In the 15 months since my last update, I’ve done a few things, but not nearly as much as I hoped. The second half of 2025 was very slow and unproductive. On one particularly memorable day in December, I got an email from Forbes to say that I was no longer a contributor to the site and an email from Zipcar to say that they were leaving London. In the dramatic retelling of events, I like to say that one this day “I lost both my job and my car”. But of course, Forbes was only a very tiny part of my job. I’ve been doing a lot of other things, and I’m also pleased to say that the dry spell has ended and I’m absurdly busy again.
So here are ten of my projects and articles from the past year-and-a-bit:
- I realised early in the year that 2025 marked the 50th anniversary of a landmark meeting in genetics research. JSTOR Daily let me nerd out about the 1975 Asilomar meeting, which set the tone for the past half century of genetics and biotech research. It’s particularly interesting because the scientists themselves were the ones to realize that their methods could be dangerous if they fell in the wrong hands, and they were the driving force behind the regulations that followed. Things like this are happening again in other fields of biology, and it’s the kind of behaviour that to me really shows what it means to be a scientist.
- In other genetics writing projects, I recently reviewed the book “What we inherit” for Undark. It highlights how people can use genetics for unsavory purposes (like making designer babies or finding new excuses for their racism) and it also shows researchers being thoughtful and aware of the possible dangers of genetics.
- In July I spent a few days at an event hosted by the Royal Society. It was about the future of scientific publishing, and since I used to work for progressive scholarly publishers in a previous life, I recognized many of the attendees. I spent two days catching up with old coworkers. But I was really there because the Royal Society needed a writer to produce the official meeting summary, so I was in full note-taking mode!
- I already wrote for the Jacobs Foundation’s online magazine BOLD, but this past year I also started working with their Digital Museum of Learning. One of the virtual exhibits I worked on is about sound, and that went online earlier this year.
- When not writing, I’ve been busy on the boards of the Association of British Science Writers and the European Federation of Science Journalism. Most of it involves being in meetings and discussions, but I also hosted a panel on science writing across borders for the ABSW in October. My panelists were two editors of UK international publications and two freelancers from other countries in Europe, who discussed how international writers can break through in English-language media.
- Before being culled from the contributor pool, I still wrote a few pieces for the Forbes site that I was quite pleased with. For example, I visited the Wright of Derby exhibit at the National Gallery and wrote about his paintings of early science demonstrations. And I covered a study about an ancient blue pigment.
- More recently, I started covering some health news for Live Science. You can read my reports on an epilepsy treatment and a new way to repair heart cells.
- I still send out a newsletter every two weeks. You wouldn’t guess it from how rarely I update my website here, but the Mixture newsletter is very consistent and only getting better.
- You can also still buy my book “Hey, There’s Science In This“, either on here or at a bookstore that can order it online for you. Whether the book is available to buy through indie stores varies per country, but the big retailers can get it from anywhere. If you’re in the UK or US you can also order directly from the printer, which is faster and I get a bigger cut because there is no bookstore in between.
- I’ve got several feature articles in the pipeline that should come out in the next few weeks, so keep an eye on Mixture or Bluesky for updates on that. Or wait another 15 months for my next update here.
I also went to Hong Kong and Singapore this past year. Below is a photo of the ArtScience Museum in Singapore.
