My least favourite thing about freelance science writing

And interesting links, books, and more.

This month I was very active on Forbes. Some months I have nothing to write about, but now I was inspired to post five articles there. My personal favourite is the one about the Grammys, but the piece that most people read and shared was this one about biological cells recreated in Minecraft.

A cell in Minecraft, from this video by the creators of the Minecraft biology worlds that I wrote about

My niche on Forbes is science and the arts, but that covers a lot of ground. And since that’s a difficult area to pitch to other publications, it’s good to have a place where these articles can find a home. Because pitching can be hard. Some ideas that I think are great never get accepted, or it takes ages. Sometimes I just don’t have any ideas. But once in a while, it does work out. Below the paywall of today’s newsletter is the story of how, a few years ago, I found the idea for an entire feature article in just a few words of a research paper.

But first, some interesting links.

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Interesting Links

• 'For us, snow leopards are deities': The farmers protecting Nepal's snow leopards. By Eileen McDougall for BBC Earth

• Dr. Nia Imara’s ‘Painting The Cosmos’ Underscores the Connections in Everything. Interview on KQED

• Trump 2.0: an assault on science anywhere is an assault on science everywhere. Nature editorial

• Mount Vesuvius eruption turned a victim’s brain into glass. By Andrew Paul on Popular Science.

• Science YouTube channels are affected by research funding cuts in the US. Minute Earth [video]

I also just passed my first 1000 followers on Bluesky. Follow me there if you haven’t yet, for more links all the time.

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Book

I have just a handful of copies of “Hey, There’s Science In This” left at my desk. If you’d like a signed copy, you can get those directly from me via my website. (Ships from the UK). If you’d rather have an unsigned copy with lower shipping rates, just search for it on your favourite local book shop’s website.

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Finding Inspiration

The hardest thing about freelancing is pitching articles. It’s difficult to come up with ideas that haven’t been covered before or new angles on topics and then figure out where to pitch that. But once in a while, a story just appears.