As you can tell from my recent posts, I am a bit obsessed about cancer–or more specifically something you might call the natural history of cancer. Cancers in the animal kingdom can get very strange–even giving rise to what I would call new species. Earlier this month, I gave a public talk in San Francisco as part of the International Evolution and Cancer Conference. The video is now up. I hope you find these strange cancers as spookily fascinating as I do.

In case the slides are hard to see, I’ve uploaded them via Slide Share:

A number of the newest cancer drugs can give a few months of extra life to people in advanced stages of the disease. The drugs attack the cancer cells with pinpoint accuracy and wipe out the tumors. And then, months later, the tumors come right back. In my “Matter” column today, I take a look at the work of cancer biologists and evolutionary biologists to understand how this rebound happens, and how doctors might stop it. Check it out.

Originally published June 27, 2013. Copyright 2013 Carl Zimmer.

From time to time, I get letters from people thinking seriously about becoming science writers. Some have no idea how to start; some have started but want to know how to get better. I usually respond with a hasty email, so that I can get back to figuring out for myself how to be a science writer. I thought it would be better for everyone—the people contacting me and myself—to sit down and write out a thorough response. (I’m also going to publish a final version of this on my web site, here.)

First a caveat: I am probably the wrong person to ask for this advice. I stumbled into this line of work without any proper planning in the early 1990s, when journalism was a very different industry. The answer to “How do I become a science writer?” is not equivalent to “How did you become a science writer?”

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