The Best Science Stories and How They Work: A Collection with Commentary

An invitation to engage with some of today’s most respected science journalists as they take readers beneath the surface to reveal the making of eleven of the best science stories.

With eleven deeply reported, artfully crafted stories and annotations by some of the most thoughtful and respected science journalists working today, The Best Science Stories and How They Work is more than the sum of its impressive parts. Experience the pleasure of reading a “Best of” anthology, attending a science writing masterclass, and meeting journalists who become more than their familiar bylines. Each piece benefits from an introduction, annotations, and a conversation between the piece’s author and annotator.

Siri Carpenter—editor of this book and cofounder of The Open Notebook, a leading source of training and educational materials for journalists who cover science—has long considered what’s behind the best writing. The pieces in this guide are drawn from a range of publications such as Scientific American, Nature, The Atlantic, and The New York Times Magazine and offer a unique perspective on how great science journalism happens: the careful structuring of a narrative, the delicate balance of skepticism and wonder, the ethical challenges of working with sources, the artistry of prose that sings. Readers will not only encounter outstanding examples of stellar storytelling, but they will also understand how these successful stories were reported and written, revealing the choices fundamental to good science journalism. Following each annotation, a Q&A with the original author provides an intimate look at the decisions and challenges that shaped their work.

Taken together, these pieces and annotations reveal the detailed, technical narrative work required to tell science stories. The book will delight, inspire, and equip readers with new tools to appreciate the stories that matter most.

Contributors: Jordana Cepelewicz, Shraddha Chakradhar, Nadia Drake, Ben Goldfarb, Sabrina Imbler, Ferris Jabr, Emily Laber-Warren, Stephanie M. Lee, Dana Mackenzie, Amy Maxmen, Emiliano Rodríguez Mega, Kendra Pierre-Louis, Debbie Ponchner, Sandeep Ravindran, Mary Roach, Paola Rosa-Aquino, Ashley Smart, Jessica Seigel, Ramin Skibba, Kamala Thiagarajan, Bijal Trivedi, and Ed Yong

Siri Carpenter, PhD, is an award-winning science journalist and editor whose writing and editorial work have appeared in the New York Times, Science, Scientific American, and other publications. She is the editor of The Craft of Science Writing, and she is cofounder, executive director, and editor-in-chief of The Open Notebook, a non-profit organization that is widely regarded as a leading source of training and educational materials for journalists who cover science. She is a past president of the National Association of Science Writers and serves on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Standing Committee on Advancing Science Communication. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin.