Freelance Science Journalist
One of my articles also appears in The Craft of Science Writing.
“A Divided Defense” (Web version: “The quest to show that biological sex matters in the immune system“) – 15 August 2022
“Here Come the Artificial Intelligence Nutritionists” – 14 March 2022
“What the Science Says About the Health Benefits of Vitamins and Supplements” – 28 April 2022
“The Link Between Type 2 Diabetes and Psychiatric Disorders” – 10 March 2022
“A Gut Check for Better Aging” – Summer 2021
“Immunity Starts in the Gut” – Winter 2021
“Five ways deep learning has transformed image analysis” – 20 September 2022
“Embryo-like models shed fresh light on early human development” – 16 December 2021
“Smartphone science: apps test and track infectious diseases” – 10 May 2021
“Core curriculum: learning to manage a shared microscopy facility” – 08 December 2020
“How DIY technologies are democratizing science” – 17 November 2020
“Got mutation? ‘Base editors’ fix genomes one nucleotide at a time” – 18 November 2019
“Turning discarded DNA into ecology gold” – 25 June 2019
“Building a Silicon Brain” – 1 May 2019
“How artificial intelligence is helping to prevent blindness” – 11 April 2019
“Gene Editing Could One Day Treat Muscle Disorders” – 30 August 2018
“World’s deepest zoo harbors clues to extraterrestrial life” – 15 June 2017
“The Secret Lives of Ants” – 15 March 2017
“Feeling Like a Fraud: The Impostor Phenomenon in Science Writing” – 15 November 2016
“This tiny brain parasite seems to make rodents braver—and it likes humans, too” – 24 October 2016
“What Sensory Receptors Do Outside of Sense Organs” – 1 September 2016
“Inner Earth Is Teeming With Exotic Forms of Life” – 29 February 2016
“Getting Credit for Peer Review” – 8 February 2016
“If Monsoons Were Not Extreme Enough Weather for You, You’re In for a Treat” – 17 July 2015
“The 3D Future of Sound” – 22 April 2015
“Harvesting the clouds: how to make water out of fog” – 8 December 2014
“Curious about everything: Bacteriologist Stanley Falkow never met a microbe he didn’t like.” – September/October 2011
“Hurting? Being in love can help take away your pain” – 13 February 2011
“Lizard Family Ties” – Summer 2011
“How are we Wired?” – March/April 2010
“Energy Locked in Ice” – November/December 2009
“Integrating Multiple -Omics in Individual Cells” – 1 October 2018
“New Methods to Detect CRISPR Off-Target Mutations” – 1 March 2018
“Discovering Novel Antibiotics” – 1 February 2017
“Inner Workings: Bacteria work together to survive Earth’s depths” – 31 January 2017
“Inner Workings: Tiny organisms could reveal how animals evolved” – 16 November 2016
“Inner Workings: Coral reefs at a tipping point” – 10 May 2016
“Journal Club: How to find the rare, disease-resistant individuals who could help forge new therapies” – 11 April 2016
“Inner Workings: Filming chimpanzee gestures” – 11 February 2013
“A New Window to the Underwater World” – 9 November 2016
“A New Star in the Fight Against Multidrug-resistant Bacteria” – 14 October 2016
“RNA Sequencing Rapidly Maps the Brain” – 19 September 2016
“Tracking Protein Dynamics in Single Living Neurons” – 6 July 2016
“Differentiated Cells Regain the Ability to Grow Like Stem Cells” – 4 April 2016
“How Animals Became Multicellular” – 16 March 2016
“Using Lasers to Weld Neurons Together” – 8 March 2016
“Building Computers Within Cells” – 24 February 2016
“Watching Fertilized Embryos Develop in Real Time” – 2 February 2016
“A Drug to Stay Young Longer” – 18 January 2016
“Eliminating CRISPR-Cas9’s Off-target Effects” – 13 January 2016
“It’s All in the Tip: A New Way to Study Membrane Receptors” – 2 December 2016
“Insect-Inspired Vision Helps These Tiny Robots Fly” – 17 June 2014
When It Comes to Echolocation, Some Bats Just Wing It” – 4 December 2014
“Wasp Bores Into Fruit With Metallic “Drill Bit”” – 28 May 2014
“World’s First Female “Penis” Found, in Cave-Dwelling Bugs” – 17 April 2014
“Washington Mudslide’s Speed Led to High Death Toll” – 27 March 2014
“Extinct Porpoise Found to Be First Mammal With Major Underbite” – 13 March 2014
“Crazy Ants Smear Acid Over Themselves to Survive Fire Ants” – 13 February 2014
“Bumblebees Can Fly Higher Than Mount Everest, Scientists Find” – 4 February 2014
“Good News for Bats? Species Bouncing Back in Europe” – 29 January 2014
“Dinosaur Fossil With Fleshy Rooster’s Comb Is First of Its Kind” – 12 December 2013
