Katie L. Burke
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klburke.bsky.social
Katie L. Burke
@klburke.bsky.social
Science journalist, writer, & editor. Senior contributing editor at American Scientist. Environmental Health Beat Leader at AHCJ. I love intellectual discussion & constructive criticism, but will mute rude people. 🧪 🌎 (Art by Julia Bollinger)
klburke.me
The Charité Museum of Medical History in Berlin is wild, and while most exhibits are not open to photography, this gallstone art in the foyer is grotesquely beautiful and fascinating.
#histSTM #history #medicine
October 24, 2025 at 8:59 AM
“The life cycle is getting shorter and shorter & shorter, and so the #ticks are more abundant,” Ogden says. When Canada had shorter growing seasons, ticks couldn’t maintain a life cycle there, bc they didn’t survive to become an eight-legged adult tick. 🌎🧪 /16
healthjournalism.org/blog/2025/07...
July 17, 2025 at 5:10 PM
My latest for @healthjournalism.org: #Lyme disease is changing in a warming world--and so should the news: A 🧵.

#scicomm #publichealth #climatechange #medicine #infectiousdisease #ticks
🧪🌎
July 17, 2025 at 4:33 PM
While headlines have focused on the ways that #academia protects its worst actors, which is true, it’s harder to talk about the way that its workplace structures impede scholarly communities.

Reflecting on community-building in #science:
buttondown.com/understory/a...

#academicsky #highered 🧪🌎
July 8, 2025 at 4:52 PM
My latest for @healthjournalism.org:
NYT's '50 States, 50 Fixes' exemplifies the climate journalism audiences need.
healthjournalism.org/blog/2025/06...
🧪 🌎 #scicomm #journalism #climate #environment #publichealth
June 30, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Screenshots of the crux:
June 30, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Glad to see that the 4yos in my kid's care share has figured out how to save us all. Just need to put some more posters on fence posts is all. And note that it's really true. My work here is done. 🧪🌎
June 26, 2025 at 12:42 AM
This week's newsletter: A Q&A w/ Dr. Joseph Graves Jr. about how HBCUs could end African American underrepresentation in the sciences. Plus, @kkoopman.bsky.social's inaugural #speculativefiction column covers #Juneteenth -themed recommendations. Check it out:
buttondown.com/understory/a... 🧪 🌎
June 17, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Adiós, #HJ25! Had a great time in LA. Here's a photo I took last night from the Griffith Observatory. You can see the Hollywood sign in the moonlight on the hillside on the right. Lovely evening.
June 1, 2025 at 8:09 PM
My latest for @healthjournalism.org: "Some of the most vulnerable people are not taking in information about how science is relevant to them." 🧪
healthjournalism.org/blog/2025/04...
April 21, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Excited to be at Science Talk watching the keynote on community science by @moefeliu.bsky.social.
#scicomm
April 3, 2025 at 1:38 PM
I love this quote from Dan Savage's most recent column. Keep dancing, y'all.
January 24, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Environmental justice researcher Kim Fortun at UC Irvine recommends that #journalists continue to consider other cascading effects of the #LAfires, such as:
healthjournalism.org/blog/2025/01...
🧪🌎
January 20, 2025 at 5:11 PM
My #MLKday2025 reading today. I saw the author speak in November, and his life of service to science, truth, and equity is an inspiration. This is his autobiography about being the first Black man to receive a PhD in evolutionary biology.
January 20, 2025 at 1:51 PM
On the flip side, the snow monsters my kid made cover most of my emoji needs.
January 14, 2025 at 8:13 PM
An Indigenous history lesson and #Thanksgiving reading, especially for North Carolinians like me, from the beginning of the 2024 book On the Swamp, by Ryan Emanuel, a member of the Lumbee Tribe.
November 28, 2024 at 7:50 PM
I was on here before it was cool: Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #962,638!
#hipstercool
September 17, 2024 at 2:56 PM
I'm delighted to share that my interview last year with engineer Linsey Marr, discussing how she worked to change WHO and CDC policies on COVID-19 transmission, has won an Apex Award for covering Public Concerns and Trending Topics! Read the piece here: www.americanscientist.org/article/chan...
🧪
July 16, 2024 at 5:05 PM
So many plant/fungi ID errors on this shirt from Target! Can you catch them? I love the style and soft fabric, but I can't abide carelessness about #NatHist! Pass. 🧪🌎
June 11, 2024 at 4:52 PM
I first reached out to Elizabeth Rasekoala after reading her 2019 article on feminism in #scicomm, linked below. When she wrote to tell me about her new book, I decided to interview her about the creative leaps she has made in #scicomm in the Global South. 🧪
www.americanscientist.org/article/glob...
April 30, 2024 at 4:15 PM
For more than a century, doctors thought urine was sterile. Now, microbiology breakthroughs are revolutionizing diagnosis and treatment of urinary tract infections. Read "Discovering the Urinary Microbiome":
www.americanscientist.org/article/disc... 🧪
April 23, 2024 at 6:20 PM