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I’m a freelance science writer. I’ve written about most fields of science. But usually I write about astronomy, especially about cosmology which — gratifyingly — studies the birth and life history of the universe.
I’ve written for Mosaic, The Sciences, and Science 8x, all of which went belly-up. I’ve also written for Discover, Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, and Science, all of which survive. I’ve written columns for USA Today and Defense Technology International. I’ve reviewed books for the Wilson Quarterly, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. For some years now, I've mostly written books. But currently I'm back to writing articles. And I'm proud co-owner of a blog, Last Word on Nothing. I’m married to a (now-retired) physicist. I run a small graduate program in science writing at Johns Hopkins in The Writing Seminars, a superb department otherwise filled with fiction writers and poets. In fact, I’m an English major in life. So I see science as a story, as a plot moved by tensions between the characters. The characters can be theory and observation, or two theories, or individual scientists. The stories I find I like best are about scientists who are competitive, varied, and individualistic members of a single group with a single purpose. I think of these groups as schools of fish or birds that form, dissolve, and re-form as though they’re bound within an invisible line. A lovely idea but hard to write, and I’m still working on it. Currently Writing: http://www.theawl.com/?s=hanny |