Science. It’s a word that strikes fear in some people’s hearts—and delight in others’. I’m one of the latter—I spent lots of time at our local science museum growing up, studied biology in college, and went to a graduate program in science writing. And I’ve been fortunate enough to join a group of 35 science writers—for the last eight years, we’ve been supporting each other as we navigate the writing life. (Now we’ve written a book together: The Science Writers’ Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Pitch, Publish, and Prosper in the Digital Age.)
Many of us—and many other science writers you might have read—started out with a science degree. But there are plenty of terrific science writers who don’t have any science background, too.
Wherever you fall on the spectrum, if you want to write about anything from the latest research (archaeologists discovering that the “Iceman” died by blood clot) to the way things work (how arctic birds cope with 24-hour sunlight), to weaving bacteriology into a story about the raw milk culture in Minnesota, here are a few things to think about:
- Read about science, both to catch up on fields you’re interested in and to find good homes for your stories. Magazines like Smithsonian and Discover target general-interest science readers; the front sections of big weekly science journals, including Science, Nature, and Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, follow the latest research. If there’s something that catches your interest, track down the relevant papers and learn more.
- Sign up for press releases from services like EurekAlert! and Newswise. (Most science writers and editors get these releases, too—but a unique perspective on a story or the idea for a feature down the line can emerge from a press release.) Universities and institutions can also be sources of breaking science news.
- Follow your own interests. Some science journalists are generalists; others find a specialty that attracts them. And stories about science can come from almost anywhere. After hearing that Yo-Yo Ma was debating which cello he should play at the 2009 inauguration, Sarah Webb wrote a fun story for Scientific American about carbon-fiber instruments.
- Interviewing experts can be intimidating at first. You want to do enough background research so you don’t have to use a source’s time explaining details you could find out easily yourself (so, the Earth revolves around the Sun, right?), but as with any kind of reporting, sometimes what seems like an obvious question elicits responses that can show a journalist—and a reader—why they should care about this topic.
The thing that I like best about science writing (besides becoming a part of the wonderful science writing community) is that I get to learn from people who’ve spent much of their lives thinking about their particular field of science—and who, I’ve often found, are as enthusiastic to tell me about their work as I am to learn about it.