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Features
July 2024
A new treaty is supposed to clean up the dirty, life-threatening work of recycling ships. Critics aren't so sure.
for Bloomberg Businessweek, with Zia Ur Rehman
Photo: Nida Mehboob
June 2024
I was invited into the private archives and underground (literally) workshops of Paris, to glimpse the treasures that have made the city famous for its artisanry and craftsmanship.
March 2024
Forests of seaweed crucial to biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and coastal protection are under threat from climate change, pollution, and human development. We know so little about them that they could disappear before we fully understand their benefits.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Photo: Adriane Ohanesian
November 2023
Winner, Best Explanatory Reporting, 2024, Assn. of British Science Writers
How 1% of the population producing 1% of GDP rearranged the political landscape in the Netherlands—
and why your country might be next.
The Guardian Long Reads
Photo: Anadolu/Getty
May 2023
I traveled to Kenya to interview victims of Tanzanian government violence against its own (unarmed, civilian) citizens.
For Bloomberg Businessweek
Photo: Adriane Ohanesian
May 2023
An investigation into airlines' efforts to decarbonize.
Illustration: Adobe
Liar, Liar, Brain on Fire
April 2023
Why do some people have such a dangerous relationship with the truth?
For Town & Country, which I love writing for because everyone there is a total pro and they pay like it's 1999.
Photo: Tom Wiliams/Getty Images
September 2022
Winner, Silver Award, Magazines, from the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science
(publisher of the journal Science), 2023
9,000 bird flu events worldwide. 1 billion chickens in an area one-quarter the size of Alabama. Poultry farmers mixing human flu viruses with birds’. Experts say it’s a recipe for disaster.
For The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
photo: Roy Slaterus [Sovon]
May 2022
Explanatory feature on how the industry evades EU law to dump its toxic ships on poor countries.
Hakai magazine
April 2022
My third feature on how European cities are transforming their mobility networks for a climate-constrained future concerns Paris's new Plan Vélo.
Town & Country
illustration by Bill Brown
December 2021
For MIT's Undark:
How lockdown-induced stress in pregnant women will likely echo in the health of American kids across the course of their lives.
Photo: Jeffrey Basinger/Newsday RM via Getty Images
October 2021
A reported essay on why I defected from California to the Netherlands.
illustration by Nancy Hope
August 2021
For Businessweek's annual special "Cities" issue: The political perils of climate-fueled and Covid-accelerated lifestyle upgrades (with Marc Herman)
illustration by Baptiste Virot
April 2021
Inside Israel's Aleph Farms, which aims to be the first purveyor of restaurant-quality cultivated meat.
Town & Country
January 2021
For Nature: Regulators will soon grapple with how to safely administer powerful psychedelics for treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Illustration: Gizem Vural
January 2021
For the new social justice-focused magazine Red Canary, my longtime colleague Marc Herman & I wrote about efforts in European cities to oust motorized traffic from their centers.
October 2020
For Popular Science, how small satellites are now enabling detection and measurement of oil-industry emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane.
September 2020
I traveled to five cities over five months to report this 6,000-word feature for The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
The illustration is by a paraplegic patient controlling a computer with his mind.
August 2020
Although salmon and shrimp farming dominate conversations in the Global North, they represent just 10% of global aquaculture production. Entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia are showing a better way.
This article was part of a package in Hakai magazine that won 2nd place for explanatory reporting, small newsrrom, from the Society of Environmental Journalists.
With Htoo Tay Zar
Photo: Htoo Tay Zar
July 2020
Assigned for The New Yorker's print publication, for reasons beyond my control I was unable to get this done in a timeframe that worked for their schedule so it ended up on the website only.
June 2020
By May 2020, it looked like the Dutch had beaten the coronavirus without the extreme measures of other countries. How'd they do that?
For Bloomberg Businessweek
April 2020
On current efforts to commercialize psychedelics as pharmaceuticals.
March 2020
Feature for Bloomberg Green on the health effects of pre-harvest burning of sugar crops.
Photo: Sofia Valiente
December 2019
Feature in TheAtlantic.com on why U.S. jails are illegally holding people with mental illness before they are convicted or even tried of any crime.
November 2019
Feature in Scientific American on how Russia or a non-state actor could bring the US to its knees without firing a shot.
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October 2019
Feature for MIT Technology Review on a DARPA program to develop a non-invasive brain-computer interface.
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August 2019
Feature in Bloomberg Businessweek's special issue on the Periodic Table.
April, 2019
Feature profile of the Democratic presidential candidate for Wired.com's Backchannel
March 2019
I traveled to Madagascar for National Geographic's Wildlife Watch to report on how gem mining in a protected area is endangering lemurs.
March 2019
For 5280, Denver's ASME-award wininng city magazine.
February 2019
For The Guardian (UK) "Long Read," I examined the growth of the world's most ubiquitous invisible commodity.
"The best thing written about the issue that I've read." —George McGavin, Ph.D
September 2018
I traveled to Raratonga to report on a scientific experiment to determine why some coral reefs survive bleaching events and other human insults. Assigned by the California Academy of Sciences' bioGraphic and co-published by Scientific American.
July 2018
I examined the global economy's dependence on the vulnerable GPS system in a feature for Bloomberg Businessweek.
Februrary 2018
In a feature for Car & Driver I explored investors' love affair with the EV manufacturer.
Februrary 2018
Will robots replace humans of arbiters of culture, beauty, and refinement? For Town & Country
March 2017
For Bloomberg Businessweek, on the race to get the mineral out of Clayton Valley and into your iPhones and Teslas
June 2016
For Nature, a profile of a scientist using mass spectrometry to explore the microbiome.
April 2016
For Scientific American, a report from the iconic islands on the difficulties of managing a boom in eco-tourism.
June 2015
For Participant Media, on Google's venture with Jane Goodall showing the promise—and limits—of data and devices in the fight against deforestation.
March 2015
Winner, Best Magazine Profile, 2015, from the National Magazine Awards
For The New York Times Magazine, a profile of the iconic scientist and conservationist. Winner of the Deadline Club's award for best magazine profile.
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May 2014
For Participant Media, on wildlife biologists' call on animal parks to do more for conservation.
March 2014
For Participant Media: The first medicine developed straight from pot plants is poised for FDA approval. What would that mean for medical cannabis, legalization, and patients in need?
September 2013
A cover story for The New York Times Magazine on uncovering the science behind how forest fires spread
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August 2013
For The New York Times Sunday Business section, on a new technology to turn garbage into energy
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March 2013
Bloomberg Businessweek sent me to Madrid and Barcelona to explore a Republican billionaire's plan to build a giant hotel and casino complex, pitched as a savior for the regions' sagging economies.
January 2013
For The New York Times Magazine, an exclusive on the first capital criminal case to go through a pre-adjudication restorative justice process.
"An incredible story, masterfully told."—Dave Eggers
October 2012
For The New York Times Magazine, a look at how social media popularized a treatment for multiple sclerosis absent any scientific evidence
November 2011
For Bloomberg Businessweek, an examination of the (weak) economics of the proposed pipeline
March 2011
For Fast Company, on the addition of environmental data to the media giant's terminal for the financial industry
2011
An examination of the controversial plan to save Southern California's water supply from an overdue earthquake, in Pacific Standard
2010
In Pacific Standard, a profile of the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions
2003
Cover story for the L.A. Times Magazine on the commercialization of yoga
November 1997
For New York magazine, a profile of an up-and-coming fiction writer
October 1995
My first feature for a major magazine (New York) was rather salubriously edited, to my regret. Still, not bad for three years out of university.
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