Find a resource

Search our curated database of articles, guides, training programs, conferences, fellowships, and more.

The text search and filters will all narrow your results at the same time. If you aren’t seeing many results for a search, try clicking “Clear Filters” to see more options.

Find more tips for using this database at the Starter Guide page.

Library

Search Results: 45
Science writing example

Big Poultry: How a secretive industry rules the roost in North Carolina

CASW

"This feature story, a collaboration between environmental and investigative reporters at the Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News & Observer, is the flagship story from the two papers’ Big Poultry series uncovering how North Carolina’s secretive poultry industry is hurting the state’s environment. The Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT selected this series as the 2023 winner of the Victor K. McElheny Award for local and regional journalism."
Article

How ProPublica journalists reported on cancer-causing industrial air pollution

"ProPublica journalists Al Shaw and Lisa Song sifted through tons of data to deliver “Poison in the Air,” an award-winning reporting series in which they — alongside fellow reporters Lylla Younes, Ava Kofman, Maya Miller, and photographer Kathleen Flynn — identify hundreds of industrial air pollution cancer-risk hot spots across the U.S. using publicly available EPA data. They even corrected reporting errors by the agency. "In this 'How I Did It,' Shaw and Song discuss their reporting approach for this series and offer tips to fellow journalists interested in covering industrial cancer risk."
Science writing example

The Webb Space Telescope Will Rewrite Cosmic History. If It Works.

CASW

This multimedia article explores the James Webb Space Telescope’s extensive backstory and profiles scientists working on the $10 billion project. The article earned Quanta Magazine the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting. Natalie Wolchover, senior editor at Quanta, was the story’s lead author.
Science writing example

The Stargazers

CASW

In this feature for Science magazine, freelance science journalist Joshua Sokol describes how Indigenous Maya are working with Western scholars to understand the ancient Maya astronomy buried by Spanish colonists hundreds of years ago. Sokol has won awards from CASW, the American Astronomical Society, the American Institute of Physics, and the American Geophysical Union.
Newsletter

Smart, useful, science stuff about COVID-19

Freelance science writer and editor Robin Lloyd's COVID-19 newsletter, which ran from spring 2020 through fall 2022, regularly shared science writing about the pandemic. The newsletter's archive offers a wealth of great articles covering all aspects of COVID-19.
Resource Database / Guide

Science fiction stories with good astronomy & physics

"This is a selective list of some short stories and novels that use reasonably accurate science and can be used for teaching or reinforcing astronomy or physics concepts. The titles of short stories are given in quotation marks; only short stories that have been published in book form or are available free on the Web are included. While one book source is given for each short story, note that some of the stories can be found in other collections as well." The latest version of the list, published in January 2024, includes 88 links to published stories that are available for free online.
Science writing example

Meet the scientist at the center of the covid lab leak controversy

CASW

Jane Qiu, an independent science writer based in Beijing, won a 2022 AAAS Kavli Award for this profile of virologist Shi Zhengli, a central figure in the global debate about how the COVID-19 pandemic began. The story was also featured during a plenary session at ScienceWriters2022 discussing the coronavirus’ origins.
Annotated story

Storygram: B. “Toastie” Oaster’s “Pacific lamprey’s ancient agreement with tribes is the future of conservation”

The Open Notebook

"In October 2022, Indigenous affairs journalist B. “Toastie” Oaster wrote a High Country News feature about the fate of Pacific lamprey. This lushly written story explores how Indigenous peoples in the Pacific Northwest are working to conserve a culturally important species in the face of dam construction, mismanagement, and climate change. Oaster combined research into the region’s Indigenous history and ecological knowledge with talented storytelling. The result? A beautifully crafted narrative feature about the past and future of Pacific lamprey, told through the lens of Indigenous ecological knowledge, that challenges readers to think about science research—and science journalism—more critically."
Science writing example

The Plague Years: How the rise of right-wing nationalism is jeopardizing the world’s health

CASW

Maryn McKenna, senior writer at WIRED and a widely published author, won CASW’s Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting in 2023 for her coverage of infectious diseases and global health. This story from her extensive freelance portfolio was featured in a “Story Behind the Story” session at ScienceWriters2023.
Science writing example

A field at a crossroads: Genetics and racial mythmaking

CASW

Ashley Smart, senior editor at Undark, associate director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT, and CASW’s treasurer, won a 2023 NASW Science and Society award for this story. His “tour de force,” as the judges described it, weaves a narrative from a devastating mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, to the history of population genetics and its ties to racism. This story was featured in a “Story Behind the Story” session at ScienceWriters2023.
Science writing example

The Forgotten Continent

CASW

In this story, freelance science writer Jane Qiu explores how fossil finds in China — dating back to the Peking Man, found in 1929 — have challenged established ideas about human evolution. Her story won an AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award in 2016.
Science writing example

Lowcountry on the Edge

CASW

Tony Bartelme’s series about how climate change has impacted the South Carolina Lowcountry won an award from the American Geophysical Union in 2017. Showcase hosts one of these stories. Bartelme, a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, is a special projects reporter for The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina.