M. Mitchell Waldrop

Writer and Editor

M. Mitchell Waldrop

I am a Ph.D. physicist turned journalist and author, with four decades’ experience writing for the general public about a broad range of issues in science and technology, plus eight years' experience in editing for the news section of Nature.

I'm interested in just about everything — not least the issues I explored in my books Complexity and The Dream Machine (both shamelessly advertised on the Books page). For example: how do we cope with a fast-moving world that is simultaneously becoming more integrated, and yet more fragmented? And how do we adjust to a a whole suite of information technologies that are simultaneously making society freer, more open and more collaborative than ever before, and yet more divided and dangerous?

I am also fascinated by the 'Big Questions' of science and society. A partial list:

  • The Credo of Science: Conclusions require evidence — and the evidence is for everyone. How do we weave that credo into policy- and decision-making at every level?
  • Before the Big Bang: What are space and time, anyway?
  • The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Information: From iPods to black holes and beyond...
  • Cosmic Evolution: From dust to us—the triumph of complexity...
  • The Origin and Evolution of Life: The further triumph of complexity...

The background photograph above is the Hubble Space Telescope's Ultra-Deep Field: an extremely long time-exposure that reveals a multitude of newborn galaxies in an apparently blank patch of sky. It's a fitting metaphor for what I've always tried to do as a scientist and journalist — to look at the Deep Field, so to speak, to understand the large-scale patterns of earth, sky, and humankind, and to see the invisible structures that lie beneath surface appearances. And of course, I want to explore what it all means...