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Jonah Lehrer is a contributing editor at Wired. He's also written for The New Yorker, Seed, Nature, and the New York Times and is a contributor to Radiolab. He's the author of Proust Was A Neuroscientist. His new book is How We Decide.

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John Tierney Becomes A Science Writer

Category: Culture
Posted on: November 14, 2006 10:39 AM, by Jonah Lehrer

John Tierney, the libertarian replacement for William Safire, is quitting his op-ed post in order to become a science columnist and blogger. For those of you without Times $elect:

This is my last column on the Op-Ed page. I've enjoyed the past couple of years in Washington, but one election cycle is enough. I'm returning full time to the subject and the city closest to my heart: science and New York. I'll be writing a column and a blog for the Science Times section.

When a writer is willing to give up a powerful political soapbox in order to write about biology and black holes, you know the zeitgeist is changing. Science writing is the new new thing.

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Comments (9)

But it his science writing and good as his political writing is bad?

Posted by: coturnix | November 14, 2006 10:41 AM

I usually liked Tierney. He wasn't a partisan hack, and while he indulged a bit too much in the unfettered glories of the free-market, I thought he wrote some genuinely interesting and surprising columns. Unlike many of his peers, he was unpredictable, which is, as far as I'm concerned, an essential quality for a columnist.

Posted by: jonah | November 14, 2006 11:04 AM

He is a myoginist pig and all of his op-eds stemmed from that fount. Each was duly fisked by the feminist bloggers.

Posted by: coturnix | November 14, 2006 11:31 AM

He is a mysoginist pig and all of his op-eds (and all of his silly politics) stemmed from that fount. Each was duly fisked by the feminist bloggers.

Posted by: coturnix | November 14, 2006 11:33 AM

Does Tierney actually know anything about science? Or is he just going to be one more uninformed reporter?

Posted by: Buffalo Gal | November 14, 2006 1:29 PM

Some very good science writers started with no education in science. There was even a crime reporter or two who turned to science.

The most important skill for a science writer is to be able to ask questions until you are confident that you understand the answers.

After all, few readers bring a knowledge of science to their reading.

Posted by: Michael Kenward | November 14, 2006 1:40 PM

Apparently he was a staff writer for Science from 1981 to 1985, according to his columnist bio. So I guess he knows something about science. He also knows how to mess with it for effect.

Posted by: ThePolynomial | November 14, 2006 3:01 PM

Tierney might have been eased out of his columnist seat. I woulnd't be surprised if the NYT editors wanted to lean a bit less to the right.

Posted by: Barry | November 15, 2006 1:07 PM

Yeah, I bet Gail Collins (former editor of the page) will now take over Tierney's column. That means Brooks will be the lone conservative.

Posted by: ruth p. | November 15, 2006 1:25 PM