We Are in a Book!
Our mention in "The Craft of Science Writing" is the culmination of six years of growing science with words
Dear Reader,
I’m super pumped that we got a couple of mentions in the Expanded Edition of The Craft of Science Writing, an anthology of The Open Notebook articles!
I was interviewed by Humberto Basilio in 2022 on “How to Break into English-Language Media as a Non-Native-English Speaker.” At the time, I said, “I believe that everybody can write a good story if we give them a chance to do it and the suitable resources, trust, time, and patience.”
“…The Xylom is a publication that is explicitly looking to help early-career journalists to publish their first pieces.”
— Humberto Basilio, for The Craft of Science Writing
Saugat Bolakhe was one of those writers. He landed his first byline for us in 2021 just two years out of college, writing about biodiversity in his home country of Nepal. There were cultural and language barriers we had to navigate at the time, but it was obvious to me that he could tell a good story. What he needed was a platform and a chance.
Saugat parlayed this experience to study science journalism in New York City with a scholarship, launching a career for outlets such as Scientific American, Quanta, and Science News. This week, he was honored with the Science and Technology Journalism Award from the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology.
Since Saugat first wrote about Maire’s yew, three more science writers have reported for us from Nepal — an incredible feat from one of the most remote countries on earth!
That’s The Xylom’s legacy, one in which you’ve played a crucial part. We have grown science with words by reimagining who gets to tell a science story, and what science stories get to be told.
I still believe what I told Humberto over two years ago. Entering 2025, we will continue our youth movement in science journalism — or as The Open Notebook’s Siri Carpenter describes, “plain old journalism” — and take on stories that reveal our world in new and interesting ways.
Yours sincerely,
Alex Ip
Publisher and Editor
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THINGS YOU SHOULD READ
✨ NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS
Thank you to our 32 (and counting!) new donors and sustainers who joined this month! We need nine more of you by the end of the year to be eligible for a $1,000 bonus. Give now and have your donation matched up to $1,000!
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For the New York Times, Katrina Miller has an excellent article on The Plight of the Palestinian Scientist.
🍑 A SOUTHERN FLAIR
PSA: If you live in metro Atlanta and have been affected by the BioLab chemical plant explosion, the deadline to file claims is midnight on December 31st. More details here.
ATHENS, Georgia – Residents along rural Athens two-lane claimed for decades they were being poisoned. They were right. (Johnny Edwards, FOX 5 Atlanta)
“‘To give you an example, one of the PFAS – PFOA – the limit is only four parts per trillion… In some wells, we were finding them as high as 20 parts per trillion. So five times higher.’”
SAPULPA, Oklahoma – Meet the peach that traveled the Trail of Tears and the elders working to save it (Tayar Dawn Stagner, Grist)
“‘When our ancestors brought these peaches up from the South you think about how devastating it was, to lose loved ones, and not know if the seeds will sprout… I do this to honor them, and their strength.’”
LEWISVILLE, Arkansas – Black communities in Arkansas face uncertainties of lithium rush (Britny Cordera, The Black Wall Street Times)
“‘The mineral rights in South Arkansas are often tied to old-money families and corporations, like timber and oil companies, who are very invested in maximizing their share of the profits.’”
🗺️ WHAT ELSE WE'RE READING
COLORADO STATE PENITENTIARY – Plastic Bags Are a Complete Waste in Prison, Too (Miguel Perez, Prison Journalism Project)
“To test my suspicion that most bags are tossed in the can, I asked seven sergeants who pass out canteen orders: What happens to the plastic bags after the deliveries?
They said the procedure is to collect the bags and toss them in the trash because bags without holes can be used to produce illicit alcoholic beverages. I also heard that the canteen uses transparent bags so officers can easily inspect the orders to make sure no extra items were added.”XINJIANG AUTONOMOUS REGION, China – The World’s Largest Solar Plant Is Greenwashing China’s Uyghur Genocide (Nithin Coca, Atmos)
“‘It feels hypocritical to be talking about just transition when this specific just transition is tainted with human rights abuses,” said Zumretay Arkin, an ethnic Uyghur who grew up in Canada and now lives in Germany, and director of global advocacy at the World Uyghur Congress.”
The Egg: A story of extraction, exploitation and opportunity (Natalie Obiko Pearson, Jessica Brice, Susan Berfield, Vernon Silver, Kanoko Matsuyama, Cindy Wang, Sinduja Rangarajan, Fani Nikiforaki, and Magali Cazo, Bloomberg Businessweek)
“By law, egg donors in India must be at least 23.
But her only piece of identification, a school record from the state government, shows her as 13.
The truth is, she doesn’t know her age, and neither does her mother. This isn’t particularly unusual at the lower rungs of Indian society, where millions of births go unregistered. The girl is in seventh grade.”
(SOME OF) THE XYLOM’S RECENT STORIES
🌿Turning the Sargassum Crisis into a Seaweed Industry
Sargassum seaweed has been invading the coasts of the Caribbean and putting the health and economy of the region at risk. But innovative solutions try to make the best of the waste, writes Julián Reingold.
This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.
🇺🇦 For The Reservoir That Was Dammed, It Is Now Resurrection Time
In Slavic culture, willows symbolize hearth and home and are seen as protectors against evil. Could the return of seedlings and thickets along a former reservoir herald a rebirth of Ukrainian cultures and landscapes?
🐆 India Proposes Sterilizing Leopards to Curb Human-Wildlife Conflicts
Right before Thanksgiving, we became the first foreign news outlet to reveal that the Maharashtra, India government's first-in-the-nation plan of sterilizing leopards to reduce human-wildlife conflict isn't as easy and effective as advertised.
Part one of Laasya Shekhar’s two-story “No Place to Call Home” series.