“Turkey’s New Undersea Tunnel Is Built to Resist Earthquakes” – 4 November 2013
“Left or Right Tail Wags Elicit Different Emotional Responses From Dogs” – 31 October 2013
“African Elephants Understand Human Gestures” – 10 October 2013
“New Species of Spiny Rat Found on Indonesian Island” – 24 September 2013
“Tiny Silicon Chip Uses Quantum Physics to Slow Light Down” – 14 January 2011
“Underwater robot can follow marine organisms over record distances” – 1 November 2010
“Virtual dissection table gets classroom test run” – 21 June 2011
“Women brave the needles in hopes of having children” – 15 June 2011
“Schools warn kids need shot by the fall” – 30 May 2011
“Bionic legs help paralyzed patient walk at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center” – 25 May 2011
“Bedbug reports increase in Santa Clara County” – 12 May 2011
“Virus kills crow, raising concerns about West Nile” – 30 April 2011
“Girls will make up 45 percent of teams in 2011 Tech Challenge” – 29 April 2011
“Schools brace for Whooping Cough” – 25 April 2011
“County struggles to bring down high TB rate” – 24 April 2011
“Students will get to see best of Washington D.C. after all” – 9 April 2011
“Bless you, gesundheit, salud:It’s allergy season!” – 6 April 2011
“Water is abundant, so drought is over” – 30 March 2011
Wrote a script that was played on “Loh Down on Science” radio show – Summer 2011
(The article has also appeared in several other newspapers in the U.S. and Canada after being picked up by the McClatchy-Tribune wire)
“Study Shows People in Love Feel Less Pain” – 6 January 2011
“It’s not just size that matters: how population affects climate change” – 11 November 2010
“Overachievers We Love” – August 2010
“Out of Our Element” – June 2010
“FYI: Could an Asteroid Impact Knock the Moon into the Earth?” – May 2010
“Headlines: The All-Seeing Border” – April 2010
“Megapixels: Light Touch” – April 2010
“Headlines: Fire Escape” – March 2010
“Headlines: Sweet Sensor” – March 2010
“How it Works: Paper, Revised” – March 2010
“Megapixels: Coincidence or Consequence?” – March 2010
“Megapixels: Tunnel Vision” – February 2010
“Your Guide to the Year in Science 2010: Births and Deaths” – January 2010
“Your Guide to the Year in Science 2010: Life After Death?” – January 2010
“FYI: Can microwave technology be used to make food cold?” – January 2010
“Megapixels: Mind the Gap” – January 2010
“FYI: Why don’t loud snorers wake themselves up?” – December 2009
“Autism symptoms emerge in infancy, sibling study finds” – 6 April 2010
“The Strength to Live” – July/August 2010
“The Superstarvers” – July/August 2010
“DNA Daredevils” – March/April 2010
“Robots on the Job” – January/February 2010
“A Liquid Beginning” – January/February 2010
“Interview: NASA Scientist’s Plan to Extract Moon Water Affordably Using Microwaves” – 29 October 2009
“NASA’s Messenger Flyby Captures Never-Before-Seen Images of Mercury” – 02 October 2009
“Drinking Alcohol May Make Head Injuries Less Harmful” – 22 September 2009
“Newest Lightbulb Tech Combines Advantages of Incandescent, Fluorescent, and LED” – 18 September 2009
“Fungus-Infected Violin Beats Stradivarius in Listening Test” – 17 September 2009
“A Squirt of Stem Cell Gel Heals Brain Injuries” – 4 September 2009
“Ant-Sized Microbots Travel in Swarms” – 31 August 2009
“QnAs with David H. Raulet” – 7 June 2022
“Profile of Gisela Storz” – 3 May 2022
“QnAs with Renu Malhotra” – 25 April 2022
“Profile of Ana Maria Cuervo” – 20 April 2022
“Profile of Lynn Nadel” – 19 April 2022
“Profile of Kazuo Shinozaki” – 15 March 2022
“Profile of Jonathan L. Sessler” – 1 March 2022
“QnAs with David Van Essen” – 8 February 2022
“QnAs with Matthew V. Tirrell” – 28 December 2021
“Profile of John R. Speakman” – 3 August 2021
“Profile of Patrick Cramer” – 27 July 2021
“QnAs with Sean J. Morrison” – 22 June 2021
“QnAs with Clare M. Waterman” – 8 June 2021
“QnAs with Michael Reth” – 20 April 2021
“QnAs with Kenneth W. Kinzler” – 23 March 2021
“Profile of James H. Hurley” – 16 March 2021
“Profile of Se-Jin Lee” – 30 November 2020
“Profile of Subra Suresh” – 13 October 2020
“Profile of Edward H. Egelman” – 1 September 2020
“QnAs with Sharad Goel and Allison Koenecke” – 1 September 2020
“QnAs with Mark T. Nelson” – 25 August 2020
“QnAs with Mikhail D. Lukin” – 30 June 2020
“QnAs with Zachary B. Lippman” – 30 June 2020
“Profile of Christopher A. Walsh” – 23 June 2020
“QnAs with John Kutzbach” – 27 January 2020
“QnAs with Roger J. Davis” – 24 January 2020
“QnAs with Sheng Yang He” – 11 November 2019
“QnAs with Günter P. Wagner” – 30 September 2019
“Profile of David D. Ginty” – 18 June 2019
“QnAs with Mitchell A. Lazar” – 18 June 2019
“QnAs with Alexander Levitzki” – 11 June 2019
“QnAs with C. Y. Cyrus Chu” – 2 April 2019
“QnAs with Steven A. Kliewer” – 27 November 2018
“Profile of Julian I. Schroeder” – 15 October 2018
“Profile of Yuval Peres” – 7 September 2018
“QnAs with John E. Cronan” – 3 July 2018
“QnAs with Lia Addadi” – 2 July 2018
“QnAs with Rafael Radi” – 29 May 2018
“Profile of Steve Granick” – 22 January 2018
“Profile of Scott W. Lowe” – 16 January 2018
“QnAs with Pardis Sabeti” – 8 September 2017
“QnAs with Joe Lutkenhaus” – 8 August 2017
“Profile of Matthew O. Jackson” – 25 July 2016
“Profile of Paul Shulze-Lefert” – 14 January 2014
“Profile of Peter Novick” – 7 January 2014
“Profile of Bruce A. Beutler” – 15 July 2013
“QnAs with Detlef Weigel” – 9 July 2013
“PNAS Classic Profile: Barbara McClintock and the discovery of jumping genes” – 11 December 2012
“QnAs with Charles F. Stevens” – 11 September 2012
“QnAs with Shu Chien” – 19 June 2012
“Profile of Lee D. Ross” – 8 May 2012
“QnAs with Richard T. Durrett” – 21 February 2012
“PNAS Classic Profile: Paul Greengard: Signals underlying moods, addictions, and brain disorders” – 22 November 2011
Wrote weekly article summaries for the journal’s “In This Issue” section and tipsheet, and created and edited PNAS Science Sessions podcasts
“Peer Profile: Carol Shields” – 15 October 2016
“Peer Profile: Felipe Medeiros” – 29 July 2016
“Research connects specific variations in RNA splicing with breast cancer causation” – 1 October 2015
“Scientists sequence genome of worm that can regrow body parts, seek stem cell insights” – 21 September 2015
“Surprised? Cholinergic neurons send brain-wide broadcasts enabling us to learn from the unexpected” – 27 August 2015
“An immune system marker for therapy-resistant prostate cancer” – 04 June 2015
“Tumor surroundings are shown to affect progression of different cancer subtypes” – 27 May 2015
“Tumor cells that mimic blood vessels could help breast cancer spread to other sites” – 8 April 2015
“Twin copies of a gene pair up in embryonic stem cells at a critical moment in their differentiation” – 3 March 2015
“Addressing Global Mental Health Issues Across Town and Around the World” – Fall 2016
“Neuromodulation for Treating Depression” – Fall 2015
“Clock Management” – Winter 2014-15
“Do snails need their slime trails to move ahead? It’s a sticky question, Stanford researchers say” – 6 April 2011
“New Stanford Nano Center provides state-of-the-art equipment for research at the smallest of scales” – 23 March 2011
“Stanford researchers find that modern humans originated in southern Africa” – 7 March 2011
“Stanford professor wins million-dollar Dan David Prize” – 3 March 2011
“Stanford researchers develop new technology for cheaper, more efficient solar cells” – 20 February 2011
“Stanford researchers study how disordered proteins spread from cell to cell, potentially spreading neurodegenerative disease” – 18 February 2011
“Stanford researchers develop wireless technology for faster, more efficient communication networks” – 14 February 2011
“The brain knows what the nose smells, but how? Stanford researchers trace the answer” – 2 February 2011
“IHV Researchers Hunt for an Infectious Cause of Some Human lung Cancers” – Winter/Spring 2010
“New Peptides Could lead to Better Anti-Cancer Therapies” – Winter/Spring 2010
“A Lassa Fever Vaccine is Safe Even in Immunocompromised Animals” – Fall 2009
“Conspiracy Beliefs Can Affect Treatment of People with HIV” – Fall 2009
“A Compelling New Mechanism for HIV Cellular Entry” – Summer 2009
“Should you put your computer to sleep?” – May/June 2009
“If people get some genes from their mom and some genes from their dad, do you have some of your own genes?” – 2 September 2009
“I’ve read that humans gained about 200cc of brain capacity some 100,000 years ago. Is this true? Also, how did human brains get to be so big?” – 11 December 2008
“Can stem cells help one with liver cancer?” – 25 September 2008
“What is a mutated gene?” – 14 August 2008
“Identification of Virulence Factors for Toxoplasmosis” – Spring 2007
“Riders Finish Second at Skidmore” – November 24, 2002
“Crews Satisfied With Fall Season Results” – November 18, 2002