The Open Notebook – Interviews

Elizabeth Kolbert Stares Down Mass Extinction

In her Pulitzer Prize–winning 2014 book The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert details evidence that human activity is driving the planet toward a sixth mass extinction. Rather than causing her to feel overcome by the horror of one possible future, Kolbert says, writing the book left her wondering: Will we face up to what we are doing? And what’s next? Here, she talks about reporting bad news, captivating readers with tales of nature, and turning magazine articles into books.

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by Christina Selby · July 26, 2016 · 6 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

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

Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn on The Death of Cancer

Few have witnessed firsthand the ups and downs of trying to treat a deadly disease: the frequent deaths, the endless suffering, the bureaucracy and egos that halt progress, and the extraordinary experience of discovering a lifesaving therapy. In The Death of Cancer, Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn helps her father, Vincent DeVita, tell the story of his years immersed in the War on Cancer: the daily battles, the unceasing frustrations, and the victories large and small.

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by Jessica Wapner · March 22, 2016 · 1 comment

William deBuys Goes to Extremes for Endangered Species

Science writers often endure arduous conditions to report stories. Most of us love following scientists into the field, to feel part of their remarkable jobs for a while. So when William DeBuys says reporting on endangered species conservation while hiking through a leech-infested jungle surrounded by armed men and woozy with food poisoning was a “dream come true,” we don’t doubt his sincerity. Here, DeBuys shares how he brought the beauty and lament of conservation science to the page.

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by Christina Selby · February 9, 2016 · 1 comment

Brooke Borel Investigates a Scientist’s Bizarre Alter Ego

Journalist Brooke Borel had written numerous stories about the science of genetically modified organisms when she stumbled upon a strange discovery about a plant scientist, Kevin Folta, who’d been promoting GMO science on a podcast he produced under the pseudonym Vern Blazek. He insisted that guests and listeners understood his intent, though he’d never disclosed that the Blazek character was fictitious, even after he used both his real and his fake identities to interview himself on the show.

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by Christie Aschwanden · January 12, 2016 · 3 comments

Stephen Ornes Explains the Science of Lightning to Young Readers

Most of us have experienced the moment of truth when thunder fractures the quiet of an afternoon and a stray lightning bolt streaks across the sky in the distance and we wonder: What are the odds that’s close enough to reach me?

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by Amanda Mascarelli · November 17, 2015 · 1 comment

Kathryn Schulz Paints a Chilling Picture of “The Really Big One”

Kathryn Schulz’s New Yorker story “The Really Big One” opens in Japan, moments before the 2011 Tohuku earthquake. American seismologist Chris Goldfinger, who is attending an international conference in the city of Kashiwa, feels the room begin to shake.

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by Michelle Nijhuis · September 15, 2015 · 7 comments

Liza Gross Digs into California’s Pesticide Data

If you eat strawberries and live in the United States, there is a good chance that you’ve had strawberries grown in Oxnard, California. Each year, Oxnard and the surrounding county grow more than 630 million pounds of strawberries—a crop that uses high levels of pesticides, including fumigants, which are among the most toxic. Writer Liza Gross spent months sifting through data to find out how pesticide use was changing around the state.

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by Hannah Hoag · June 9, 2015 · 2 comments

Resurrecting the Dead: Richard Conniff on Bringing Historical Characters to Life

It’s hard to make a character seem vivid and real on the page, even if you spend hours or days with your subject. But in his 2011 book The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth, which profiles pioneering naturalists and specimen collectors, writer Richard Conniff managed to do this without exchanging a single word with his characters.

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by Geoffrey Giller · May 5, 2015 · 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

Phil McKenna Describes the Making of “Life in the Death Zone”

Two German boys—one from the East, one from the West—spent their teenage years birdwatching on either side of the Iron Curtain. Today, the former pen pals aim to transform the no-man’s-land into a Green Belt across Europe. To tell their story, journalist Phil McKenna literally walked into a minefield. The result of his efforts, jointly published at NOVA Next and at The Big Roundtable in February 2015, was a richly textured tale of conservation and friendship forged under the most trying circumstances. Here, McKenna tells the story behind his story.

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by Vijee Venkatraman · March 24, 2015 · 5 comments