BIOGRAPHY

Steve Mirsky
Podcast Editor
Scientific American

Steve Mirsky has written the allegedly humorous Anti Gravity column for Scientific American since 1995 and is a member of the magazine’s board of editors. A collection of his columns, cleverly called Anti Gravity, was published by The Lyons Press in 2008. He has contributed to numerous publications and broadcast outlets, including Audubon; Wildlife Conservation; National Wildlife; Earth; Longevity; The Humanist; Men’s Fitness; American Health; Technology Review; the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Bulletin; Astronomy; Eating Well; American Airlines in-flight magazine; New York Newsday; Sea Frontiers; the children’s magazines Current Science, Science World and Muse; National Public Radio; and the Medical News Network (which folded 90 minutes into his first day on the job).

Mirsky received a Master’s Degree in chemistry from Cornell University in 1985, after which he was awarded a Mass Media fellowship by the American Association for the Advancement of Science to work for a summer as a science journalist at WSVN-TV in Miami. This critical event removed him from the lab, to the great relief of the American Chemical Society and the Ithaca Fire Department. He then spent a year as a morning radio host at WMCR in Oneida, NY. Upon returning to his home in New York City, he became a staff editor at Breakthrough, a newsletter concentrating on science and technology (which folded 12 days after he came on board). He then spent five years writing about basic research for publications of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine before returning to freelancing fulltime. He joined the staff of Scientific American in 1997.

Mirsky has been awarded science journalism fellowships at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where he studied molecular evolution, and at Columbia University. He also received a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the 2003-2004 academic year, which he primarily spent slumming in Alan Dershowitz’s criminal law class at the Harvard Law School.

In February, 2006, Mirsky developed the weekly Scientific American podcast, the magazine’s foray into web-based broadcasting. He hosts the program, called Science Talk: The Weekly Podcast of Scientific American. Over 140 episodes are now on the web. Guests have included seven Nobel Laureates, a Pulitzer Prize winner, an Academy Award winner and Mirsky’s dad. In September, 2006, Mirsky launched the daily Scientific American podcast, 60-Second Science, which he produces and often hosts. Over 450 episodes are now on the web. The programs were nominated for a 2007 Webby Award, recognizing the best of the internet. And it’s an honor just to be nominated.

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