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Nicholas Gerbis on Muck Rack

Nicholas Gerbis

(He/Him)
Phoenix
As seen in: American Scientist, Education Cliff, How Stuff Works, NewsBreak, Bryan-College Station Eagle, Killeen Daily Herald, Arizona PBS, Cronkite News, Phoenix New Times, Arizona Daily Sun, KJZZ-FM (Phoenix, AZ), Yuma Sun and
Covers:  Science, technology, innovation, medicine, culture, social justice
Doesn't Cover: Sports
Associate editor for American Scientist magazine | Spoudon Xynones | Nullius In Verba | he/him | opinions mine
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Nicholas Gerbis’s Journalist Portfolio

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Systematizing Scents

Systematizing Scents

American Scientist — Poets and novelists have long lamented our lack of a language to describe smell. Attend a wine tasting, watch a cooking show, or visit a local perfume counter, and you’ll hear visual terms such as “bright,” “shimmering,” or “sparkling.” Compared with our brief olfactory glossary, our visual vocabulary, like our sense of eyesight, is vibrant and specific. The authors of an olfactory perception study are hoping to expand our perceptual glossary to include a full-blown dictionary of odors.
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First Principles and Beyond

First Principles and Beyond

American Scientist — Chris Pickard is a materials scientist who employs what are called first principles methods—modeling techniques that work out material properties using fundamental rules such as quantum mechanics and Newton’s laws. Pickard spoke with American Scientist associate editor Nicholas Gerbis about his early successes in studying hydrogen under high pressure, and his hopes for the future of his field.
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Getting That Glow

Getting That Glow

American Scientist — Amid the dim light suffusing the subjects of Rembrandt van Rijn’s 1642 masterpiece The Night Watch, the central figure of Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch appears almost to glow, with his golden outfit cast in stark contrast to his companions’ somber tones. Rembrandt famously employed this artistic interplay of light and shadow, called chiaroscuro, in many of his works. Despite years of scholarship examining the combination of pigments used to create this luminous effect, however, the Dutch master’s palette still holds some surprises.
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American Scientist News and Briefs

American Scientist News and Briefs

American Scientist — A roundup of my writing and reporting published in American Scientist magazine.
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Nicholas Gerbis

Nicholas Gerbis

KJZZ-FM (Phoenix, AZ) — A roundup of my work while as senior field correspondent for the Science, Health, Innovation and Technology Desk at KJZZ News public media in Phoenix.
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Returning to the fold: examining prions from new angles

Returning to the fold: examining prions from new angles

stowers.org — When a protein folds properly, it carries out normal tasks without a hitch. But when it folds into the wrong conformation, as occurs in many prion diseases, the result not only poses a deadly hazard— it also spreads exponentially to impact sister proteins.
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Nicholas Gerbis

Nicholas Gerbis

Discover Communications/How Stuff Works — Who doesn't love a good explainer? Not this guy.
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50 Years Later: How Mariner 2 Broke NASA’s Losing Streak

50 Years Later: How Mariner 2 Broke NASA’s Losing Streak

Ad Astra — It had been a rocky few years for the fledgling American space program, and the newly crowned Jet Propulsion Lab was feeling the heat. Already, eight Pioneers, five Rangers and one Mariner mission had failed – half of them on JPL’s watch, and five of those due to launch vehicle problems. Now, all their hopes rode on a craft that, after four months of close calls and near disasters, looked like it was about to shoot past Venus with its eyes closed.
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Nicholas Gerbis

Nicholas Gerbis

Phoenix New Times — Various items for the Phoenix New Times calendar. Tight deadlines, short word counts and lousy pay, but a lot of fun to write.
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