Wednesday, May 22, 2013. Last Update: Wed 6:50 AM EST

Author Archive

Articles by Curtis Brainard | Email the Author

Climate, Front And Center

Thus far, press keeps UN, White House gatherings in proper context

Today is the second day of what The New York Times labeled "Climate Week" in an editorial last Saturday. Beginning... More

What’s Healthy?

Don’t ask scientists, or the press either

What do red wine, cell phones, and daycare have in common? All have ambiguous links to human health established by... More

Precisely

USA Today galaxy story should say what it means

It could be that I'm just tired after a week covering a science journalists' conference in California, but I came... More

Environmental Journalism? Environmentalism?

An identity crisis at the SEJ conference

I suppose that when I walked into the opening reception of the Society of Environmental Journalists annual meeting last Wednesday,... More

What Kind of News do People Really Want?

Pew report studies twenty years of American preferences

It's almost fifty pages long, but well worth the read: a recent study by the Pew Research Center for People... More

Chinese Pollution in Words, Pictures and More

The New York Times makes new strides with multimedia storytelling

These days, it is rare to see a magazine or newspaper publish a special report on climate change or natural... More

Rifling Through NASA’s Closets

USA Today finds nothing, publishes anyway

Scandal is such a dangerous thing in the media. Readers devour it and always ask for more. When astronaut Lisa... More

Georgia Court Tests Mass. v. EPA

But where’s the press?

In April, I wrote that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate... More

Sun-Times Says Boycott BP

Chicago area newspapers fight permit for new pollution

The Chicago Sun-Times called for a boycott of BP today in response to a permit the oil giant received in... More

Newsweek v. Newsweek

Samuelson rebuts Begley’s cover story

I love to see columnists and reporters arguing in the pages of the same magazine, especially about climate change. This... More

To Juice or Not to Juice?

Journalists float the idea of legalizing sports doping

Point shaving, dog fighting, blood doping - it was enough to make some columnists posit that the last week of... More

Asexual Journalism?

LA Times mimics NY Times story on love and desire

Monday's Los Angeles Times carried a long feature, "This is Your Brain on Love," about neurological explanations of sexual attraction... More

Quarrel Between ACORE and CEI Draws Inhofe’s Attention

Are free speech and the future of renewable fuels at risk?

Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma may have called global warming a "hoax," but those who oppose him, and would like... More

Nature Watch

The journal takes on Darfur and The Simpsons—not at the same time

I couldn't help of but think of the theatrical masks representing tragedy and comedy after reading two articles in this... More

Rumors at Fermilab and CERN

How science, media, and gossip affect cutting-edge physics

The gossip mill is spinning in the particle physics world, with journalists, bloggers, and scientists all taking turns speculating about... More

More on Our “Innovation Ecology”

Taking Science from Lab to Market

Yesterday, I posted a column applauding two recent articles that investigated what William A. Wulf, former head of the National... More

Selling Science

Two Articles Wonder How to Encourage More Research

Two weeks ago, The New York Times Magazine ran a cover story called "The Amateur Hour" about how "America's basement... More

Calling Captains Nemo and Ahab

Tales from the deep

This week, reporters raised two fascinating stories from the ocean depths. The first, which got a lot of press coverage,... More

Listening to Live Earth

Did Audiences “Hear” the World’s Biggest Concert?

As the twenty-four-hour, seven-continent, do-something-about-climate-change Live Earth concert was drawing to a close on Saturday, Microsoft reported that the event... More

Of Bootlegged Liquor and Heavy Cars

What Sweden Will and Won’t Sacrifice for the Environment

Forget France, the U.K., Germany, and Italy. They may be G8 members, but Sweden is the country out to make... More

A word from our sponsor

Public television’s attempts to placate David Koch

Phone rage

One journalist took matters into his own hands when a fellow audience member wouldn’t stop using her smartphone during a theater performance

Purchasing Tumblr is Yahoo’s flashy bet on a shift in social media

The shift from Facebook to more creative social networks

This is water

David Foster Wallace’s 2005 Kenyon commencement speech as a short film

  • If you like the magazine, get the rest of the year for just $19.95 (6 issues in all).
  • If not, simply write cancel on the bill and return it. You will owe nothing.

Who Owns What

The Business of Digital Journalism

A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

Study Guides

Questions and exercises for journalism students.