Ed Yong

Edmund Soon-Weng Yong (born 17 December 1981) is a Malaysian-born British science journalist. His blog Not Exactly Rocket Science is published as part of the National Geographic Phenomena blog network. Previously his work has been published by Nature,[1] Scientific American,[2] the BBC,[3] Slate,[4] The Guardian,[5] The Times,[6] New Scientist,[7] Wired,[8] The New York Times, and The New Yorker.[6][9] He has been a permanent staff member of The Atlantic since 2015.[10]

For the Malaysian sports shooter, see Edmund Yong.

Ed Yong
Yong on a tardigrade in the Micropia museum.
Born	Edmund Soon-Weng Yong (1981-12-17) 17 December 1981 Malaysia
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of Cambridge (BA, MA) University College London (MPhil)
Known for	Not Exactly Rocket Science blog
Scientific career
Institutions	The Atlantic
Thesis	Searching for the human resolvase (2005)
Website	edyong.me

Education

Edmund Soon-Weng Yong was born 17 December 1981 in Malaysia.[11][12][13] Yong immigrated to the UK aged 13 in 1994 and became a British citizen in 2005.[14]

Yong was awarded Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Natural Sciences (Zoology) from the University of Cambridge in 2002.[6] He completed postgraduate study at University College London (UCL) where he was awarded a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree in 2005 on the biochemistry of resolvases.[11]

Career and awards

Yong's approach to popular science writing has been described as "the future of science news",[15] and he has received numerous awards for his work. Yong received the National Academies Communication Award from the National Academy of Sciences in 2010 in recognition of his online journalism, then part of Discover's blog group.[16] In the same year he received three awards from ResearchBlogging.org, which supports online science journalism focused on covering research that has already been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals which can be adapted for a wider public audience.[17] In 2012 he received the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Stephen White Award.[18] His blog received the first Best Science Blog award from the Association of British Science Writers in 2014.[19]

Yong's interactions with other science bloggers and engagement with commenters on his own blog have served as case studies for academic work in media studies.[20]

In September 2015, Yong joined The Atlantic as a science reporter.[21] He lives in London and Washington, D.C.[12][22]

Personal life

Yong is married to Liz Neeley, a science communicator.[23][24] They occasionally collaborate on speaking engagements.[25][23]

Bibliography

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• Yong, Ed & Valerie Ross (September 2013). "Stretchy, flexy future". Discover. 34 (7): 30–35.[26]
• Yong, Ed (2016). I contain multitudes: the microbes within us and a grander view of life. Random House.
• — (July 2019). "The last of its kind". Dispatches. Sketch. The Atlantic. 324 (1): 24–27.
• — (March 2020). "How Will the Coronavirus End?". Health. The Atlantic.
• — (April 2020). Why the Coronavirus Is So Confusing. Health. The Atlantic.
• — (August 2020). How the Pandemic Defeated America. Health. The Atlantic.

References

1. • Yong, Ed (2011). "Friendly bacteria move in mysterious ways". Nature. doi:10.1038/news.2011.614.
   • Yong, Ed (2013). "Memory molecule dethroned". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2013.12139.
   • Yong, Ed (2013). "Bigger groups mean complex cultures". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2013.14158.
   • Yong, Ed (2015). "Microbiology: Here's looking at you, squid". Nature. 517 (7534): 262–264. doi:10.1038/517262a. PMID 25592518.
   • Yong, Ed (2014). "First response: Race against time". Nature. 510 (7506): S5. doi:10.1038/510S5a. PMID 24964025.
2. Yong, Ed (2013). "Armor against Prejudice". Scientific American. 308 (6): 76–80. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0613-76. PMID 23729075.
3. Yong, Ed (2014). "The amateur geneticist who surprised science". bbc.com. BBC. Archived from the original on 2016-03-09.
4. "Ed Yong". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2019-12-24.
5. "Ed Yong Guardian Profile". theguardian.com. London: The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2016-04-10.
6. Yong, Ed (2014). "Ed Yong, Science Writer". Archived from the original on 2014-03-20.
7. Yong, Ed (2015). "Bugs on patrol". New Scientist. 226 (3024): 40–43. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(15)30523-6.
8. Yong, Ed (2013-03-19). "How the Science of Swarms Can Help Us Fight Cancer and Predict the Future". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2019-12-24.
9. Yong, Ed. "Not Exactly Rocket Science". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-07-31.
10. Anon (2015-07-23). "The Atlantic Expands Its News Team and Adds Other New Roles". theatlantic.com. The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 2016-06-29. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
11. Yong, Edmund Soon-Weng (2005). Searching for the human resolvase (MPhil thesis). University of London. OCLC 926124477.
12. "I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong". The Royal Society. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
13. Yong, Ed [@edyong209] (17 December 2012). "Thanks for birthday wishes, loads of people" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
14. Yong, Ed [@edyong209] (24 June 2016). "I am an immigrant. I've lived in the UK for 22 years and been a citizen for 11 of those and I've never felt as unwelcome as I do now" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
15. Rennie, John (3 February 2011). "Why Ed Yong is the Future of Science News (and You Could Be, Too)". PLoS Blogs. PLOS. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
16. "Revenge of the whippersnappers: Ed Yong wins National Academies Communication Award". Science. 2010-10-14. Retrieved 2019-12-24.
17. • "Research Blogging Awards 2010". ResearchBlogging.org. Retrieved 2015-07-31.
    • Munger, David (2010). "Exactly, Ed Yong". SEED Magazine. Archived from the original on 2010-03-29. Retrieved 2015-07-31.
18. "Ed Yong wins NUJ Stephen White science award". National Union of Journalists. 28 June 2012. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
19. "Winners". Association of British Science Writers. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
20. • Shanahan, M.-C. (8 September 2011). "Science blogs as boundary layers: Creating and understanding new writer and reader interactions through science blogging". Journalism. 12 (7): 903–919. doi:10.1177/1464884911412844.
    • Fahy, D.; Nisbet, M. C. (8 September 2011). "The science journalist online: Shifting roles and emerging practices". Journalism. 12 (7): 778–793. doi:10.1177/1464884911412697.
    • Elmer, Greg (2015). Elmer, Greg; Langlois, Ganaele; Redden, Joanna (eds.). Compromised Data: From Social Media to Big Data. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 251–63. ISBN 9781501306501.
21. Yong, Ed [@edyong209] (26 August 2015). "Starting at The Atlantic next Tuesday! And first piece for them is going up tomorrow. Because reasons" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
22. "Ed Yong". HarperCollins. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
23. "The Atlantic's Ed Yong visits UW as fall science writer in residence". news.wisc.edu. September 26, 2017. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
24. Neeley, Liz (June 6, 2019). "Liz Neeley on Instagram: "This guy... AND #elephants!!! . . . . #zimbabwe #waterhole #honeymoon #victoriafalls #nofilter"". Instagram. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
25. Shelton, Jim (September 25, 2019). "Neeley and Yong extol the power of narrative in science writing". news.yale.edu. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
26. Online version is titled "New electronics can stretch, flex and even dissolve in the body".

External links

• Zombie roaches and other parasite tales, TED talk
• All Stories by Ed Yong at The Atlantic.
• Appearances on C-SPAN