FREELANCE science JOURNALIST

JACKLIN
KWAN

I am a science reporter with experience working freelance and within fast-paced newsrooms. Some of the newsrooms I have worked in include: The Straits Times and Science Magazine. I have freelance bylines in New Scientist, Physics World, Live Science, SciDev.Net and WIRED UK .

I’m a physics graduate with keen interest in the interfaces between science, technology, policy and society. Though I have solid experience in writing rapid news updates about new research, long-form investigations and narrative storytelling are my true bread and butter. Whilst pursuing my freelance career, I’m also currently working as the Digital Communications Officer for the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College Lodnon.

WORK SHOWCASE

I have written work that has been published on both traditional print and online platforms. Here are a few works that I am particularly proud of.

HUMAN IMPACTS AND Emerging Technologies

In this piece published in Wired UK, I tell the story of an artist and the thieves who stole her work after her death. An interview with her brother opens the story – lending a much-needed human voice to stories about emerging technologies. It investigates the current absence of IP law enforcement on non-fungible token (NFT) platforms, and what future safeguards may look like.

INVESTIGATING HOW CRISES RIPPLE THROUGH SCIENCE

While I worked in Science’s newsroom, I investigated how Europe’s energy crisis impacted research communities across the continent. I interviewed over 10 sources for this story, and highlight key case studies of how surging energy prices were affecting European laboratories. From radio astronomy arrays to high-energy particle accelerators, I revealed that the energy crisis threatened to not only slow down the pace of scientific research but even posed an existential threat to many organisations.

DEBUNKING FAKE NEWS

I wrote the first askST piece for The Straits Times. askST was a new format where readers sent questions to the newspaper verify the truth of claims they heard. In this piece, a reader emailed in a source that claimed there was a way to wear surgical masks in order to be protected from environmental pollutants. This article was ST’s top story of the day.

UNPACKING TAKEAWAYS FROM DEVELOPMENT REPORTS

I unpacked a long UNESCO report about the divides in educational attainment in STEM, with an emphasis on low-income countries. One of the more surprising takeaways was the limited data from which researchers could make conclusions from regarding these countries’ the scientific education landscapes. The absence of high-quality data is still a major roadblock to assessing the efficacy of state-led interventions in development programmes.

ADvances in space exploration

This article looks at an exciting new report by NASA about an in-situ resource utilisation experiment the agency conducted on Mars. MOXIE was a device that was able to produce breathable oxygen on the red planet, in preparation for future human expeditions to Mars. I interviewed some of the project’s principal investigators as well as an independent expert to comment on the significance of the achievement. The article performed well on New Scientist’s Twitter page!

Environmental IMPACTS OF TECHNOLOGY

I wrote a commissioned piece for Wired UK about the effect of electronic waste (e-waste) in the developing world – in particular, Ghana. E-waste poisons local communities, especially when it is burnt by recyclers to salvage precious materials. Working with a local reporter, I worked with a local environmental journalist to feature interviews with the people who work in Agbogbloshie, one of the biggest e-waste scrapyards in the world.