The Open Notebook – Storygrams

Storygrams

Right whales off the coast of Florida in 2014.

Storygram: Ed Yong’s “North Atlantic Right Whales Are Dying in Horrific Ways”

This spring, North Atlantic right whales started rapidly dying. In fact, they were dying so quickly that when Ed Yong, a staff writer at The Atlantic, reported the alarming trend in a news story, he needed to revise the text within hours of publishing. It can be difficult to pull off doom-and-gloom conservation stories, especially those involving charismatic megafauna. Here, Nadia Drake, a contributing writer at National Geographic, takes a look at what makes Yong’s piece excellent.

MORE >>

by Nadia Drake · October 8, 2019 · 1 comment

Storygram: Two Media Outlets Cover the “CRISPR Babies” News

When a Chinese scientist revealed in November 2018 that twin babies had been born with genes he had edited using CRISPR gene-editing technology, science reporters jumped on the story. In this Storygram, we depart from our usual format to look closely at not one but two stories, one by Marilynn Marchione for The Associated Press and the other by Antonio Regalado for MIT Technology Review, that reported the CRISPR-babies news in the U.S.

MORE >>

by Jill U. Adams · June 25, 2019 · 2 comments

Storygram: Marilynn Marchione’s “Chinese Researcher Claims First Gene-Edited Babies”

Associated Press reporter Marilynn Marchione had exclusive access to the Chinese scientist He Jiankui, who announced in November 2018 that he had helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies using the gene-editing tool CRISPR. Marchione’s story reporting the announcement, “Chinese Researcher Claims First Gene-Edited Babies,” appeared on November 26, 2018. In the Storygram annotation below, I analyze aspects of Marchione’s story that contribute to its excellence, and I talk with Marchione about her experience reporting and writing the piece.

MORE >>

by Jill U. Adams · June 25, 2019 · 2 comments

Storygram: Antonio Regalado’s “Exclusive: Chinese Scientists Are Creating CRISPR Babies”

Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced in November 2018 that that he helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies using the gene-editing tool CRISPR. MIT Technology Review reporter Antonio Regalado learned details about the controversial experiment from a Chinese-clinical-trials registry. His story, “Exclusive: Chinese Scientists Are Creating CRISPR Babies,” was published on November 25, 2018. In the Storygram annotation below, I analyze key aspects of Regalado’s story that contribute to its impact.

MORE >>

by Jill U. Adams · June 25, 2019 · 2 comments

Kayden and Jayden Fleurimond, four months old, rest as their older sister Berlynda, 10, dances in the living room of their aunt’s apartment. On Aug. 10, their mother Dacheca Fleurimond passed away at SUNY Downstate hospital after delivering her twin sons.

Storygram: Annie Waldman’s “How Hospitals Are Failing Black Mothers”

When a black woman in America goes into labor, which hospital she chooses for her delivery—or where the ambulance takes her, sometimes against her wishes—can determine whether she and her baby will leave the hospital together and alive. Annie Waldman’s investigation into maternal harm at hospitals that disproportionately serve black mothers, part of ProPublica and NPR’s award-winning Lost Mothers series, Annie Waldman “makes the invisible visible, and it does so with data,” writes Tasneem Raja.

MORE >>

by Tasneem Raja · March 19, 2019 · 0 comments

Storygram: Joshua Sokol’s “Life After Mercury Poisoning”

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.

MORE >>

by Jude Isabella · December 4, 2018 · 0 comments

Storygram: Maria Konnikova’s “Altered Tastes”

The science surrounding so much about food is complex, confusing, and constantly changing. In her New Republic story “Altered Tastes,” about the up-and-coming science of neurogastronomy, Maria Konnikova asks both “What is delicious?” and “How do we solve our world’s nutrition crisis?” Konnikova focuses her story on the fine-dining chef Heston Blumenthal, who is undertaking the gargantuan task of improving dining and health through the use of science. Here’s a look at what makes her story great.

MORE >>

by Molly Birnbaum · October 23, 2018 · 1 comment

An artist's conception shows two merging black holes similar to those detected by LIGO.

Storygram: Nicola Twilley’s “The Billion-Year Wave”

Physics—including astronomy, cosmology, theory, and the machinations of the universe at the very biggest and very smallest scales—is sometimes relegated to the science-writing sidelines. But in Nicola Twilley’s hands, high-energy physics is gripping, surprising, even funny—and that’s what makes her coverage of the first gravitational-wave detection so interesting. Here, we analyze what makes her story so good.

MORE >>

by Rebecca Boyle · September 11, 2018 · 1 comment

Storygram: Anna Maria Barry-Jester’s “Surviving Suicide in Wyoming”

Suicide. Guns. Mental health. Not exactly light fare. Yet with thorough reporting, careful structure, and a compelling lead character, a story about such serious social issues doesn’t have to read like a white paper or a variant of the same opinion piece on gun deaths you’ve seen 20 times. In her measured and thoughtful piece “Surviving Suicide in Wyoming,” FiveThirtyEight’s Anna Maria Barry-Jester delivers an informative, sensitive, and nuanced look at a difficult issue.

MORE >>

by David Wolman · June 12, 2018 · 0 comments

Storygram: Sarah Wild’s “Bones Specialists Try to Prise Secrets from the Veld Bodies”

In an award-winning Mail & Guardian story about the challenges of identifying “veld bodies,” or anonymous bodies found in the open grasslands of South Africa, freelance journalist Sarah Wild details the scientific limitations, logistical constraints, human errors, and lack of support that plague a broken network of law enforcement, mortuaries, and government identification systems. Here, Scientific American senior editor for features Jen Schwartz analyzes what makes the story succeed.

MORE >>

by Jen Schwartz · March 20, 2018 · 0 comments

Entomologist Gale Ridge in her lab at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, Conn. The Madagascar hissing cockroaches on her sleeve are one of the species of insects she keeps there. (Originally published in STAT.)

Storygram: Eric Boodman’s “Accidental Therapists”

It can feel both violating and unnerving to witness a person whose mind is causing them severe suffering, as is the case for people with delusional parasitosis—a false belief of an infestation of insects, mites, or other creepy crawlies. In an award-winning feature, STAT reporter Eric Boodman deftly draws readers into this world. Here, Brooke Borel annotates the story to reveal what makes it so good.

MORE >>

by Brooke Borel · January 23, 2018 · 1 comment

Voyager 1, launched in 1977, crossed the border into interstellar space on Aug. 25, 2012, according to a new study.

Storygram: Andrew Grant’s “At Last, Voyager 1 Slips into Interstellar Space”

Andrew Grant’s 2013 Science News story about Voyager 1 entering interstellar space seems at first a straightforward news story. But in analyzing the piece, Columbia Journalism School’s Marguerite Holloway and students in her graduate science writing course “realized just how much skill, authority, and knowledge are packed into this piece.” The story won the AGU’s 2014 David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism. Here, Holloway and her students annotate Grant’s story to reveal what makes it successful.

MORE >>

by Marguerite Holloway · December 12, 2017 · 0 comments

Announcements

Call for Applications for the TON Workshop for Science Editors. April 24-27, 2020 in Madison, Wisconsin. Instructors: Jacqui Banaszynski, Laura Helmuth, Siri Carpenter. Learn more here.

Environmental Journalism: A (new) TON collection. We are pleased to announce a new collection of TON articles centered on the craft of environmental journalism. Check it out!

The TON #PeepYourScience contest will return in 2020! Read all about The World’s Finest (and Only … As Far as We Know) Science-Themed Peeps Diorama Contest here and watch this space for more information in January.