I’m a freelance science writer and editor specializing in biology, health and medicine, technology and science policy. I’m drawn to stories that reflect the complexities of how scientists go about their work. I love writing about research methods — in the field and in the lab. I’m a regular contributor at Chemical & Engineering News and I’ve also written for The New York Times, Knowable, Scientific American, Nature, BBC Focus, and other outlets. My article in The Open Notebook on writing career-spanning profiles is anthologized in The Craft of Science Writing, published in 2020. I sometimes take on writing, research and editing projects for foundations, nonprofits and companies when there’s no conflict of interest with what I cover as a reporter.

In a past life, I did a doctorate on mammalian brain development — rat whiskers, to be specific — at the University of Oxford. I was reborn as a science writer with the help of the Science Communication Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Before going freelance I was the news editor at The Scientist and a biomedical reporter at Nature. I live in Western Massachusetts with my furniture-making husband and my mischief-making son. I’m a member of the National Association of Science Writers and the Association of Health Care Journalists.