For the past ten years, K.C. Cole has been a science writer and columnist for the
Los Angeles Times; she has also written for
The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Smithsonian, Discover, Newsweek, Newsday, Esquire, Ms., People and many other publications. Her articles were featured in
The Best American Science Writing 2004 and 2005 and
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2002. She has also been an editor at
Discover and
Newsday.
Cole is the author of seven nonfiction books, including
Mind Over Matter: Conversations with the Cosmos;
The Hole in the Universe: How Scientists Peered Over the Edge of Emptiness and Found Everything; and
The Universe and the Teacup, the Mathematics of Truth and Beauty. She is also a regular commentator on science issues for KPCC-FM (
Visit Cole's KPCC archive).
She has developed and taught courses in science, culture and society as a Fellow at Yale and Wesleyan Universities and as adjunct professor of Science, Society and Communication at UCLA.
Cole particularly likes to show how science is integral to the arts and politics (and vice versa), and firmly believes, in the words of an artist friend that, "the worst disease afflicting human kind is 'hardening of the categories'." To that end, she runs a monthly series of informal events on science/art/politics known as
Categorically Not! She’s made a point of writing about science in unlikely venues (such as women’s magazines) and unlikely forms (at the LA Times, she wrote about the mathematics of voting, the science of affirmative action and why the OJ Simpson trial had everything to do with the discovery of the top quark).
She has been honored with the American Institute of Physics Science Writing prize; the Los Angeles Times award for deadline reporting; the Skeptics’ Society Edward R. Murrow Award for Thoughtful Coverage of Scientific Controversies; Los Angeles Times award for best explanatory journalism, and the Elizabeth A. Wood Science Writing Award from the American Crystallographic Association.
Cole has been associated with San Francisco’s "museum of human awareness," the Exploratorium, since 1972, and is currently working on a philosophical biography of its founder (and her mentor), the late physicist Frank Oppenheimer. Before getting into science writing, she wrote about international politics, travel, women’s issues, education and humor. She is an active member of JAWS (Journalism and Women Symposium).
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First You Build a Cloud: Reflections on Physics as a Way of Life
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Mind Over Matter: Conversations with the Cosmos
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The Universe and the Teacup: The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty
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The Hole in the Universe: How Scientists Peered Over the Edge of Emptiness and Found Everything
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Between the Lines: Searching for Space Between Feminism and Femininity
and Other Tight Spots
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What Only a Mother Can Tell You About Having a Baby
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Fall 2007:
JOUR 499 - Science, Society and the News
JOUR 586 - Specialized Reporting: Science
Spring 2008:
JOUR 499 - Writing About Science
JOUR 519 - Advanced Magazine Writing