Like many science writers, I was a scientist before I figured out that doing science is (for me) substantially less fun than writing about it.

In 2019, I earned my M.S. in Earth Science at MIT, where I studied how bacteria snot transforms into rock. I then jumped into writing with a AAAS Mass Media Fellowship at Voice of America. Before that, I earned my B.S. in Geobiology at Caltech and spent a Fulbright at the University of Southern Denmark in 2020.

My core beat is now physics and geoscience, but I also love writing about my pet topics, language and birds, whenever I can convince an editor to let me. I’ve written for National Geographic, Quanta, Scientific American, Discover, Science News, Eos, Sky & Telescope, and more.

When I’m not hunting down researcher emails or re-re-re-writing a lede, I’m probably either trying to learn a real language or making up a fake one.

I speak English and German and am happy to correspond in either language // Ich spreche Englisch und Deutsch und korrespondiere gern in beiden Sprachen.

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Elise Cutts

Science Writer

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