Portfolio

As a science journalist and communicator, I keep my eyes and ears open for unique stories, whether it’s artificial intelligence, animal cognition, or the strange and brilliant worlds of octopuses and corvids. I’m equally driven to spotlight the people behind these discoveries and to examine diversity across the tech landscape, especially the experiences of women and underrepresented communities who are reshaping these fields in real time.

I take a human-first approach to reporting: building trust with my sources, developing real relationships, and—when time allows—sending quotes back for clarity, following up on emerging threads, and sharing each published story with the people who made it possible. I believe this kind of care isn’t just good practice; it’s essential to maintaining strong relationships and producing journalism that reflects the full depth of lived experience.

As the Content Manager at Live Science, I publish most of my articles there, but have published widely as a freelance science journalist, with work appearing in outlets such as National Geographic, Science Friday, Scientific American, New Scientist, Discover Magazine, Ars Technica, LiveScience, Space.com, Nature Biotechnology, Astronomy Magazine, Leaps Magazine, Hakai Magazine, The Transmitter, Nautilus Magazine, ChemistryWorld, Earth Island Journal, Phys.org, Colorado Magazine, Inside Quantum Technology, The Quantum Insider, The Deep Tech Insider, The Metaverse Insider, The Debrief, A-Z Animals and OctoNation.

Some notable bylines

He Found A Bizarre Octopus, But No One Believed Him
4 lemurs die of human herpesvirus, including one that had been used in a 'lemur yoga' class
'We were genuinely surprised': 'Superworms' can clean extremely delicate skeletons lickety-split, and that's a game changer for museums
Monkeys have a basic intuition for geometry, study suggests
A unique antibody system may help explain bats' unusual tolerance of viruses
Did fungi give mammals an evolutionary edge after the dinosaur-killing asteroid hit? New evidence revives a provocative hypothesis
Young wild octopuses may form a 'fight club' and slap territorial fish if they get too close
95 million-year-old Spinosaurus had a scimitar-shaped head crest and waded through the Sahara's rivers like a 'hell heron'
'They reliably chose the statistically more favorable option': A crow researcher explains how these winged geniuses process numbers, and what it could reveal about human math smarts
Bioengineered spider silk without critters
What happens in a crow’s brain when it uses tools?
US government considers protecting octopuses used in research
An octopus’s stripes can act as a unique ID
The past and present of Los Alamos came together to make Oppenheimer
For the first time, research reveals crows use statistical logic
We’re one step closer to reading an octopus’s mind
Why are ravens suddenly attacking the world’s smallest penguins?
New Study Suggests Octopuses Have Individual Differences When It Comes to Problem Solving
Cuttlefish Ink is Used for More Than Just Evading Predators: It’s Part of Their Bizarre Mating Rituals
Earliest known sex chromosomes evolved in octopuses
Can the Octopus Adapt Fast Enough for Climate Change?
In Graphic Detail: The Architecture of Octopus Burrows
Are There Health Risks to Using Virtual Reality Headsets at Work?
How Could Atomic Clocks Be Used to Detect Dark Matter?
Advanced Quantum Material Curves the Fabric of Space
Squid Camouflage Inspires Human Invisibility: Is it Possible?
Could AI Language Models Like ChatGPT Unlock Mysterious Ancient Texts?
How Sensors Using Quantum Entanglement Could Improve Earthquake Detection
The Wizard in the Mountains
Earthworm robots could help astronomers explore other worlds
AI Can’t Solve this Famous Murder Mystery Puzzle
Scientists race to collect the last seeds from a critically endangered tree before it goes extinct
Scientists found the optimal robot body, and it has 20 legs ‪—‬ watch it scale walls and move through trees

Here you can find the Medicinal Plants Tour from the Denver Botanic Gardens that I created. The tour is currently the third most popular tour on their website, and has a series of corresponding YouTube videos of recipes you can try.

susannp4 via Pixabay

Here you can find the link to my undergraduate honors thesis, which I published as a book. It covers the story of me interviewing scientists and science writers around the world to talk about science communication and the lives and conservation of weedy sea dragons.