Asimov Press
We are a publisher focused on the science and technologies that promote flourishing. We are an editorially-independent part of Asimov and supported by Astera Institute and Stripe. Listen to our articles on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
We publish three types of articles: Long Reads, The Column, and Fiction. Long Reads contextualize scientific progress and explore the history of transformative technologies. Columns are shorter articles that aim to clearly lay out a problem and convince people why it matters. Fiction inspires readers to imagine plausible and positive futures.
Most of our work centers around biology and metascience — the systematic study of science itself. Our emphasis on biology is deliberate, for that is the field where progress seems the most rapid and where the potential to radically improve the world — from longevity to climate and animal welfare — is arguably the greatest.
A century ago, two young researchers extracted insulin from dogs and used the molecule to treat people with diabetes. In the 1950s, the U.S.D.A. bred screwworms, sterilized them with X-rays, and airdropped them over Texas to decimate invasive screwworm populations, which killed hundreds of thousands of cattle each year. The human insulin gene was cloned into bacteria in 1978. Dolly the Sheep was cloned in 1996.
For a long time, such stories were relatively rare. Now they seem to happen every month. Dozens of cell and gene therapies have been FDA-approved. Engineered microbes convert steel factory waste into ethanol. Some vaccines are designed on computers. And 95 percent of livestock in America are fed with genetically modified crops. Our food and medical systems are already reliant upon biotechnology. In a few decades, so too will just about everything else.
Asimov Press publishes work that makes sense of these swift developments and the concomitant risks that emerge alongside them. We publish narrative, data-driven pieces that make sense of scientific progress, deconvolute messy ideas, and contextualize new ones. Our goal is to publish articles and books that will be read and revisited long after they were written.
Asimov Press is an editorially-independent publishing team funded by Asimov. We are:
Builders: Asimov Press aims to build a vibrant, intellectual community of readers. Our goal is to create a thoughtful network of writers and readers, who, while interested in theory, are even more interested in how things work and what we can actually make happen.
Vigilant: While scientific progress can be used to do good in the world, it can also carry concomitant risks that we take seriously. Asimov Press has a moral imperative to guide readers and researchers to do the right things with these emerging capabilities.
Mechanistic: Science is not magic. Even the most inspiring outcomes in science have physical explanations. Our pieces are mechanistic, precise, and clear. They deeply explain how things work and why.
Fair: We are excited by the good that science can do for the world, but there are often better ways to accomplish the same goals. We are not here to evangelize. Our articles are charitable to, or steelman, alternative approaches.
Data-driven: Our articles do not rely on hype or hyperbole. They provide quantitative evidence, demonstrate probabilistic reasoning, and are assiduously fact-checked. When factual errors are found in an article, we update them with a correction.
Read all articles at press.asimov.com.
People
Xander Balwit (Editor-in-Chief) Xander arrived at biotechnology because of an unremitting interest in animal welfare. An experienced writer and editor, she wants to encourage more people to articulate and understand how science can provide solutions to our most pressing problems. Email: xander@asimov.com
Niko McCarty (Founding Editor) Niko is a former bioengineer and data journalist. He lives in Cambridge, MA with his wife and two cats, and holds degrees in synthetic biology and science journalism from Imperial College London, Caltech, and New York University.
Ella Watkins-Dulaney (Art Director) Ella is a scientist, storyteller, and artist. She has devoted her career to making science exciting and accessible to all. Learn more at her website.
Devon Balwit (Copy Editor) Devon edits for Anthropic and Asimov Press when not editorializing in her own cartoons, reviews, or poetry. Learn more at her website.
Mohamed Soufi (Researcher) Mohamed previously worked as a research technician in synthetic biology labs at Stanford and Caltech, with training in bioengineering and computer science. He is passionate about making scientific writing accessible and tracking progress in bioengineering, with specific interests in synthetic cells, cell-free systems, and ribosome engineering.
Samuel Clamons (Researcher) is a former bioengineer trained in synthetic biology, and currently a bioinformatics scientist at Illumina, Inc. When not producing scientific work or writing about science, he occasionally writes science fiction.
Kamal Nahas (Columnist) Kamal spent four years in a virology lab, studying how herpes viruses assemble inside cells. He is now a science journalist covering stories in biology, health, and technology. He lives in Oxford, UK and holds degrees in biology from Imperial College London, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge. Email: kamalnahas.writing@gmail.com
Merrick Pierson Smela (Contributing Editor) Merrick is a graduate student at Harvard University. He studies human reproductive development using stem cell-based models, and is broadly interested in how synthetic biology can improve people's lives.
Brady Huggett (Contributing Editor) Brady is the features editor at The Transmitter, a neuroscience publication supported by the Simons Foundation. Previously, he served as the business editor at Nature Biotechnology.
Email: editors@asimov.com
Advisors
Saloni Dattani, Researcher at Our World in Data & Co-Founder at Works in Progress
Tom Ellis, Professor of Synthetic Genome Engineering at Imperial College London
Tony Kulesa, Principal at Pillar VC & Co-Founder of Petri
