The issue of methylmercury pollution rises and falls in news media. In “Life After Mercury Poisoning” for Mosaic, Joshua Sokol introduces readers to the aging victims of the most enduring case of mercury poisoning in the world. Sokol takes a complex scientific subject—the toxicity of methylmercury—and weaves it into the story of the survivors who have spent decades telling their stories. Here's a look at what makes his piece excellent.
You don’t have to be a scientist—or even consider yourself a science writer—to write about science. There’s at least a little bit of science in everything people do, and becoming attuned to it could open countless avenues for writers to turn ideas into stories. If your goal is to break into science writing, the starting point is simple: Consider an interesting question or examine an intriguing character. Then, you’re well on your way to crafting a piece that tells a great story, with science to back it up.
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Megha Satyanarayana worked at several newspapers and an online news startup before landing at Chemical & Engineering News. She has covered suburban crime, public health, science and technology, and much more. She also knows a bit about audience engagement and multimedia reporting, and is happy to have landed back in Texas, where sentences start, end, and contain in all grammatical spaces the word y’all, and it works. Really.
It’s one of the first, and likely most intimidating, assignments for a fledgling science reporter. “Here,” your editor says. “Write up this paper that’s coming out in Science this week.” And suddenly you’re staring at an impenetrable PDF—pages of scientific jargon that you’re supposed to understand, interview the author and outside commenters about, and describe in ordinary English to ordinary readers.
Whether reporting in a 111-degree desert or in Antarctica, science journalists often face difficult or perilous field conditions in the course of their work. The challenges of reporting from a canoe deep in the Amazon jungle are different from those of reporting on migrant health in a border town infamous for sex trafficking—but wherever they go, science reporters must take steps to ensure they, and the information they gather, return from the field unscathed.
David Tuller Untangles the Research History of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
The Science Byline Counting Project: Where Are the Women—and Where Are They Not?
Talking for Radio
Surviving the Grind of Fact-Checking
Good Endings: How to Write a Kicker Your Editor—and Your Readers—Will Love
Is This a Story? How to Evaluate Your Ideas Before You Pitch
Storygram: Joshua Sokol’s “Life After Mercury Poisoning”
Ask TON: Using PIOs to Hunt Stories
On the Scene: Reporting from the Field
Congratulations, You’re an Editor! What Do You Do Now?
Michelle Nijhuis’s Brief Guide to Writing Reported Essays
Finding and Landing the Right Internship in Science Writing
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