FacebookTwitterYoutubeInstagramGoogle Plus

Science and Story: Nature’s Dramas

Thursday, May 28, 2015
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

From diseases and disasters to the miracles wrought by evolution, the environmental forces that shape our lives are the inspiration for countless science writers. This event featured five award-winning authors whose best-selling books explore the complicated interplay of science, ethics, history and social responsibility. Fiction and non-fiction—whether set in the past, present or future— both offer fascinating perspectives on our struggle with nature, and the power of science to see us through.

World Science Festival’s “Science and Story” series gathers the world’s foremost writers and thinkers to discuss how they craft stories that bring the vitality and wonder of science to life.

Photograph: Jon Smith

Moderator

John HockenberryJournalist

Three-time Peabody Award winner, four-time Emmy Award winner, and Dateline NBC correspondent John Hockenberry has broad experience as a journalist and commentator for more than two decades. Hockenberry is the anchor of the public radio show The Takeaway on WNYC and PRI.

Read More

Participants

Diane AckermanAuthor, Naturalist

Diane Ackerman is the author of 24 works of nonfiction and poetry. Her works include the New York Times best sellers The Human Age: The World Shaped by Us, which received the PEN Henry David Thoreau Award and One Hundred Names for Love, a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Circle Critics Award.

Read More
Dan FaginAuthor

Dan Fagin is a Pulitzer Prize–winning author and an associate professor and director of the Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.

Read More
David QuammenAuthor

David Quammen is an author and journalist whose 12 books include The Song of the Dodo, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, and Spillover, a work on the science, history, and human impacts of emerging diseases. Quammen is a contributing writer for National Geographic and a three-time recipient of the National Magazine Award.

Read More
Rebecca SklootAuthor

Rebecca Skloot is an award-winning science writer who contributes to The New York Times Magazine; O, the Oprah Magazine; NPR’s RadioLab; and others. Her debut book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, took more than a decade to research and write, then instantly hit The New York Times Best Seller list, where it has remained for four years.

Read More
Neal StephensonAuthor

Neal Stephenson is an award-winning author and game designer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been variously categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, “postcyberpunk,” and “baroque”.

Read More