My Favourite Science Writers
A list of favourite scientific writers and journalists:
(Except for the last name on this list, I only considered people whose profession is writing about science, not scientists who write well about their research.)
- Ivan Semeniuk of The Globe and Mail: I read him for his excellent coverage of scientific news, as well as the state of research and public policy in Canada. He also does a wonderful job of chronicling the achievements of Canadian scientists and sharing them with the public at large.
- Elizabeth Kolbert, who also writes for The New Yorker: The Sixth Extinction presented such a cogent argument that we are currently amidst a mass extinction of species, termed the Anthropocene extinction and that humans are the cause. I make sure to read all of her articles, many of which focus on climate change.
- Ed Yong of The Atlantic magazine: Ed Yong writes about the most fun, random, intriguing topics in science. I don’t know how he comes up with ideas like “How to Tame a Zombie Fungus” and “The History of the Oceans is Locked in Whale Earwax”. I also commend him for increasing the presence of female scientists in his articles. He is also quite active on Twitter.
- Siobhan Roberts has written for The New Yorker and currently contributes to The New York Times: (I might be biased because Siobhan was a Journalism Fellow at Massey College a few years ago.) She is such a skilled storyteller, weaving biography and science together in compelling, engrossing pieces. Her New Yorker piece about then recently-deceased mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani first introduced me to her writing.
- Siddhartha Mukherjee: I was always more interested in physics and math than biology, and I’m sad to admit, chemistry, which I never truly appreciated until later in life. Siddhartha Mukherjee’s two books, The Emperor of Maladies and The Gene have brought me the closest I’ve ever been to pondering an alternate career path in medicine. I loved learning about the history of medical discoveries, the challenges in translating knowledge to clinical outcomes, and the human aspect of problem-solving and helping patients.
I’ll try to update this list as I go, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten many authors...
Who else should I read?