Resume
BOOKS
A Field Guide for Science Writers, second edition (co-editor, with Deborah Blum and Mary Knudson). Oxford University Press, 2005
Pandora’s Baby: How the first test tube babies sparked the reproductive revolution. Houghton Mifflin, 2004; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2006
The Monk in the Garden: The lost and found genius of Gregor Mendel. Houghton-Mifflin, 2000; Mariner Books, 2001
The People’s Health: A memoir of public health and its evolution at Harvard. The Joseph Henry Press, National Academy of Sciences, 1997
A Dancing Matrix: How science confronts emerging viruses. Alfred A. Knopf, 1993; Vintage, 1994
Being Adopted (with David M. Brodzinsky, PhD and Marshall Schechter, MD). Doubleday, 1992; Anchor Press, 1993
How a Woman Ages (with the editors of Esquire; foreword by Gail Sheehy). Ballantine Books, 1985
Your Premature Baby (foreword by Benjamin Spock, MD). Rawson Associates, 1983; Ballantine Books, 1984
The Myth of Senility (foreword by Robert N. Butler, MD). Anchor/Doubleday, 1981; Scott, Foresman/AARP Books, 1985, 1988
MAGAZINE ARTICLES
GENERAL INTEREST MAGAZINES
Civilization
“Medicine's New Age” (cover story) 4/97
“The Price of Perfection” 4/96
“The Lessons of Syphilis in the Age of AIDS” (cover story) 11/95
“Flu Pandemic” 11/29/92
“Saving Babies Before Birth” 2/28/82
Feature articles:
"Racing With Sam" 1/30/05
"The Genome in Black and White (and Gray)" 10/10/04
"The Quest to Forget" 4/4/04
“Is Forgetting Your Glasses Alzheimer's Disease?” 4/24/94
“Are Women's Hearts Different?” 10/3/93
“Asthma Kills” 3/28/93
“Dr. Anderson's Gene Machine” 3/31/91
“In Business to Treat Cancer” 11/23/86
“AIDS: A New Disease's Deadly Odyssey” 2/6/83
“Dispelling Menstrual Myths” 3/7/82
“The Child Savers” 3/22/81
“The Case for Mother's Milk” 7/8/79
“Exposing the Myth of Senility” 12/3/78
”Body and Mind” column:
“High-Tech Fortunetelling” 12/24/89
“Is the Pap Test Valid?” 5/28/89
“The Aging Eye” 3/26/89
“Viruses Revisited” 11/13/88
“Chosen and Given” 9/11/88
“Less Can Be More” 6/26/88
“Should Baby Read?” 5/22/88
“The Inner Landscape” 4/17/88
“Beyond Insulin” 3/27/88
“The High Cost of Thinness” 2/28/88
“Defining Hypertension” 1/24/88
"Lives" column:
"Something's Off" 10/17/04
“Hers” column:
“Dumbing Down” 10/23/94
“Family Isn't Everything” 11/3/91
The Washingtonian
“How a Body Ages” 8/88
“A Profile of C. Everett Koop” 6/87
SCIENCE AND HEALTH MAGAZINES
American Health
"What's Best for Breasts?" 4/88
"What Makes You Nearsighted?" 4/85
Discover
“Tempting Fates” 5/98
Longevity
"The Strong-Bone Test" 4/90
Scientific American
“Pandora’s Baby” 6/03
Scientific American Presents
“Living Longer: What Really Works?” summer 2000
Special Report on Health
"I Think I'm Well, Therefore I Am" fall 1989
WOMEN'S MAGAZINES
Child
"Are You the Parent Your Child Needs Now?" 4/94
Family Circle
"A Guide to Allergy Relief" 8/15/89
Good Housekeeping
"Your A.M. Health Check" 3/96
"The Disorders Nobody Likes to Talk About" 9/94
Ladies' Home Journal
"Consider the Alternatives" 11/94
Mademoiselle
"Lethal New Diseases" 8/95
"Killer Secrets" 9/86
"Math Anxiety" 11/83
McCall's
“The Surprising Payoff of Optimism” 7/98
"Are You Smarter Than You Think?" 6/96
Mirabella
"Estrogen Through the Lifespan" 1/94
"Sunscreen Hype" 7/93
"The Collagen Controversy" 11/91
Ms.
"The Big Picture: Breast Screening Before 50" 8/88
New Parent Adviser series
"The Magic Touch of Pregnancy" 1983-86 editions
"An Interview with Jerome Kagan" 1984 edition
"New Life in the Nursery" 1981-83 editions
"Cuddle, Tickle, and Talk to Me" 1981-83 editions
"The Superparent Trap" 1981-83 editions
New Woman
"Nutrition Column" (monthly) 4/97 to 12/97
"Estrogen at 30, 40, and Beyond" 3/97
"Rise and Fall of the Yo-Yo Dieter" 7/89
"The War on Wrinkles" 6/88
Redbook
"Why Health Advice Your Mother Gave You Doesn't Apply Today" 1/93
Self
"What Prostate Cancer Means for Women" 11/96
"The Weight Debate" 8/94
"The Great Diet Scam" 12/92
Vogue
"The Latest on Liposuction" 10/89
"Minoxidil for Women" 9/89
"Breast Implants" 7/89
"Viruses: What We Know" 3/88
Woman's Day
“Being Happy is Good for Your Health” 4/1/99
"How You Can Prevent Cancer" 8/5/97
"Ten Ways to Lower Cancer Risks" 11/24/92
"Raising Physically Fit Kids" 6/19/90
"My Child Still Wets the Bed" 9/5/89
"Ten Myths About Menopause" 4/11/89
"No More Food Fights" 2/16/88
"Is Sterilization Right for You?" 11/24/87
"Kids Get Fat Because They Eat Too Much -- and Other Myths" 11/11/86
"Will Estrogen Keep You Young?" 4/30/85
"Anxious About Infertility?" 5/22/84
"Is It Senility?" 8/4/83
"Eat Right and Live Longer" 2/3/83
"When Tests Predict a Defective Baby" 11/3/81
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
The Los Angeles Times
Book Review
Impact of the Gene and The Cooperative Gene 1/6/02
The New York Times
Op-Ed
"Adapting to Our Own Engineering" 12/17/02
"The New Mosquito Menace" 9/13/95
"The Immunity Myth" 3/3/93
Science Times
"At War With Their Bodies, They Seek to Sever Limbs" 3/22/05
"Sorry. Your Eating Disorder Doesn't Meet Our Criteria" 11/30/04
"Driving? Maybe You Shouldn't Be Reading This" 7/13/04
"On High-Tech Reproduction, Italy Will Practice Abstinence" 3/2/04
“Deciding When Science Has Gone Astray” 2/25/03
"Scientist at Work: Neurosurgeon Ben Carson” 6/8/93
"Naked DNA Immunization" 3/30/93
Book Review
The Female Brain 9/10/06
Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA 9/28/02
Her-2: The Making of Herceptin 9/20/98
Confronting Traumatic Brain Injury 8/9/98
Cry Bloody Murder: A Tale of Tainted Blood 7/13/97
Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC 8/18/96
Man to Man 5/19/96
Informed Consent 10/15/95
Women as Wombs 2/6/94
Why Survive? Being Old in America 9/14/75
Arts & Ideas
"Where Art Studio Meets Science Lab" 5/8/04
Women's Health special section
"Sex Without Estrogen" 6/6/04
"Behind the Buzz on Designer Hormones" 6/21/98
The Washington Post
Health section cover stories
"Chronic Miscarriage" 7/10/90
"Getting Kids Off the Couch" 4/3/90
"Fat Suctioning" 4/4/89
"The Big Sneeze" 5/31/88
"Retin-A: Physicians as Beauticians" 2/23/88
"Too Young for Menopause" 12/1/87
"Contact Lenses" 7/21/87
"The Challenge of the Gifted Child" 9/2/86
"The Sterilization Option" 3/19/86
"Myopia in Focus" 10/9/85
"Solar Perplexus" 7/3/85
Health section news articles
Dozens of articles from 1985-1995 covering AIDS, genetics, women's health, pediatrics, drug and cosmetic safety, findings from the National Institutes of Health, hearings on Capitol Hill, health policy, alternative medicine, etc.
