What factors do you consider when choosing a topic for publication?

How do these
factors change in reference to academic and journalistic articles?
Research - Depends on what is found in research - the last part of research
pipeline. Money & samples, then written up. Its deterministic. Question of publishable or
not - if its interesting, enough data, contaminated samples, etc. Find out the story. Is
there a new finding?
Journalistically - New layer, is it able to be shared in interesting way? A ton of
academic papers, most do not get into the public press and they shouldnt be.
We all noticed that, especially between the papers, there were different audiences.
Often you dont assume or care if academic readers are interested in the topic.
Usually knows what topic he wants to write on but does not know the study or
situation, or really the specifics, about which he will write

How would you describe your process for writing academic articles?
You already have figures and graphs, so you center your argumentation and
methods around the data you already have. Thats the scaffold to build up on. Also think
- how many layers deep to go. What is something new, next question is why and how.
Can address in same paper - makes it more impactful - or it could be. You keep going
until its too much and then you stop.
Important to use all the info that was gathered
Also important to try and disprove the hypothesis (to strengthen it)

How do you decide when to stop? Often you assume there is a basal knowledge.
Different scientists have different opinions on, currency of academia is
publication. Number of papers is more important, though impactful writings are good
they take a long time. You want to keep publishing frequently.

How would you describe your process for writing journalistic articles?
There you have the idea, the subject, and then you do background research or
interviews. Get everything down in one place before sifting through what you want to
write.
Usually the story that will be written is not predetermined but needs to be
decided and shaped

How does your writing process differ between academic and journalistic articles?
Just getting the raw material on the page is common, you dont always have all
the data for journalistic. Academic, its counterproductive to leave boring things out.
Writing styles
Passive voice is still a thing in academic writing, time oriented. Journalistically
you take more liberties with that. In science and academic writing you are trying to
disprove your hypothesis as much as you can, be your own harshest critic. This is less
common to do journalistically.
How do you adjust your writing style between the different publications you have written
for?
Depends on what the publication is about and what Ive been hired to do.
National Geographic was first person, describing the process of being a scientist and
doing the science. Whats hard and fun is the blending of this - where I use my
background in science to contextualize the story Im reporting on. You do need to be
clear - see where youre being a reporter.

In filtering the abundance of information into a digestible format, how do you choose
what to include?
Thats a tough question - thats where having an editor is nice, its a balance
between importance and what is interesting. I lean more towards what is important - if
they learn nothing then it's a pointless. I have non-expert friends look it over.
Its often that you do hours and hours of interviews - one way to judge the quality
is to judge what you leave out. Quote needs to add something which is personality
driven or that gives you some special insight to the topic.

What considerations do you make of the audience during your writing process? Before
you begin writing a paper or article do you first do some sort of audience analysis?
No not really, I maybe should. I read a fair amount and I have a vibe on what
theyre about. In academic writing - I sent it to an editor and they didnt comment on the
science but they said the topic wasnt a fit.

You have to give a specific pitch.

Between the two types of articles and audiences, which do you find to be easier/more
enjoyable and why?
Academic writing is easier - its progressive, you move from one point to the next.
I find journalistic more enjoyable - able to reach more readers and be more creative by
injecting his own voice into the text.

What instance led you to dedicate your work to the importance of microbial life within
our ecosystem?
Growing up - a family trip to Yellowstone - knowing that life can exist inside these
environments was very interesting. Something very magical about the biological
experience. Endless questions on the subject.
The other experience is watching a spaceship launch in 6th grade. A lot of the
same time that the mars rovers were doing things. Revelations. Astrobiology. To do that
requires one to know the limits of biology on earth.
So you knew straight out of highschool what you wanted to do and went to
college for it?
Yeah I wanted to do it straight out of highschool - but at that time no one knew
what to make of Astrobiology.
Do you find that the concepts of microbial life are difficult to explain to an audience?
Microbes in particular are tough - this comes up specifically with National
Geographic. Emotionally and imagery driven. Anthropomorphization helps a lot.
Keep things human centric - explain things in relations to people.

Observational Notes
During the interview observational notes were taken:
At start of the interview he asks more about what we are studying and what we will be
writing in our report - when we further explain the project to him he nods and smiles
constantly
Seems to be in a laboratory or workshop - orange bag in background, stainless steel.
Looks to be high end
Wearing earbuds (to reduce echo from speakers perhaps? Or maybe so he can better
hear us?)
Wearing a grey sweatshirt- casual (No lab coat even though seemingly in what appears
to be a lab-like setting)
Always smiling throughout entire interview - obviously loves what he is talking about and
loves helping others learn
Very calm, relaxed, and friendly
Willing to answer any and all questions to the best of his abilities
When talking about getting data for his writings he called it doing the science while
motioning quotation marks with his fingers

Discussion of the notes:

Right from the start it is obvious that he is not just interested in helping us with our
project but seems happy to do so. He smiles and nods while we talk about what we hope to
achieve through our report and responds positively seemingly very interested in what our
resulting report will be like.He is willing to answer any and all questions to the best of his
abilities, he seems to enjoy helping others find passion in what he is passionate about. His
passion for the topic, and for sharing that passion with others, is obvious in his calm relaxed and
friendly attitude and speech throughout the interview. He says things like doing the science
while motioning quotation marks with his fingers further showing his laid-back, approachable
attitude and how he views this topic as something fun and enjoyable. He is even dressed in a
laid-back, approachable manner by wearing a casual grey sweatshirt even though he is in a lab-
like setting. He wears headphones during the interview - possibly to reduce echo from speakers
perhaps or maybe so he can better hear us or maybe even to prevent disturbing others too
much.