I haven’t read much of Dava Sobel. That’s kind of crazy, given how much she writes about the history of space and astronomy, both subjects that I enjoyed. I knew she was a best-selling author, and that she had a pretty good reputation, but that was about it. So I was floored by The Glass
Probably the biggest problem I struggle with as a space science writer is the “who cares” question. I’ll pitch a recent bit of research and my editor will remind me that my audience needs to know why this matters. It isn’t enough that something is super-freaking-awesome; I need to give a broader context. Not surprisingly,
As a freelance writer, most of my assignments fall in the realm of news articles. News articles generally focus on a single piece of research, and include quotes from one of the researchers and, occasionally, one other outside source. Far more time-consuming are the longer features, such as those found in magazines. Features can contain
Last week’s Astrobiology Science Conference was awesome—there’s really no other way to describe it. There were a ton of great talks, and I had the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and meet new folks. The weather was beautiful all week, and my intern and I had a great trip. As a self-employed science writer,
The sun may have hosted its own ‘alien megastructure’ in the past. The infamous star that caught the world’s attention earlier this year may play host to debris streaming from a destroyed protoplanet. If that’s the case, then destroyed objects early in the life of the solar system could have grabbed extraterrestrial attention in the
When NASA’s Viking rovers landed on the surface of Mars, arguably the most attention-grabbing experiments the pair performed were tested the shallow subsurface for signs of life. The search for life is pushing us to explore worlds beyond the red planet, especially the icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter, Enceladus and Europa. But I can’t