All the back stories and side stories to the feature articles I’m working on: anecdotes that don’t fit into the main piece, works cited, tangential lines of inquiry, and some self-critiquing
Had this piece run in the April issue of Scientific American, and got a bit of flack from the precision medicine enthusiasts out there. They were particularly incensed that I wrote dismissively of Gleevec, the cancer drug that made headlines back in 2001, when it was found to work against CML (chronic myelogenous leukemia). Gleevec … Continue reading A few more thoughts on Precision Medicine
Had this article go up yesterday over at Scientific American. It was a fun piece to do because I got to revisit one of the most deeply fascinating questions in all of science: how do the basic electrical and chemical exchanges that occur in our brains produce the infinitely complicated experience of being alive? Seriously: think about it. An electric … Continue reading On the neuroscience of memory
My piece on Laura’s Law – the involuntary outpatient commitment statute being implemented in California – is out in this month’s issue of Pacific Standard. There are two things that I want to note: 1) This is not a comprehensive or wholly unbiased take on involuntary outpatient commitment. This is the story of one county — the … Continue reading On big stories with narrow perspectives
I’ve got an article in Yahoo’s special Cuba package this week on the country’s deeply paradoxical healthcare system, and I wanted to add some context and post some reference material, in case anyone’s interested. I went into this piece with what seemed like a very straightforward idea — to look at Cuba’s exclusion from the World Bank and … Continue reading On the Cuban Health Paradox and reporting from afar
1. When I was still in high school, my father lost his job. He was a third-generation textile worker — a cutter in a coat factory in Jersey City — and the company he worked for closed its U.S. facility and shipped all the work down to Mexico. In the wake of that turn, … Continue reading pulling back the curtain: notes on the history of neoliberalism…
Had this piece go up yesterday onYahoo Politics, in which I try to parse some of the complexity inherent in the much-discussed link between climate change and civil war (i.e. in Syria). My take-away is that yes, the link is there, but no it’s not as clear-cut as, say, Bernie Sanders would have you believe. One of … Continue reading The crooked line from drought to war
(These lovely portraits were taken by Marius Bugge and appear in the May issue of Popular Science) My profile of famed geneticist George Church is out in the May issue of Popular Science. As I say in the piece, Church is super-personable, and was great fun to talk with. He treats journalists the way we wish all … Continue reading On Genetics and Genius: three extra snippets from my George Church reporting
