About the SA Blog Network  

The SA Incubator

The SA Incubator


The next generation of science writers and journalists.
The SA Incubator HomeAboutContact
  • Profile

    The SA Incubator is a place where we explore and highlight the work of new and young science writers and journalists, especially those who are current or recent students in specialized science, health and environmental writing programs in schools of journalism. Here, we will discuss the current state and the future of science writing, and promote the best work that the young writers are doing.

    The blog is written by Bora Zivkovic, Blogs Editor at Scientific American, and Khalil Cassimally, community manager of Nature Education's Scitable blog network.
  • Khalil’s Picks (24 May 2013)

    The Oklahoma tornado disaster was chilling in terms of sheer power and devastation caused. In this week’s picks, I highlight two articles about tornadoes. The first one, by Douglas Main, examines the underlying causes of such destructive tornadoes and the second one, by Adam Kucharski, looks at the challenge in forecasting seemingly unpredictable tornadoes. On [...]

    Keep reading »

    ShareShare

    Introducing: Kyle Hill

    This is a series of Q&As with young and up-and-coming science, health and environmental writers and reporters. They have recently hatched in the Incubators (science writing programs at schools of journalism), have even more recently fledged (graduated), and are now making their mark as wonderful new voices explaining science to the public. Today we introduce [...]

    Keep reading »

    ShareShare

    Bora’s Picks (May 17th, 2013)

    chickenEgg

    Protecting South America’s Crown of Biodiversity by Anne-Marie Hodge: Visiting a rainforest can be an exercise in challenged expectations. Everyone knows that rainforests are full of life: they teem with species, act as stages for unimaginably intricate food webs, and provide refuge for rare and even undiscovered organisms that exist nowhere else in the world. [...]

    Keep reading »

    ShareShare

    Khalil’s Picks (10 May 2013)

    As usual, it’s been a great week on the writing front from up-and-coming science writers. This week’s selection has the horrifying, the less horrifying, the beautiful and the wow and important. From wasps that sorta kinda impregnate cockroaches after controlling their minds to Killer Whale attacks to the notorious politics in the “green energy” sector. [...]

    Keep reading »

    ShareShare

    SEO Writing And How It’s Changing Science Writing Online

    As more and more science writing is done specifically for the web, the way science writers pen their stories is subtly and not-so-subtly changing. Writers are becoming increasingly conscious of search engine optimisation (SEO) and social media optimisation (SMO) for instance. And they are taking those into account as they write. Is this affecting science [...]

    Keep reading »

    ShareShare

    Bora’s Picks (May 3rd, 2013)

    Working to save the mystery antelope that’s little bigger than a pet cat by Lacey Avery: Little is known about the silver dik-dik (Madoqua piacentinii) population that roams the dense coastal bushlands of eastern Africa, but experts are working to learn more about the mysterious species…. Deaths triple among football players, morning temperatures thought to [...]

    Keep reading »

    ShareShare

    For Up-And-Coming Science Journalists, Understanding Statistics Has Never Been More Important

    Maths on a blackboard

    “When Bill Gates walks into a bar… the average salary goes up.” – Popular geeky stats joke. I once heard a science editor at a rather well-known publication say, in public no less, that she has no idea what p-value* means. This came as a shock to me, a then-relative newcomer to the science communication [...]

    Keep reading »

    ShareShare

    Khalil’s Picks (26 April 2013)

    This week we have barcoded ants, 3D printing fetuses, seals’ teeth, pseudoscience in the filter bubble and more. Let’s do this! – We’ve done it, people. We have barcoded ants. For science! The research is fabulously cool. Recounted by Kate Prengaman for Ars Technica. Barcodes let scientists track every ant in a colony For creatures [...]

    Keep reading »

    ShareShare

    Bora’s Picks (April 19th, 2013)

    Are you a super seer? Why some people see fewer colors than others and why women are more likely to be super seers by Naveena Sadasivam: It was the late 1700’s and John Dalton, now well known for his achievements in atomic theory, was walking by a store when he noticed a pair of stockings [...]

    Keep reading »

    ShareShare

    Navigating From Academia To Science Journalism: The Meme Edition

    Keep calm and pick your audience

    This is a guest post written by Nsikan Akpan, PhD, a health reporter at Medical Daily/International Business Times. He was formerly a science writer at the Center for Infection & Immunity at the Mailman School of Public Health. He blogs at SciLogs.com and tweets as @ThatBS. – Everything changed on November 10, 2010. It was [...]

    Keep reading »

    ShareShare

    Search this blog:


    • Year:
    • Month:
    • Keyword:

    More from Scientific American

    Account Linking

    Welcome, . Do you have an existing ScientificAmerican.com account?

    Yes, please link my existing account with for quick, secure access.



    Forgot Password?

    No, I would like to create a new account with my profile information.

    Create Account
    X