Earth has a memory problem. Few rocks have survived from the first billion years of the planet’s history, when all kinds of important things happened, including—perhaps—the first stirrings of life. This amnesia has made it […]
In 2012, ProPublica reporter Marshall Allen came across a staggering statistic: The U.S. health care system wastes an estimated $765 billion each year. That’s about a quarter of the total amount spent on health care […]
Today, there are 520 pandas living in captivity, and fully a quarter of them are the descendants of an especially fecund and recently deceased individual named Pan Pan. Like an ursine cross between Don Juan […]
The western Amazon, which includes parts of Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil, is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world. The 6.7-million-square-kilometer [2.6-million-square-mile] region is home to 10 percent of the […]
On the campaign trail leading up to last year’s presidential election, then-candidate Donald Trump kept up a refrain that proved popular with his supporters: The election, he claimed, was rigged by fraudulent voters, many of […]
The worst thing about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the debilitating progress of the disease, which eventually leaves patients locked in their own bodies, aware of their decline but unable to move or talk. […]
Humans have been telling stories about themselves on cosmic timescales for at least a few millennia. But these narratives are usually found in epic poems, in the doctrines of the world’s religions, and maybe […]
Antibiotic resistance threatens us all. In many states, farmers contract with large corporations to raise tens of thousands of feed animals in close quarters. To prevent diseases from spreading among animals in tight quarters, farmers […]
Journalist Mac McClelland has reported from hazardous locations around the world. She spent three years as a human-rights reporter for Mother Jones magazine. She hunted down a warlord in the Congo. She lived with Burmese […]
The podcast world is booming, and so is its audience. According to the Pew Research Center, the percentage of adults who’ve plugged into a podcast has more than doubled since 2008, from 9 percent to […]
In her June 2016 Harper’s feature “Hashtag Prescription: The Hidden Costs of Crowdsourcing a Cure,” Helen Ouyang tells the story of Josh Hardy, a boy who is very ill with kidney cancer and might benefit […]
It’s an assignment that evokes equal parts dread and adrenaline rush in a reporter. Go to an American town devastated by a drug epidemic that led to the largest HIV outbreak in U.S. history. Once […]
Is This a Story? How to Evaluate Your Ideas Before You Pitch
Jacqui Banaszynski’s Literary Forensics: A Diagnostic Tool to Improve Writing
Tools: Planner Pad, the Funnel of Focus
Are You an Editor or a Writer? Part II: The Editors
Pitching Errors: How Not to Pitch
Storygram: Sarah Wild’s “Bones Specialists Try to Prise Secrets from the Veld Bodies”
Including Diverse Voices in Science Stories
David Tuller Untangles the Research History of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
A Day in the Life of John Timmer
The Open Notebook is growing, thanks to a $150,000 grant from Science Sandbox
The Science Byline Counting Project: Where Are the Women—and Where Are They Not?
On the Scene: Reporting from the Field
How Rebecca Skloot Built The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
David Dobbs Examines a Provocative New Theory of How Genes Shape Behavior
Are You a Writer or an Editor? Part I: The Writers
Taking Good Notes: Tricks and Tools
Trading the Pipette for the Pen: Transitioning from Science to Science Writing
Ask TON: What Does a Science Writing Master’s Program Get You?
Storygram: Cally Carswell’s “The Tree Coroners”
A Day in the Life of Annalee Newitz
The Open Notebook has earned a GuideStar Gold Seal for our commitment to transparency in sharing information important to donors.
Follow Us