About.

I'm a freelance science journalist and editor based in North Yorkshire, UK. I regularly write for Nature, Chemical & Engineering News and Live Science. My work has also been published by Scientific American, the Associated Press, USA Today and CNN, amongst others.

I'm especially interested in how scientists handle the problematic parts of their profession. I've explored what happens when researchers challenge accepted theories; how funding and structural incentives influence the work they choose to pursue; and whether government crackdowns on misconduct are likely to improve or impoverish the reliability of science.

I cover medicine, chemistry and the environment, with a particular focus on the people, politics and money that shape science and research. In recent years, I've written about the promise and pitfalls of using artificial intelligence to diagnose cancer, the broken economics of developing new drugs and what's holding back the transition to clean energy. My work ranges from explaining the science behind everyday curiosities to examining decisions that affect entire research communities.

Earlier in my career, during the Arab Spring, much of my reporting was focused on science and higher education in the Middle East. I frequently reported from Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt while working as a senior editor at Al-Fanar Media. In Iraq, my reporting took me to places such as Mosul that had only recently been liberated from ISIS; I spoke with people about life under its control and reported on efforts to rebuild universities while violence and terrorism were a constant threat.

These experiences helped shape my interest in how research survives, and sometimes flourishes, under difficult circumstances.

I've also worked as a senior editor at Nature and used to be a freelance editor for Research Professional News.

I have a B.Sc. degree in biology from Imperial College London and an M.A. in journalism from New York University, where I specialised in science, health and environmental reporting.

You can browse my published work or get in touch about commissions, editing projects or story ideas.