I used to think I wanted to be a biologist. Then I started a Ph.D. and decided to become a science journalist instead. I have a certificate in Science Writing from the University of California–Santa Cruz.

I covered health at U.S.News & World Report for four years and wrote and edited at National Geographic for a year and a half. I’ve been freelancing full-time since 2008.

Like all science writers, I have an impressive list of topics I’ve written about–like stressed-out whales, frog evolution, meteorites, the origins of life, and psychology. You name it, I can probably dredge up one factoid about it. I have a particular fondness for the science of poop.

My work has appeared in Science, Smithsonian, The Chronicle of Higher Education, New Scientist, and other publications. A story I wrote about dinosaurs for Smithsonian was picked for the Best American Science and Nature Writing 2007 anthology. A 119-word story about monkey music won me Honorable Mention in the DCSWA Science Newsbrief Award in 2009.

I live and write in Washington, D.C. but will go other places at the slightest provocation. I once spent six weeks on an icebreaker in the Bering Sea. I’ve been to Panama, Switzerland, and West Virginia for stories and a lot of other places for a lot of other reasons.

Wherever I go, I try to visit museums, especially natural history museums, and blog about them. I took the photograph at the top of this page at Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. The portrait of me on this page was taken by Erin Sutherland and the one on the homepage is by Chris Linder.

Contact: fieldsh@gmail.com