Jeanne Erdmann

Roxanne Khamsi Explores a Potential Revolution in Cancer Treatment

One typically thinks of Darwin’s theory of evolution playing out in natural habitats. Over time, random mutations that make a species more fit for its niche lead to the giraffe’s neck, the spider’s venom, the bees’ communicative dance. Journalist and genetics junkie Roxanne Khamsi was intrigued to learn of a theory that cancer cells are subject to similar evolutionary pressures. She spoke to TON about the challenges and pleasures of tackling a math-dense subject with implications for extending the lives of people with cancer.

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by Jeanne Erdmann · August 20, 2019 · 0 comments

Linda Nordling Probes the Transformation of South African Science

Reporting on the decolonization of South African science for Nature, Linda Nordling—a native of Sweden who had long lived in the United Kingdom before moving to South Africa more than a decade ago—found herself in an uncomfortable spot. She was passionately interested in the subject, but worried whether it was right for a white journalist from a former colonial power to tell such a story. Here, she talks about confronting those doubts and becoming the custodian of someone else’s story.

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by Jeanne Erdmann · July 10, 2018 · 1 comment

Maggie-Koerth Baker Untangles the Story behind Trump’s False Claims of Immigrant Voter Fraud

On the campaign trail leading up to last year’s presidential election, then-candidate Donald Trump claimed, based on a debunked 2014 study, that the election was rigged by fraudulent voters, many of whom were illegal immigrants. Coverage of the 2014 study tended to focus on its mistakes. But FiveThirtyEight staff writer Maggie Koerth-Baker wanted to find out why those mistakes occurred. Here, she tells the story behind her May 2017 feature “The Tangled Story behind Trump’s False Claims of Voter Fraud.”

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by Jeanne Erdmann · September 12, 2017 · 0 comments

Read This! (Or Not): Writing Book Reviews

The trick to reviewing books well is to approach the task systematically, keeping a clear eye on what you’re trying to accomplish, and keeping in mind what your responsibility is to readers. Book reviews should give an idea of the quality and style of the book, helping readers figure out whether they want to read the book, but without providing so much detail that readers feel as though there’s nothing left to learn.

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by Jeanne Erdmann · June 6, 2017 · 1 comment

Melinda Wenner Moyer Tracks Drug-Resistant Bacteria from Farm to Table

In a December 2016 Scientific American feature that was a finalist for the National Magazine Award and won first place in its category in the AHCJ Awards for Excellence in Health Care Reporting, journalist Melinda Wenner Moyer wove together the stories of contract hog farmers; the science of antibiotic resistance; the public policies that help perpetuate resistance; and researchers’ efforts to understand how the problem can spread from farm to table, and might spark more drug-resistant infections in people. Here, she tells the story behind her story.

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by Jeanne Erdmann · May 2, 2017 · 1 comment

Natural Habitat: Michelle Nijhuis

Today we visit the White Salmon, Washington tiny house and office shed of science writer Michelle Nijhuis.

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by Jeanne Erdmann · October 4, 2016 · 0 comments

Lauren Morello Examines Twitter and Sexism in Science

Twitter is a visible and sometimes volatile platform for decrying sexism in science. Some such online discussions do more than inspire memorable hashtags such as #distractinglysexy, #shirtstorm, and #addmaleauthorgate. Twitter, writes Lauren Morello, U.S. news editor for Nature, is a “megaphone” that amplifies the voices of those who might not otherwise be heard. And, Morello says, the platform has helped make people more aware of the challenges that sexism poses for women in science. Here, Morello tells the story behind her Nature story “We Can # It.”

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by Jeanne Erdmann · May 10, 2016 · 0 comments

Virginia Hughes Enters the Land of the Sleepyheads

People with a rare sleep disorder called idiopathic hypersomnia can sleep for days at a time and still wake to sluggish brains and bodies and often take extreme measures just to get out of bed. Science journalist Virginia Hughes immersed herself in the lives of the self-dubbed “sleepyheads” for “Wake No More,” published in Matter on January 26, 2015. Here, Hughes tells the story behind the story.

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by Jeanne Erdmann · April 21, 2015 · 1 comment

Natural Habitat: Mark Schrope

TON visits the working digs of Florida science writer Mark Schrope, who built a garage office that features a hammock, a shrunken head (of sorts), a chandelier, and a boat.

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by Jeanne Erdmann · January 13, 2015 · 2 comments

How to Prepare for the ScienceWriters2013 Power Pitch

The “power pitch” session at ScienceWriters2013 will give writers a chance to connect face-to-face with editors from 11 different publishers and publications. The session will be held Saturday morning from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 […]

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by Jeanne Erdmann · October 30, 2013 · 5 comments

Single Best: Paul Raeburn

Paul Raeburn shares the ideal he always has in mind for the perfect story. Raeburn is a journalist and blogger, and the author of Do Fathers Matter? The New Science of Fatherhood, to be published for Father’s Day, 2014 by Scientific American/FSG. He is also the chief media critic for the Knight Science Journalism Tracker at MIT.

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by Jeanne Erdmann · September 10, 2013 · 0 comments

Natural Habitat: Robin Marantz Henig

The Open Notebook visits Robin Marantz Henig, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and the author of several books, most recently Twentysomething: Why Do Young Adults Seem Stuck?, written with her daughter Samantha Henig.

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by Jeanne Erdmann · May 21, 2013 · 1 comment