticket into a science story she had been itching to tell, about a fungus that is ravaging [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Carpenter, Drafts, Edits, Environment, Field Reporting, Microbiology, Narrative, Nijhuis, Pitches, Smithsonian, Writer Interview 3 Comments »In 2007, freelance science journalist Douglas Fox traveled to Antarctica with a team of glaciologists studying rivers and lakes buried under thousands of feet of ice. He and the researchers spent four weeks tent-camping on the ice. They spent up to 10 hours a day on snowmobiles, installing monitoring equipment at key sites on the [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Carpenter, Discover, Earth Science, Environment, Field Reporting, Fox, Narrative, Notes, Photography, Pitches, Writer Interview 4 Comments »Freelancer Hillary Rosner traveled to a Colorado River reservoir to meet scientists bent on rescuing an unassuming fish, the razorback sucker. The resulting story, which won the 2010 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award in the Small Newspaper category, raised tough questions about the rationale for saving endangered species. [One Tough Sucker appeared in High Country [...]
Concentrated fumes from a neighboring farm made Eric and Lisa Stickdorn so ill they had to leave their home and take up residence in a church basement. In a story that won the 2009-10 award for best environmental coverage from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, Dan Ferber tells the Stickdorns’ story, [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Carpenter, Environment, Ferber, Narrative, Notes, Nuvo, Writer Interview 1 Comment »