I have been a science reporter at The New York Times for more than 40 years, writing about a wide range of both scientific strides and missteps. I am based in New York.
I tend to roam, writing one day about luminous creatures of the deep sea, then spacecraft that can spot wildfires, then soft bedrock that destabilized a great cathedral. I love history. It informed a story I wrote about eclipses that opened with the sudden disappearance of the sun 2,600 years ago. In looking for good stories, I’ve reported on astronomy, math, biology, physics, climatology, space exploration, oceanography, geology and archaeology, as well as such technologies as computer chips and cellphones.
With some regularity, I write about global threats rooted in science, like the spread of nuclear arms and the weaponization of space. I also report on the health of science itself — and its ailments — because it is central to modern life. I’ve written about scientific fraud, institutional errors and concerns among scientific leaders that public support is declining.
My Background
I grew up in Milwaukee. At the University of Wisconsin, I studied biology, worked in a medical lab, wrote science stories for a university news bureau and received a master’s degree in the history of science. Starting in 1978, I reported for Science, the weekly journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, based in Washington. There I learned about nuclear arms and in 1981 won a journalistic prize for reporting on how a single blast could upend U.S. war plans.
After joining The Times in 1983, I worked on teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in 1986 for coverage of the “Star Wars” antimissile program and in 1987 for reporting on the Challenger space shuttle disaster. I’ve written or cowritten eight science books. I plunged a mile and a half beneath the waves for “The Universe Below” and gained knowledge that informed my reporting on the 2023 Titan submersible disaster.
Journalistic Ethics
Like all Times reporters, I’m committed to upholding the standards of integrity outlined in The Times’s Ethical Journalism Handbook. I work hard to be fair, to look at issues from all sides and to get my facts straight. I also welcome reader comments — especially ones pointing to errors — and pride myself on being able to admit my mistakes, and correct them. Ultimately, my aims in reporting are the same as those of scientific research: to seek the truth, no matter what.
I’ve always tried to give readers as much information as possible about my sources. Now, links in my online stories let me add details not only about my human sources but my research materials as well. I see the practice as valuable because it casts light on how I go about my job and can deepen the shared experience of following the facts.
Two days of reporting and testifying by experts during a U.S. Coast Guard inquiry challenge the idea that the submersible’s passengers knew they were facing death.
Former employees of the company, OceanGate, said they worried about its practices long before a fatal implosion that killed five people. A Coast Guard hearing resumes on Tuesday.
Scientists in an expedition to the Mid-Atlantic ocean ridge lifted almost a mile of precious rocks from beneath an exotic feature linked to life’s possible beginning.
A former national security adviser says Washington “must test new nuclear weapons for reliability and safety in the real world,” while critics say the move could incite a global arms race that heightens the risk of war.
A year after the first deaths of divers who ventured into the ocean’s sunless depths, an industry wrestles with new challenges for piloted submersibles and robotic explorers.
Preservationists such as Robert D. Ballard have long clashed with salvors such as Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who died in June on the Titan submersible. Is a third way possible?
Paul-Henri Nargeolet mixed decades of passion for the ship of dreams with repeated dives and recoveries meant to save what remained of the famous ocean liner.
Physicists have long explored how phenomena in groups of three can sow chaos. A new three-body problem, they warn, could lead to not only global races for new armaments but also thermonuclear war.
After his early astronaut dreams were cut short, Stockton Rush was determined to open up underwater exploration and saw his company as the “SpaceX for the ocean.”
By Shawn Hubler, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Anna Betts
The vast multinational search for the missing submersible ended after pieces of it were found on the ocean floor, 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic.
The “Titanic” director and diving expert said he’d had concerns from the start about the vehicle’s hull composition and claims about its network of hull sensors.
Coast Guard and international crews redoubled their efforts to find the missing Titan watercraft, amid growing worries about how long the air supply would last deep underwater.
Officials believe the vessel that set out to reach the Titanic shipwreck with five passengers suffered a “catastrophic implosion,” a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said.
A spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard said the five people on the submersible theoretically had 70 to 96 hours of oxygen before the situation became dire.
By Jesus Jiménez, Jenny Gross, Emma Bubola and Alan Yuhas
The destruction of a dam endangered the main source of water used for the critical task of cooling reactors and spent fuel rods at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
China is on track to massively expand its nuclear arsenal, just as Russia suspends the last major arms control treaty. It augurs a new world in which Beijing, Moscow and Washington will likely be atomic peers.
By David E. Sanger, William J. Broad and Chris Buckley
Long before Galileo and Newton used superior mathematics to study a fundamental natural force, Leonardo calculated the gravitational constant with surprising accuracy.
As more unidentified objects were shot down by the U.S. Air Force in recent days, experts warned that there were an “endless” array of potential targets.
A new study finds a steady drop since 1945 in disruptive feats as a share of the world’s booming enterprise in scientific and technological advancement.
The physicist and architect of the American atomic bomb was stripped of his security clearance in 1954 after what is now called a flawed investigation.
The Biden administration has called for the retirement of the B83 superweapon, but nuclear experts say its most destructive parts will live on indefinitely in one form or another.
Analysts say the legacy of military attacks highlights the urgency of finding new ways to limit the rising dangers and prevent a repeat of the Zaporizhzhia takeover.
A fire caused by shelling forced the staff of Europe’s largest nuclear plant to disconnect from the nation’s power grid, showing that risks remained at the plant despite the presence of U.N. experts.
By Marc Santora, Ivan Nechepurenko and Matthew Mpoke Bigg
The chief U.N. nuclear monitor called for an immediate stop to fighting that risks a radiation disaster, as Russians and Ukrainians blamed each other for strikes dangerously close to the reactors.
The conflict over the program is about to flare again as President Biden travels next month to Israel and Saudi Arabia, Iran’s two biggest regional rivals.
By David E. Sanger, Julian E. Barnes and Ronen Bergman
While the risk remains ambiguous, the Russian leader’s long infatuation with the toxic arms fuels worries that the deadly poisons could be deployed in Ukraine.
Tank treads ripped up the toxic soil, bulldozers carved trenches and bunkers, and soldiers spent a month camped in — and dug into — a radioactive forest.
Military experts say a new generation of nuclear weapons has raised the risk that Mr. Putin might introduce less destructive atomic arms into the battlefields in and around Ukraine.
The missile, first displayed in 2020, was tested twice in recent days. While it is unclear whether it can reach the U.S., it poses a new military challenge to President Biden in the midst of the Ukraine war.
The site of the worst nuclear accident in history, where a yearslong cleanup is underway, is now dependent on power from diesel generators and backup supplies.
While Zaporizhzhia appeared secure on Friday, Russia’s seizure of the vast energy production site and potential targeting of another nuclear plant created risks of an accident.
While Zaporizhzhia appeared secure on Friday, Russia’s seizure of the vast energy production site and potential targeting of another nuclear plant created risks of an accident.
Security camera footage showed a building ablaze inside the complex amid fighting. The fire was later extinguished. A Ukrainian agency said that Russian forces had taken control of the site.
By Mike Ives, William J. Broad, Malachy Browne, Brenna Smith and Ang Li
Six of the 15 reactors in the country appear to be offline at the moment, with one site close to Russian troop movements reporting half of its reactors are down.
When the Russian leader ordered his nuclear forces into “special combat readiness,” the U.S. could have gone on high alert. Instead, the administration tried not to inflame him.