Los Angeles freelance science writer and editor
A meet cute that happens on a dive holiday...enjoy! Mia took a deep breath as she stepped into the jetway off her flight from Singapore to Manado, the last leg in a 24-hour in-air journey that left her home three days before. The fragrance of the humid tropical air brought into her conscience the best... Continue Reading →
“Are you carrying a lot of money?” the customs officer asked at the airport in Bari, Italy. “Ummm, no,” I said, not sure how to answer that question out loud in front of strangers as I was about to board a local train, with luggage, to a city I didn’t know. I was on the... Continue Reading →
A short story romance a couple days late for Halloween...hope you enjoy it! “Costume optional” Marina chuckled, reading the last line in italic print on the invitation to the retirement party on Halloween. Would anyone in the department even need a costume? Every day was some version of Halloween in the Department of Neurological Surgery.... Continue Reading →
A line I read from an essay a few years ago claims no one tells you the protagonist in your first novel is you but with a better personal life. At the time, I was trying to write a draft of a novel. I had no idea I was writing a book about me until... Continue Reading →
American Ava Alemagna, an expat working as a cancer researcher at a university in Norway, discovers a cancer causing genetic mutation in a tribe of islanders in Indonesia. Her science and scuba diving lives collide when a Norwegian philanthropist and CEO of a centuries-old family ship building business funds her work and builds her an unprecedented... Continue Reading →
Last fall in an email to a friend, after COVID cycled through vaccinated, boosted, and sometimes boosted again friends and family, I wondered whether a classic vaccine of attenuated or inactivated virus would have been a better choice to provide long-term immunity against SARS-CoV-2. Then I wrote, “Not sure, as enough people have had the... Continue Reading →
by Janice Nigro I’m a science writer, a natural transition into a different field after years as a bench scientist mixing reagents in test tubes. Scientists are not drawn to bench science because they have a specific aptitude for writing, or the desire to write, but there is a large body of literature they need... Continue Reading →
As a scientist, you don’t get much time in the spotlight. It’s late nights and weekends, and you are often alone when you make your discoveries most of which go unnoticed by anyone outside of the niche of other scientists working on similar ideas. The pandemic brought a rare opportunity for a captive audience for... Continue Reading →
by Janice Nigro Early in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, a non-scientist, the husband of a cousin of mine, asked, “Does life-threatening COVID-19 have anything to do with your genes?” At the time, he saw Italians and men dominating the list of persons worldwide succumbing to the pathogen. I didn’t know, and truth be told, as a molecular... Continue Reading →
by Janice Nigro “Bird by Bird” if you’re ever to read any books by Anne Lamott, it should be this one. She wrote it as a memoir focused on her wisdom on writing, but I can’t get those words out of my head now when I think about any project I’m working on. Because when... Continue Reading →
Janice Nigro 