Natalie Wolchover was a staff writer for Live Science from 2010 to 2012 and is currently a senior physics writer and editor for Quanta Magazine. She holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Tufts University and has studied physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Along with the staff of Quanta, Wolchover won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory writing for her work on the building of the James Webb Space Telescope. Her work has also appeared in the The Best American Science and Nature Writing and The Best Writing on Mathematics, Nature, The New Yorker and Popular Science. She was the 2016 winner of the Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award, an annual prize for young science journalists, as well as the winner of the 2017 Science Communication Award for the American Institute of Physics.
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How Music 'Awakens' Alzheimer's PatientsMusic seems to have a transformative effect on Alzheimer's and dementia patients. Scientists are starting to figure out why.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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Can N.J. Couple Break the Lease on Their 'Haunted House'?A couple in New Jersey claims their rental home is haunted, and is trying to renege on their lease, but will their argument stand in court?
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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Why Do Brits and Americans Spell Words Differently?Blame a very opinionated man named Noah Webster.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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10 Everyday Things that Cause Brain FartsOur brains are generally adept at processing sensory data from everyday life, but in these 10 circumstances, they comically fail.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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What Would Happen If You Fell into a Black Hole?Falling into a black hole would be a rough ride, but there would be some major upshots.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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Name That Hurricane: Famous Examples of the 5 Hurricane CategoriesThere are five categories of hurricanes based on their windspeed. Here is one example of each type of storm.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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Why Everyone Believes in Magic (Even You)In a new book, author Matthew Hutson accrues evidence that suggests we all believe in magic; he argues that magical thinking is actually good for us.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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'Monolith' Object on Mars? You Could Call It ThatHave aliens erected a "monolith" on the surface of Mars?
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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Update: Texas Fireball Real After All, NASA SaysA bright object that streaked across the daytime sky in Texas was actually a meteor, not a jet contrail.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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Update: Texas Fireball was Real After All, NASA SaysA bright object that streaked across the daytime sky in Texas was actually a meteor, not a jet contrail.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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Mystery Fireball in Texas Actually a Jet Contrail, NASA Scientist SaysA bright object that streaked across the daytime sky in Texas was actually a jet contrail, a NASA meteor expert confirms.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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Why Does Spinning Make You Dizzy?Spinning makes you dizzy because of inertia, an important principle of physics. Here's how it works.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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Rare, Unexplained Daytime Fireball Scorches Texas SkySpring is fireball season, as exemplified by a huge meteor that streaked across the Texas sky during the day last week. Scientists can't explain the seasonal uptick.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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Niceness is in Your DNA, Scientists FindResearchers have identified some of the genes that influence how nice you are.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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Jesus vs. Scientists: Who's Better at Miracles?After 2,000 years, have scientists managed to replicate the miracles of Jesus Christ?
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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5 Spiffy Facts about Spit
New research shows that spit contains all sorts of juicy information about who we are, and how we are.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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How Do We Fall Asleep?Concentrating on how you fall asleep tends to makes it not happen, so it's impossible to understand the process by doing it. Here's the neuroscience of what's going on.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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Making Money Work: Using Coins to Generate ElectricityA conceptual artist and philosopher says he has solved both the financial and energy crises by using money's natural instability to generate electricity.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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Should You Pre-Chew Your Baby's Food?Pre-chewing your infant's food may be an important and safe way to boost his or her immune system.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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Too Much Homework Is Bad for KidsAustralian researchers say that homework tends to hurt schoolchildren's test performance. Experts say the same holds true in the U.S.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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April Fools! 5 Hilarious Fake Scientific BreakthroughsScientists and scientific publications don't often get to pull pranks or tell lies. When April 1st rolls around, they are ready to let rip.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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If We Discover Aliens, What's Our Protocol for Making Contact?There are three main scenarios for how a human-alien encounter might play out.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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Cram Session: Modern Physics in 200 Words
From the Higgs boson to chaos in nature, here's a quick run-through of contemporary physics.
By Natalie Wolchover Published
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The 7 Weirdest Glow-in-the-Dark CreaturesDeep in the ocean, 90 percent of organisms have evolved the ability to glow. These are the coolest and weirdest among them.
By Natalie Wolchover Published