Outlook section
“It May Molify Some Critics, but It’s a Stem Cell Shell Game” 11/13/05
“How a Dermatologist Got Under My Skin" 9/12/04
"Think Baby Louise, and Don’t Be Afraid” 7/13/03
“The Trouble We Have Seeing What’s Out There” 10/22/00
“The Rush to Claim a Little Slice of Life” 1/9/00
“Danger in the Air: Hong Kong’s Bird Flu” 1/4/98
“Tricky Truths About Ethnicity and Genetics” 10/5/97
"Lives of a Virus: The Navajo Flu" 7/18/93
Book World
Reviews of 32 books since 1981, most recently The Genius Factory by David Plotz, 6/12/05; Nature Via Nurture by Matt Ridley and Enough by Bill McKibben, 7/6/03; Cracking the Genome by Kevin Davies, 1/28/01
Style section
"Apply Yourself? It's Not Always Enough" 12/10/01
“This Numbers Game Hurts” 11/27/00
“How I Learned to Drive My Phobias Away” 11/3/95
“A Rite of Passage for Two” 1/21/94
“Reading Beyond the Lines” 5/22/92
Newsday
Op-Ed
"After 25 Years, Birth Issues Linger" 7/16/03
“Keeping Tabs on the Viruses to Come” 10/3/99
“Will Genetic Engineering Monkey-Wrench Parenthood?” 12/21/93
USA Today
Op-Ed
“Basic Needs Met? Next Comes Happiness” 1/2/01
“Teens’ Parents: Driven to Distraction” 3/23/00
“Hope Can Color a Patient’s Consent” 2/2/00
“Discovering Books Ð And Each Other” 12/2/99
“'Cloning' Your Child Sends What Message?” 10/21/99
“Four Generations, Four Views of Kennedys” 7/23/99
“Schools Giving Volunteerism a Bad Name” 6/23/99
“Why Rate `Shakespeare’ R?” 4/1/99
“Girls Enjoy Sports Ð Isn’t That Enough?” 1/21/99
“Creating Holiday Traditions is No Walk in the Park” 11/25/98
“Troubling New Fat-Acceptance Trend” 10/12/98
“Moving to the Same Beat” 8/5/98
“Visible Bra Straps” 6/17/98
“Inflating Self-Esteem in Schoolchildren” 5/27/98
“Do You Really Want to Know if You Have a Disease Gene?” 4/27/98
“Adult Ed Groupies” 3/2/98
“Figure Skating and the Three-Hankie Movie” 2/17/98
“Wolf Whistles” 12/22/97
"Chalk One Up for Single-Sex Schools" 11/25/97
BOOK CHAPTERS
World Book Health and Medical Annual
"The Origin of New Diseases" 1995 edition
The Nobel Prize Annual
"Award for Physiology or Medicine" 1995, 1996, 1997 editions
BROCHURES
National Institutes of Health
"Calcium for Pre-Eclampsia Prevention" 1992
"Developmental Speech and Language Disorders" 1988
"How Women Age" 1987
"Alzheimer's Disease" 1981, 1984
Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration
"Fifteen Years of Neuroscience Research" 1989
Stawasz Public Relations
"Beauty by Definition: A List of Skin Care Words and What They Mean" 1993
EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Instructor, master class in advanced nonfiction writing, one full day, Quebec Writers Federation, Montreal, QC, October 2006
Panelist, panel on television and science, “The Ideas Tour,” Atlantic Monthly magazine, Boston, MA, September 2006
Guest Lecturer, graduate class in science writing, Columbia University School of Journalism, New York, NY, February 2006
Guest Lecturer, graduate class in science writing, New York University, New York, NY, October 2005
Instructor, class on the social implications of reproductive technology, "Mysteries of Science” course series, The 92nd Street Y, New York, NY, January 2005
Featured Speaker, "Pandora's Baby," IDEAS Institute for science education, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, November 2004
Guest Lecturer, graduate class in science writing, Boston University Knight Center for Science Journalism, Boston, MA, October 2004
Panelist, panel on "Scientific Discoveries and How They Change Us," Virginia Festival of the Book, Charlottesville, VA, March 2004
Panelist, panel on "Writing About Science and Society," Virginia Festival of the Book, Charlottesville, VA, March 2004
Panelist, panel on “How to Write a Science Best Seller,” New York Public Library/Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, NY, November 2003
Guest Lecturer, graduate class in science writing, Boston University Knight Center for Science Journalism, Boston, MA, October 2003
Scholar in Residence, New York Public Library, “Research Revolution” film and discussion series, New York, NY, 7 sessions, March-April 2003
Faculty Member, Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop, Santa Fe, NM, one week, June 2002
Panelist, American Society of Journalists and Authors annual meeting, panel on writing biographies, New York, NY, May 2002
Featured Speaker, New York Public Library annual lecture, New York, NY, June 2001
Featured Speaker, Gifford Arboretum annual lecture, University of Miami, Miami, FL, April 2001
Featured Speaker, Mendel Medal annual lecture, Villanova University, Philadelphia, PA, January 2001
Panel Co-Organizer and Panelist, National Association of Science Writers Annual Meeting, panel on writing scientific biographies, Berkeley, CA, February 2001
Featured Speaker, National Zoo lecture series, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, November 2000
