SustainLab
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How might we address structural/slow violence before it does harm, but before we need a hero?
Robert Frederick
Verified
(He/Him)
- Science Journalist and Producer, Freelance
- Editor-in-Chief and Chief Content Officer, Global Virus Network
North Carolina
As seen in:
Global Virus Network,
Nature,
NPR,
PNAS,
Substack,
Science Magazine,
Science News,
ProQuest,
Greensboro News & Record,
American Scientist,
KWMU-FM (St. Louis, MO)
and
Covers:
science, sustainability, environment, climate, policy, education, business
Journalist. Teach science- climate- & podcasting journalism. @NiemanFdn ('21). Now at bsky.app/profile/sustainlab.bsky.social
Robert Frederick’s Journalist Portfolio
View as a gridDevelopment in the Dark -- Letter to the Editor
Yes!Weekly / Jamestown News
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Jamestown's dealings with billion-dollar developer D.R. Horton are happening without public records.
Red tape strangles viral surveillance programs
Science
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Viral surveillance is crucial to detecting isolated disease outbreaks and preventing them from growing into epidemics or pandemics. However, changes in US export controls have hindered these efforts.
In a Flight of Starlings
Science
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In his latest book, In a Flight of Starlings, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Giorgio Parisi sets himself a task that he admits is possible but not easy: to convey both scientific results and, more importantly, how scientists create them.
Why Climate Change Stories Need More Context
Nieman Reports
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Reporters covering climate change should combine traditional and solutions journalism approaches to provide more depth
Why Every Science Story Needs The Right Kind of Caveats
Nieman Reports
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To keep public trust, reporters should convey the complexity - and uncertainty - of scientific results
A More Universal Language
American Scientist
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Seeking to better describe the world, researchers are attempting to blend the languages of science and art.
A Computed Flame
American Scientist
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To understand how fuel burns in a diesel engine takes chemistry knowledge and supercomputing muscle.
The search for what sets humans apart
PNAS
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Despite our intuition that humans are a species distinct from other animals, attempts to define what makes us unique continue to confound.
Representing Feynman
PNAS
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Fundamental to science and art, says Edward Tufte, is “intense seeing,” or seeing without the use of words. Widely known for his graphical depictions of statistical data, Tufte uses intense seeing to discover the meaning of large amounts of information, which he then shares by crafting elegant designs to represent that data. Feynman diagrams do much the same, says Tufte, who has been interested in Feynman diagrams for decades [...]
Through a glass, less darkly
Science News
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After finishing his Ph.D. on glass formation, chemical physicist Patrick Charbonneau thought he'd never study the material again. But something kept nagging him: In some experiments, materials would unexpectedly morph into glass, solid as a rock but molecularly disordered like a liquid. The results didn't match with glass-formation theory, but they were easy to dismiss [...]
Radical Rethink
Nature
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Student-initiated projects have the potential to change a lab's focus. But with freedom comes responsibility.
Breakthrough of the Year 2010: The First Quantum Machine
Science
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This video introduction to Science's year-end special issue features Andrew Cleland of University of California at Santa Barbara, Jack Harris of Yale University, and Science's Adrian Cho on the achievement of putting a human-made object into the quantum ground state. It's the first quantum machine and the top scientific story for 2010.
Breakthrough of the Year 2009: Ardipithecus ramidus
Science
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This video revisits and enhances our 2 October 2009 video introducing Ardipithecus ramidus -- a 4.4-million-year-old hominid from Ethiopia and 2009's Breakthrough of the Year.
The Analysis of Ardipithecus ramidus -- One of the Earliest Known Hominids
Science
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More than a million-years older than "Lucy," Ardipithecus ramidus and the associated fossils provide the most detailed snapshot of early hominid life. This video features interviews with Project Co-Director Tim White (University of California, Berkeley), Science correspondent Ann Gibbons, and paleoanthropologist Andrew Hill (Yale University). Interviews and Videography by Robert Frederick. Produced by Robert Frederick and Michael Torrice.
Breakthrough of the Year 2008: Reprogramming Cells
Science
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Science's year-end special issue video features Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University, George Daley of Harvard University, and Science's Gretchen Vogel talking about some of the work that led to "reprogramming cells" being Science's top scientific story for 2008.
Pediatric Medicines -- Prescribing Drugs "Off Label"
Science
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After more than a decade of U.S. regulations that first prompted and later required testing for children's medicines, less than half of the drugs that need to be studied have been studied. Technology may help speed up the process, but there's still some uncertainty over whether the laws that now require pediatric clinical trials will still be in place in 2012.
Gene Regulation
Science
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As in civil society, where there must necessarily be checks and balances on freedom of expression, cells have evolved a range of mechanisms to regulate the expression of their constituent genes. This video highlights the central role of RNA in gene regulation and accompany Science's 2008 special issue on gene regulation.
Science Podcast
Science
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Representative show (Frederick ran the Science podcast 2007-2011). Link goes to downloadable transcript. Audio available directly: http://podcasts.aaas.org/science_podcast/SciencePodcast_080328.mp3
Breakthrough of the Year, 2007: Human Genetic Variation
Science
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Accompanying Science's year-end special issue, this video features Francis Collins of the NIH, David Altshuler of the Broad Institute, and Science's Liz Pennisi reviewing some of the work that led studies in human genetic variation to be tagged the top scientific story for 2007. Written and produced by Robert Frederick.
Harvard Tattoo Process May Ease a Change of Heart
NPR
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Scientists at Harvard are giving the ancient art of tattooing a technological makeover. They have invented a tattoo ink that challenges the nature of the tattoo as something permanent.
Pope's science advisor decries fundamentalist Christians
St. Louis Public Radio
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St. Louis, MO – The head of the Vatican's observatory said yesterday that the fundamentalist Christian view of using Scripture to teach science is a "plague on our society."
Picture Imperfect
The Dallas Morning News
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New technology and better oversight may hold the keys to more effective breast cancer detection.
Michigan, S. Korean Companies in Technology Dispute
NPR
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A company in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is crying foul. The South Korean government has given an award to a South Korean company for developing a new technology. But the Michigan company says the advances were actually made by its inventors.