Sophie Bushwick
Science and technology journalist, podcast and video host, Senior News Editor at New Scientist
Early Work
Previously, I've interned at Discover Magazine and the science news and culture website io9, earned a AAAS Mass Media Fellowship at Scientific American, spent a summer in the media office of Brookhaven National Laboratory, and written about science and other topics for my college newspaper, The Carletonian. On this page, you can find links to this early work.
Discover internship
Summer 2012
I spent summer 2012 as Discover Magazine's web intern. In addition to sharing posts on Facebook and adapting magazine articles for the internet, I wrote blog posts and a photo gallery for the site.
For the long-form Discover blog, The Crux:
A full list of my posts for the Discover staff blogs 80beats and Discoblog is available here. Some of my 80beats favorites include:
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Quick, Lend Me Some Money—Humans Act More Generously Under Time Pressure
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New Material Will Finally Let Us Convert Waste Heat to Electricity
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Thousand-Year-Old Dirty Tea Cups Suggest Ancient City Had Far-Reaching Influence
- Blind Mice Temporarily Regain Vision After Chemical Injection
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What Makes Droplets Dance Around a Hot Surface and Then Fly Away?
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Amazing Shrinking Nanoparticles Could Sneak Into Tumors & Kill Them
Discoblog favorites:
Image gallery:
io9 internship
Winter 2011 - Spring 2012
I interned at the science and sci-fi website io9 from winter 2011 through spring 2012. Over the course of the internship, I helped conduct research for the other authors, and began writing my own articles for the site.
A full list of my posts is available here. Some of my favorites include:
- Saturn’s moon Phoebe could have been a planet
- People with tattoos drink more alcohol than their friends, say researchers
- Want to bring peace to the Middle East? Use some science
- How this robot climbs walls using snake scales
- 5 Ways Cyborg Insects Could Change The World
- The World’s Next Supercontinent: Amasia!
- Scientists say sugar is as toxic as alcohol - and there should be a drinking age for soda
- How exactly do neurons pass signals through your nervous system?
- What Pigeons Teach Us About Convergent Evolution
- How exactly do neurons pass signals through your nervous system?
- Is dark matter responsible for mysterious radio waves from outside the galaxy?
- Can dogs tell when we’re talking to them?
- Squashing cancer cells makes them migrate
- The Science of Extreme Pogo
- 10 Particle Detectors That Let Us See the Fabric of the Universe
- Why the hottest chilies grow in the wettest places
- How to kill cockroaches by offering them sex
- The world’s tiniest steam engine uses lasers instead of coal
- Must Watch: NASA’s Amazing 3D Video of Asteroid Vesta
- Are we just a 3D hologram created by 2D information stored at the edge of the universe?
AAAS Mass Media Fellowship at Scientific American
Summer 2011
While still enrolled at Carleton College, I applied to the AAAS Mass Media Fellowship program and earned a placement at Scientific American. In the summer of 2011, I attended orientation and then began researching and writing news articles, posts for the staff-run Observations blog, and image features. Towards the end of the fellowship, I even recorded my first podcasts.
A full list of my news and magazine pieces is available here. The pieces I wrote during my fellowship include:
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Full Exposure: How Will the FDA’s Sunscreen Regulations Help Prevent Skin Cancer?
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Ooze-Down Economics: Will Opening Global Oil Reserves Stimulate the World Economy?
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Hot and Cold: Long-Suspected Antarctic Undersea Volcanoes Discovered
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What Causes Prejudice against Immigrants, and How Can It Be Tamed?
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Best of the Best Top 10 Cities: Green Living, Health, Air Quality and Technology
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3-D Printing Gets Ahead: Anthropologists Use Printing Technology to Model Fossils
Blog posts:
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What Makes Them Go Boom? Our Favorite Explainers on the Science of Fireworks
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Forget Diet Coke and Mentos: Singing Bowls Excite Droplet Fountains [Video]
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SA Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina Teaches Viewers about ‘Taz’
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Study Claiming That Internet Explorer Users Had Low IQs Was a Hoax
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Ownership Ties Among Global Corporations Strangely Resemble a Bow Tie
Image features:
Podcasts:
Brookhaven National Laboratory media internship
Summer 2010
I spent the summer of 2010 interning in the media office of Brookhaven National Laboratory. I primarily wrote both science and human interest stories for their weekly newsletter, The Bulletin, but I also contributed a few stories to the “Science Highlights” website for one of the on-site resources, the National Synchrotron Light Source. I even tried my hand at writing a press release, and a Symmetry magazine article.
The Bulletin science stories:
The Bulletin human interest stories:
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DOE Honors Derek Lowenstein for Extensive Leadership of Lab’s Accelerator Department
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Past and Present BNL Employees Share Science With the Future
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Back for Seconds: Nuclear Nonproliferation Summer Program Draws Eager Students
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Interns Danielle Nichols and Justina Bradley Investigate Biofuel
National Synchrotron Light Source Science Highlights:
Press release:
Symmetry magazine:
Carleton College's Carletonian
2007 - 2011
During my years as a physics major at Carleton College, from 2007-2011, I also contributed to Carleton’s weekly student-run newspaper, The Carletonian. I started with occasional articles, and eventually established my own science column. My senior year, I helped maintain the paper’s online presence as web editor.
Articles:
Science column: