A selection of my published features and news stories
Urban nature is not an oxymoron Imagining and creating better cities requires seeing cities as nature, not separate from it.
Can sewage save us? Those COVID tracking charts start here, with Biobot sewage analysis that knows we’re sick before we do
To survive rising seas, Boston may need to 'make' land again To save itself from sea level rise, Boston may need to rely on a practice it put in the past: filling the shoreline. That will require thoughtful changes to regulations, I argue in an opinion piece.
The uneven rise of the healthy workplace While office buildings are getting cleaner air, work environments whose shortcomings were exposed by the coronavirus are in danger of being left behind.
Reversal of fortune? Despite its complicated legacy, urban renewal’s success stories could help forge vibrant paths for Boston’s future.
Ed Logue and the birth of modern Boston A new biography of the planner responsible for empowering Boston’s redevelopment agency challenges a long-held, simple narrative.
Measuring up Denied more lab space for her pioneering research, Nancy Hopkins whipped out her tape measure. What she found sparked a movement to address gender bias in science.
It's all too clear Boston wants to fight climate change. So why is every new building made of glass?
Probing psychoses In understanding schizophrenia, genes have “an awful lot to say.”
Freshwater's macro microplastic problem Fibers from our clothes are choking freshwater bodies with microplastic pollution. Solving the problem won’t be easy.
Sealed inside Americans are exposed to more pollutants indoors than outdoors. One solution: Create buildings that breathe cleanly.
Infant brains reveal how the mind gets built An ambitious new study put infants into an MRI machine to reveal a neural organization similar to that of adults. ***Featured in Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire, a collection of science writing from Quanta Magazine.
Where forests work harder A new study shows that trees in the Boston region grow faster and store more carbon as biomass the closer they are to developed areas. ***Winner of the 2017 David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism - News from the American Geophysical Union
Living the dream of a net-zero house The growing number of firms offering energy-efficient modular designs has made a high-performance residence accessible to more people.
Cities are not as big a deal as you think By making "urban" synonymous with "city," we miss the realities of where we live and how our sprawling ways are changing the world.
Could pavement get smarter? Critter crossings, sensitive bridges, and other ways to re-imagine good old asphalt.
The making of MIT's Collier Memorial J. Meejin Yoon, head of MIT's architecture department, commemorates fallen campus police officer Sean Collier with vaults of solid granite.
Drug development: A complicated path Only one drug is available to treat sickle-cell disease, but a wave of investment and industry attention is set to turn the tide.
Will cities of the future be built of wood? Skyscrapers made of wood? It's not the material we associate with dense cities, but there's a movement to revisit this age-old material in new urban buildings.
Brain mapping A new map, a decade in the works, shows structures of the brain in far greater detail than ever before.
Climate change may mean more crime What are the social costs of climate change? Provocative new studies suggest conflicts and crime may rise with temperatures.
Dirty water is not forever The Charles River overcomes its polluted reputation with its first public swim in decades.
Latency: a sleeping giant Most people infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis never get disease, but predicting who will is turning out to be a complex problem.
Life's beginnings Studying how life bloomed on Earth--and might emerge elsewhere.
Re-designing product design MIT's Neri Oxman wants designers not just to dream up new products but to change the way they’re made.
Shared decision-making: on the same page Increasingly, there’s a notion that medical decisions should be shared, but can doctors and patients learn to work together?
Greening health care Health care leaders tackle longstanding environmental challenges.
The too-smart city? We’re already building the metropolis of the future—green, wired, even helpful. Now critics are starting to ask whether we’ll really want to live there.
Research gems Universities, health organizations and government groups are amassing huge biobanks to help scientists probe the origins and development of human disease.