On Tuesday, we posted an edited transcript of an interview that TON contributor and editorial board member David Dobbs conducted with author David Quammen. This conversation took place before a live audience at a TON event at the National Association of Science Writers meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina last October. Below is a video of the conversation [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Narrative’
Video: David Quammen interview
Posted by Christie Aschwanden on January 25th, 2013
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews 
Tags: Dobbs, Guest Contributor, Narrative, Quammen, Video, writing 
1 Comment »Cynthia Graber profiles a modern-day Dr. Frankenstein
Posted by Melanie Bauer on December 21st, 2012
While Cynthia Graber isn’t new to reporting on regenerative medicine, her interview with Tufts University biologist Michael Levin led to some unexpected stories. In research that recalls the toils of Dr. Frankenstein, Levin uses electricity to initiate regeneration of body parts in living organisms. In light of recent advances in DNA research, the field of [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Bauer, Edits, Graber, Guest Contributor, Interviewing, Matter, Narrative, Reporting, Structure, Writer Interview No Comments »Brian Vastag profiles a dinosaur tracker
Posted by Siri Carpenter on December 13th, 2012
When Washington Post science writer Brian Vastag found Ray Stanford, an amateur dinosaur footprint tracker in the D.C. suburbs who had found an unusual baby dinosaur footprint, he thought he had stumbled upon a “nice little day story.” Soon, though, he realized that Stanford’s newest find was only the most recent chapter in a far [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Carpenter, Drafts, Edits, Narrative, Reporting, Structure, Vastag, Writer Interview 4 Comments »Like being there: How science writers use sensory detail
Posted by Jyoti Madhusoodanan on October 17th, 2012
“At this time of year, with new growth laying a haze of green over the wet fields, the farm country around this small town smells faintly but distinctly of manure. It’s a rich, warm aroma, appropriate to the place that bills itself on road signs as “Canada’s foremost cattle county.” But follow the dip in [...]
Posted in Elements of Craft Tags: Elements-of-Craft, Guest Contributor, Madhusoodanan, Narrative, Reporting, Sensory Detail 1 Comment »Jennifer Kahn asks: Can a child psychopath be saved?
Posted by Siri Carpenter on August 2nd, 2012
Of all mental disorders, none elicits more revulsion or less sympathy than psychopathy, a disorder characterized by extreme impulsivity, narcissism, callousness and lack of empathy. Psychopathy is widely considered incurable, but some researchers have theorized that it might be possible to treat “fledgling psychopaths” if they can be identified early enough. When journalist Jennifer Kahn [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Carpenter, Kahn, Narrative, Psychology, Structure, Writer Interview 2 Comments »Sharpening ideas: From topic to story
Posted by Dan Ferber on July 11th, 2012
George Johnson wanted to write about new developments in cancer research for the New York Times. But he needed to find a story that would let him to do it. So last year Johnson, a regular contributor to the Times’ science section who’s writing a book about cancer, cut a deal with his editor. He’d [...]
Posted in Elements of Craft Tags: Characters, Elements-of-Craft, Ferber, Guest Contributor, Narrative, Pitching, Story Development, Structure 4 Comments »Making the leap from news to books: Critical questions
Posted by Charles Choi on May 30th, 2012
Authors of science books often begin as writers of science news. As a science journalist who is looking to write a book, I’ve become very curious as to how other science journalists made the leap forward. I suspected that the questions that go into books might be different from those that drive newspaper and magazine [...]
Posted in Elements of Craft Tags: Blum, Books, Choi, Dobbs, Elements-of-Craft, Guest Contributor, Hutson, Koerth-Baker, McKenna, Narrative, Reporting, Zimmer 5 Comments »Yudhijit Bhattacharjee weaves a tale of scientific rivalry and Nobel celebration
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann on May 1st, 2012
The three cosmologists who shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics for the 1998 discovery of the accelerating universe were only a few of the dozens of scientists, working on two competing teams, who contributed to the discovery. In a show of team-spirited solidarity, those fortunate enough to be recognized by the Nobel committee invited [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Bhattacharjee, Erdmann, Narrative, Physics, Science, Writer Interview No Comments »Deborah Blum traces a poisonous history
Posted by Jyoti Madhusoodanan on November 30th, 2011
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Deborah Blum’s five books have immersed her in the worlds of animal rights, the psychology of affection, the neurology of sex, the search for paranormal phenomena, and the chemistry of poisons. Her best-selling book The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, published in 2010, traces [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Blum, Books, Drafts, Edits, Guest Contributor, Madhusoodanan, Narrative, Notes, Poisoner's Handbook, Structure, Writer Interview 1 Comment »How Rebecca Skloot built The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Posted by David Dobbs on November 22nd, 2011
Rebecca Skloot needs little introduction to most readers of The Open Notebook: Her book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has been a bestseller since its publication in February 2010, and she has toured the U.S. and Europe almost constantly since then talking about the book and the many issues of race, science, and privacy [...]
Lauren Gravitz relates Nobel laureate Steinman’s poignant story
Posted by Siri Carpenter on November 15th, 2011
For years, journalist Lauren Gravitz had planned to write an in-depth feature on Rockefeller University physician-scientist Ralph Steinman, highlighting the dendritic cells that had been his life’s work and his efforts to use those cells to treat his own cancer. Formerly a science writer at Rockefeller, Gravitz had spoken often with Steinman and knew his [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Carpenter, Drafts, Edits, Gravitz, Narrative, Nature, News, Pitches, Profile, Writer Interview 1 Comment »Erik Vance scrutinizes a battle over dolphin rights
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann on November 10th, 2011
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 2 Comments »