Portfolio

My work has appeared in WIRED, Quanta Magazine, Smithsonian, MIT Technology Review, Drug Discovery News, The Verge, Vox, Science Magazine, The Atlantic, and elsewhere.

These stories span health, brains, space, tech, environment, nature, math, physics, and (of course) chemistry.

I also write educational content for academic societies and YouTube channels, such as TED-Ed.

Snow Sports Are Getting More Dangerous

WIRED Extreme conditions caused by climate change are making winter sports more risky. From Colorado to Washington, that’s also making mountain rescue missions even more perilous. Many people meet Dale Atkins for the first time on their worst days—ice climbers who are stranded and injured, skiers that have been swallowed by an avalanche. Atkins, a…

The Hidden Connection That Changed Number Theory

Quanta Magazine Quadratic reciprocity lurks around many corners in mathematics. By proving it, number theorists reimagined their whole field. There are three kinds of prime numbers. The first is a solitary outlier: 2, the only even prime. After that, half the primes leave a remainder of 1 when divided by 4. The other half leave…

Why Antidepressants Take So Long to Work

WIRED A clinical trial reveals the first evidence of how the brain restructures physically in the first month on SSRIs—and the link between neuroplasticity and depression. CLINICAL DEPRESSION IS considered one of the most treatable mood disorders, but neither the condition nor the drugs used against it are fully understood. First-line SSRI treatments (selective serotonin…

A Revelation About Trees Is Messing With Climate Calculations

WIRED Trees make clouds by releasing small quantities of vapors called “sesquiterpenes.” Scientists are learning more—and it’s making climate models hazy. EVERY YEAR BETWEEN September and December, Lubna Dada makes clouds. Dada, an atmospheric scientist, convenes with dozens of her colleagues to run experiments in a 7,000-gallon stainless steel chamber at CERN in Switzerland. “It’s…