Siri Carpenter

Vote Now for the Peeple’s Choice Award!

Schrodinger’s Peep. Rice CRISPR/Peep9. The first “Peep”eration with ether. All monumental advances in science—with a marshmallow twist. These are just three of the 50 dioramas created by science-minded crafters and entered in the first-ever World’s Finest (and Only…As Far as We Know) Science-Themed Peeps Diorama Contest. Our gallery of the sweet tableaux is now open, and anyone can vote (through April 14) for their favorite to win the highly coveted Peeple’s Choice Award.

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by Siri Carpenter · March 13, 2019 · 0 comments

Help Kids Interview Scientists at the Science Storytellers Booth at AAAS

What happens if you ask a child, “Hey, do you want to talk to a scientist?” That question drove science writer Jenny Cutraro to develop Science Storytellers, a public engagement program that aims to sit children down to interview scientists, just like professional journalists do—and then to share their science stories. The Science Storytellers booth will be at AAAS’s Family Science Days in Washington, DC on February 16 and 17. Join us!

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by Siri Carpenter · January 30, 2019 · 0 comments

Christie Aschwanden Tackles the Science of Exercise Recovery

Christie Aschwanden thought writing a book about how the body recovers from exercise and builds resilience for further challenges should be easy. In her mind’s eye, she could almost picture how the chapters would unspool. But as she dug into reporting and writing her new book, Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery, she learned how mistaken she’d been—laughably so, she says.

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by Siri Carpenter · January 29, 2019 · 0 comments

Nidhi Subbaraman Uncovers a Story of Medical Neglect—and of Useful Anger—on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation

When BuzzFeed News’s Nidhi Subbaraman began covering the Rosebud Sioux tribe’s lawsuit against the U.S. government for its failure to provide treaty-mandated health care to tribal members, she discovered “seriously horrifying stories” of substandard care and neglect. Digging deeper, she found a narrative of not only hurt and outrage but also resilience and activism. Here, Subbaraman tells the story behind her story.

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by Siri Carpenter · June 5, 2018 · 1 comment

How to Do a Close Read

Reading nonfiction stories closely, for the purpose of studying the craft, usually requires reading them several times with some purposeful questions in mind, then giving yourself the gift of time to think about how you might incorporate some of your observations into your own work. Here, we suggest some of the kinds of questions you can ask about a feature story to deepen your perceptions of it and to get you thinking about how writers make the most of their craft.

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by Siri Carpenter · March 13, 2018 · 0 comments

Help Kids Interview Scientists at the Science Storytellers Booth at AAAS

What happens if you ask a child, “Hey, do you want to talk to a scientist?” That question drove science writer Jenny Cutraro to develop Science Storytellers, a public engagement program that aims to sit children down to interview scientists, just like professional journalists do—and then to share their science stories. The answer, it turns out, is that kids eat it up. Want to see for yourself?
Join TON and Science Storytellers at Family Science Days at the 2018 AAAS meeting in Austin, Texas.

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by Siri Carpenter · February 4, 2018 · 0 comments

Apoorva Mandavilli Recounts an Unlikely Recovery from Brain Injury

In December 2014, Steve Mishkin suffered a near-fatal brain injury. But he recovered, for reasons as uncertain as the events that led to his injury. Writing for The Atlantic, Apoorva Mandavilli details the many “ingredients” that likely contributed to Mishkin’s recovery. Challenges of reporting the story, Mandavilli says, included piecing together a detailed medical narrative, investigating a stubborn mystery, and maintaining journalistic distance while reporting on deeply personal events in the lives of friends. Here, she tells the story behind her story.

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by Siri Carpenter · July 19, 2016 · 0 comments

Science Blogging: The Essential Guide (Yale University Press) was published March 1.

Science Blogging: The Essential Guide Makes an Online Home at TON

Today, The Open Notebook is pleased and proud to announce a partnership with the authors of Science Blogging: The Essential Guide. The book, forthcoming on March 1 from Yale University Press and funded by grants from the Sloan Foundation and from the National Association of Science Writers, is aimed at science journalists, scientists, and anyone else who has something to say about science and wants to do it on a blogging platform.

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by Siri Carpenter · February 16, 2016 · 2 comments

Seth Mnookin Follows a Family Battling a Rare Genetic Disease

Seth Mnookin was drawn to Bertrand Might’s family’s story by a simple question: What do you do when you learn your child could die from a disease with no other known sufferers? Reporting for The New Yorker on the scientific and administrative complexities surrounding rare diseases. In his reporting, Mnookin discovered “remarkable amounts of grace” in the families struggling to understand and cope with their children’s illness. Here, Mnookin tells the story behind his story.

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by Siri Carpenter · October 21, 2014 · 5 comments

Writing Magic: The Mechanic and the Muse

If you haven’t had the pleasure of taking a writing or editing course from Jacqui Banaszynski, you’re missing out. Banaszynski, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and editor who teaches at the University of Missouri School of […]

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by Siri Carpenter · March 1, 2014 · 0 comments

Deborah Blum: From Book to Documentary Film

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 New York […]

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by Siri Carpenter · January 28, 2014 · 1 comment

Natural Habitat: Mary Caperton Morton

TON goes on the road with science writer Mary Caperton Morton, whose office—and home—is a custom-built lightweight trailer that has taken her and her canine companions all over the Western United States and beyond.

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by Siri Carpenter · August 13, 2013 · 1 comment