Guest Lecturer, graduate class on literary criticism, Johns Hopkins University Part-Time Graduate Writing Program, Washington, DC, May 2000
Guest Lecturer, graduate class on nonfiction writing, Johns Hopkins University Part-Time Graduate Writing Program, Washington, DC, October 1999
Science Writer in Residence, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, one week, October 1999
Guest Lecturer, graduate class on nonfiction writing, Johns Hopkins University Part-Time
Graduate Writing Program, Washington, DC, April 1998
Co-Teacher, day-long course on science writing, Campus on the Mall, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, November 1997
Faculty Member, seminar on science for federal and state judges, Banbury Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Huntington, NY, October 1997
Guest Lecturer, workshop on creative nonfiction, publications design program, University of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, March 1997
Guest Lecturer, undergraduate seminar on medical anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC, November 1996
Keynote Speaker, “World Ecology Day,” university-wide annual event sponsored by the Department of Biology, University of St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, October 1996
Keynote Speaker, Washington program for journalism students, American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC, May 1996
Panelist, "Deciding What Health Stories Are News," American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, Baltimore, MD, February 1996
AWARDS AND HONORS
Helen and Miles Davis Book Prize, History of Science Society, Best Book, 2006 (Pandora’s Baby)
Science-in-Society Award, National Association of Science Writers, Best Book, 2006 (Pandora’s Baby),Best Magazine Article, 2005 ("The Quest to Forget")
Outstanding Article Award, American Society of Journalists and Authors, 2006 (“Will We Ever Arrive at the Good Death?”)
Outstanding Book Award, American Society of Journalists and Authors, 2005 (Pandora's Baby); 1994 (A Dancing Matrix)
June Roth Memorial Award for Medical Writing, American Society of Journalists and Authors: 2005, First Prize, articles ("The Quest to Forget"); 1994, First Prize, books (A Dancing Matrix); 1993, First Prize, articles ("Flu Pandemic")
Best American Science Writing, Ecco/HarperCollins, 2005 ("The Genome in Black and White [and Gray])"
Library Journal, "30 Best Books of the Year" listing, 2004 (Pandora's Baby)
National Book Critics Circle Award, finalist, 2001 (The Monk in the Garden)
Goodchild Prize for Excellent English, The Queen’s English Society, finalist, 2001 (The Monk in the Garden)
New York Public Library “25 Books to Remember” Award, 2001 (The Monk in the Garden)
Journalism Research Fellowship, The Alicia Patterson Foundation, 2001
Mini-Fellowship, Knight Foundation for Science Writing, MIT, December 1999
Officer’s Grant, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, 1998-99
Science Writers Fellowship, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA: August 1990
William Harvey Award, American Medical Writers Association: 1989, First Prize, newspapers ("Defining Hypertension")
National Media Award, American Psychological Association: 1987, Honorable Mention, newspapers; 1982, First Prize, books (The Myth of Senility)
Howard Blakeslee Award in Science Writing, American Heart Association: 1984,First Prize, magazines ("Eat Right and Live Longer")
Award for Excellence in Medical Writing, American Medical Writers Association,Mid-Atlantic Chapter: 1982, First Prize, books (The Myth of Senility); First Prize, magazines ("The Child Savers")
Journalism Award, American Academy of Pediatrics: 1982, Honorable Mention, magazines
Blue Pencil Award, National Association of Government Communicators: 1989, Honorable Mention; 1981, First Prize
EMPLOYMENT BACKGROUND
Freelance Writer specializing in science and medicine, 1980-present
Contributing Writer, The New York Times Magazine, 2005-present
Member, Board of Contributors, USA Today editorial board, 1997-2002
Features and News Editor, BioScience magazine, 1978-80
Washington Correspondent, Human Behavior magazine, 1978-79
Assistant Managing Editor and NIH Reporter, "The Blue Sheet," 1977-78
Assistant Editor, The New Physician magazine, 1975-77
Associate Editor, Comprehensive Therapy magazine, 1974-75
EDUCATION
Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism, Evanston, IL, M.S.J., 1974
Cornell University, College of Arts and Sciences, Ithaca, NY, A.B., 1973
RECENT PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITES
American Society of Journalists and Authors, chapter president, 1992-1994
American Society of Microbiology, judge, journalism award, 2006
D.C. Science Writers Association, board member, 1996-1997
Los Angeles Times Book Prize, judge, science & technology award, 2001-
2003
Science-in-Society Award, judge, magazine articles, 2001
National Association of Science Writers, board member, 1998-present