Inequality’s deadly toll
Nature, 2021
A century of research has demonstrated how poverty and discrimination drive disease. Can COVID push science to finally address the issue?
As pandemic raged, global south lacked vaccines. Never again, researchers vow.
Washington Post, 2023
Brazil’s favelas offer lessons in Building Trust
New York Times Opinion, 2023
Seven radical changes to fortify the US against the next pandemic
Washington Post Opinion, 2023
Covid origin data from the Wuhan market must be made public
Washington Post Opinion, 2023
Moderna hearing shows government must drive a harder bargaining
Washington Post Opinion, 2023
Why isn’t the US Embracing This Pandemic Prevention Strategy
New York Times Opinion, 2022
Every region of the world must be able to make its own vaccines
Unseating Big Pharma: The radical plan for vaccine equity
Nature, 2022
Charity failed to provide adequate vaccines for the global south. Now, 15 countries are seeing whether an open-science model can end a dangerous dependency.
Desperate for Covid Care, Undocumented Immigrants Resort to Unproven Drugs
New York Times, 2021
Shut out from mainstream medicine, some immigrants are buying expensive, unproven Covid therapies from “wellness” clinics or turning to the black market.
Why some researchers oppose unrestricted sharing of coronavirus genome data
Nature, 2021
Global-south scientists say that an open-access movement led by wealthy nations deprives them of credit and undermines their efforts.
Has Covid taught us anything?
Nature, 2021
Researchers warn that plans to prevent the next global outbreak don’t consider the failures that fueled our current predicament
The fight to manufacture Covid vaccines in lower income countries
Nature, 2021
Q&A with Chelsea Clinton: Vaccine equity takes more than donations
Nature, 2021
The Covid lab-leak hypothesis: What scientists do and don’t know
Nature, 2021
Struggle to probe Covid’s origin amid sparse data from China
Nature, 2022
Wuhan market was pandemic epicentre, studies suggest
Nature, 2022
Covid boosters for wealthy nations spark outrage
Nature, 2021
Two decades of pandemic war games failed to account for Trump
Nature, 2020
Simulations foresaw leaky travel bans, a scramble for vaccines, and disputes between state and federal leadership, but none anticipated the current levels of dysfunction in the United States.
What a US exit from the WHO means for Covid-19 and global health
Nature, 2020
Day Zero for COVID-19 USA: Seattle scientists find it’s not contained
Nature, 2020
Thousands of coronavirus tests are going unused
Nature, 2020
San Quentin prison declined free coronavirus tests and urgent advice – now it has a massive outbreak
Nature, 2020
Why the US is having a coronavirus data crisis
Nature, 2020
Ebola prepared these countries for coronavirus, but now they’re floundering
Nature, 2020
How blood from coronavirus survivors might save lives in New York City
Nature, 2020
These researchers are taking a gamble with antibody tests
Nature, 2020
EBOLA
Behind the front lines of the Ebola wars
Nature, 2019
How the World Health Organization is battling bullets, politics and a deadly virus in the Congo.
Science under fire: Ebola researchers test drugs and vaccines in a crisis
Dispatches: Meet Ebola workers on the frontlines / The doctor who beat Ebola and now cares for the sick
Mistrust propels the outbreak in DRC towards 1,000 cases
Q&A with WHO chief: ‘The world has never seen anything like this’
eBook: Ebola’s unpaid heroes
Frontline health workers were sidelined in $3.3bn fight against Ebola
Newsweek, 2015
How cultures evolved in the fight against Ebola
National Geographic, 2015
In Sierra Leone’s capital, Ebola found fertile ground
National Geographic, 2015
A struggle to track victims’ elusive contacts
National Geographic, 2015
Quarantines without food threaten Ebola response
Al Jazeera, 2014
How poverty, slavery and conflict fueled the Ebola outbreak
Newsweek, 2014
Hail to the chiefs: Local leaders in the epidemic
The Economist, 2015
Clinical trials with the blood from Ebola survivors
The Economist, 2014
Sierra Leone’s bravest young doctors
Nova/PBS, 2015
One doctor’s gift to the nurses who fought alongside her
NPR, 2015
Lost on the Ebola money trail
Humanosphere, 2015
OTHER FEATURES
Brazil once pioneered generic drugs, and then came a patent war
Bloomberg, 2023
High prices for brand-name pills are hampering HIV treatment in a country that prided itself on affordable medicines.
CRISPR the Genesis Engine
Wired, 2015
Easy DNA editing will remake the world: Buckle up.
Digging Through the World’s Oldest Graveyard
Nautilus, 2014 and featured in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2015
In Ethiopia, paleontologists are pushing back the clock on humanity’s origins
Rediscovering Ancient Nubia Before It’s Too Late
Undark, 2018
Long ignored by white explorers, today’s archeologists are racing to uncover remnants of the ancient civilization in modern-day Sudan
Evolution, You’re Drunk
Nautilus, 2014
DNA studies topple the ladder of complexity
Strange Worms Are Taking Their Place in Your Family Tree
Nautilus, 2016
The Cambrian explosion of life now seems more like a whimper.
Malaria’s ticking time bomb
Nature, 2018
Scientists are racing to stamp out the disease in southeast Asia before unstoppable strains spread
Anti-vaccination Movement Strikes Bible Belt States
Newsweek, 2014
Mississippi and West Virginia have stricter vaccine laws and fewer measles outbreaks than the rest of the US, but that’s changing
Profile: Hans Rosling will change your mind about the world
Nature, 2016
Rosling influenced leaders from Fidel Castro to Melinda Gates. Now, he’s on a mission to save you from your preconceived ideas.
A Reboot for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research
Nature, 2018
Scientists are finding their footing after a rocky past of study on the debilitating disease
U.S. Sanctions Isolate Scientists and Deprive Sudan of Medical Care
Foreign Policy, 2016
Sudan’s ruling elite lives large while ordinary citizens are denied life-saving care.
A View Through the Chaos
Nature, 2017
Crisis in Syria is putting data science to the test
Researchers are quietly tracking populations through mobile phone records
Nature, 2019
Is the invasion of privacy really saving lives?
Profile: Can Nigeria’s first public health director prevent a pandemic?
Nature, 2018
Chikwe Ihekweazu protects the nation – and the world – from devastating outbreaks
The Next Chapter for African Genomics
Nature, 2020
Nigeria is poised to become a hub of genetics research, but stubborn challenges block the way
Big Pharma’s Cost-Cutting Challenger
Nature, 2016
A non-profit is proving that drug development need not cost a billion.
Vitamin D-lemma
Nature, 2011
A vociferous debate about supplements reveals the difficulty of distilling advice from weak evidence.
A Can of Worms
Nature, 2011
Obscure, tiny creatures take center stage in a battle over the tree of life
Sick and Down
Science News, 2008
The Evolutionary Origins of Depression
SHORTER WRITING
Health and Medicine
Why hundreds of scientists are weighing in on a high-stakes abortion case
Nature, 2021
What it takes to resolve urban ills in Richmond, California
New York Times, Opinion, 2017
HIV scientists have failed to protect women at the most risk
Vice, 2016
Questionable “Young Blood” transfusions offered to remedy age — for $8,000
MIT Tech Review, 2017
Faster, better, cheaper: The rise of Crispr in disease detection
Nature, 2019
Ecstasy drug moves closer to approval to treat PTSD
Nature, 2017
Leading malaria vaccine combats the wrong parasite
Nature, 2015
A flesh-eating disease that destroys lives, with hardly a mention
NPR, 2015
A 3-part series on a neglected, flesh-eating disease helps lead to WHO recognition
Global Health NOW, 2015
Searching for an Anecdote to Konzo, a Crippling Disease from Bitter Cassava
Global Health NOW, 2016
Life Sciences & Research Life
A biologist exits his prestigious post years after harassing a student. Why did it take so long?
Nature, 2020
Why it’s hard to prove gender discrimination in science
Nature, 2018
Documenting California’s changing deserts and mountains
Nature, 2017
Sexual competition among ducks wreaks havoc on penis size
Nature, 2017
Pooping comb jellies upends gut evolution
National Geographic, 2016
Policy & Biotechnology
Self-driving car dilemmas reveal that moral choices aren’t universal
Nature, 2018
Discovery of vibrant sea life prompts worries over seabed mining
Nature, 2018
30-years of data finds that migrants and refugees are good for economies
Nature, 2018
CRISPR might be the banana’s only hope against a deadly fungus
Nature, 2019
Genetically modified apple reaches US stores, but will consumers bite?
Nature, 2017
Researchers in Nigeria combine genes with traditional breeding to make cassava stronger
Nature, 2018
Blockchain could let people share their medical data, without losing control
Nature, 2018
Deep learning sharpens views of cells and genes
Nature, 2018
Google & other companies explore how to study health with wearable devices
Nature, 2017
Gene patents stand in the way of personalized medicine
Nova/PBS, 2013
Genetic engineering slashes pesticide use
Nova/PBS, 2013
Odds & Ends
Motobabes
Roads & Kingdoms, 2014
As the legion of women bikers grows nationwide, I open up the throttle with a New York City club
How I ran from war: 70 Miles in flip-flops (‘as told’ to Amy Maxmen)
Wired, 2015
Top online archives for unpublished research like my doctoral thesis
The Scientist, 2013