Health & science writer • PhD in 🧠 • Recent words in @nytimes @sciam @newscientist @guardian • Award-winning Covid-19 coverage for @elemental • she/her
Durham, NC
Joined May 2011
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When I started blogging about science as a graduate student over a decade ago, never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would end up at @nytimes. Thrilled to be joining the Well desk as a reporter covering brain health and longevity! nytco.com/press/well-announc…
Dana Smith retweeted
Does caloric restriction or intermittent fasting promote longevity in people? A good front page @nytimes review of the data
nytimes.com/2024/04/24/well/… by @SmithDanaG
Dana Smith retweeted
Do nasal sprays vs Covid work?
nytimes.com/2023/09/28/well/… by @SmithDanaG
we don't really know
Dana Smith retweeted
Covid and the heart, in today's @NYTScience
nytimes.com/2023/09/07/well/… by @SmithDanaG with many good points
Dana Smith retweeted
The front page of tomorrow's @dailytarheel –
I shed many tears while typing up these heart-wrenching text messages sent and received by UNC students yesterday. Our campus was on lockdown for more than three hours.
Beyond proud of this cover and the team behind it.
Dana Smith retweeted
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was under a shelter-in-place order on Monday afternoon after the school warned that an “armed, dangerous person” was on campus, saying that a suspect was still at large. nyti.ms/3YSlIZQ
Dana Smith retweeted
On 1 print page in today's @NYTScience, 2 good articles
—On the EG.5 variant
nytimes.com/2023/08/11/well/…
—On delaying boosters until the new XBB.1.5 is available (should be in ~3 weeks)
nytimes.com/article/covid-bo…
by @SmithDanaG w/ @trvrb @PaulSaxMD @boulware_dr @andrewpekosz
Dana Smith retweeted
Coverage of the EG.5 and FLip variants, @nytimes
nytimes.com/2023/08/11/well/…, excerpt below.
by @SmithDanaG w/@trvrb @andrewpekosz
“I’m generally very concerned about the overall rate of evolution for #SARSCoV2” —@trvrb
Growing up in hot, humid NC, I knew heat could be unpleasant, but I didn't understand how dangerous it actually was. Reporting this story about how heat kills (multi-system organ failure) was a real eye opener nytimes.com/interactive/2023…
If you prefer scary news in audio format, I'm also on The Daily today talking about the dangers of extreme heat nytimes.com/2023/08/10/podca…
I'm on @nytimes Headlines podcast today talking about my article on tick-borne diseases. It's the Trump indictment, Bidenomics, and me.
Or as the audio producer put it, "Death by tick-borne illness did somehow become a touch of levity in the program" nytimes.com/2023/08/02/podca…
Dana Smith retweeted
Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Alpha-gal syndrome and more.
As tick territories expand throughout the U.S., so too are the number of illnesses they cause. Here is what it's like to live with some of them. nyti.ms/3KdkWR8
I spoke to over a dozen patients, doctors and researchers about tick-borne diseases like Lyme and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Cases have increased dramatically over the past decade, but getting a diagnosis is still difficult. nytimes.com/2023/07/24/well/…
I had fun tracking my glucose for about 5 days until I realized that virtually nothing made me spike above 110 except for a bagel and a bizarre juice drink thing.
Are those mini spikes bad for health? Probably not. Find out more in my latest for @nytimes nytimes.com/2023/07/12/well/…
Dana Smith retweeted
This is a refreshingly accurate @nytimes article by @SmithDanaG describing the biology of dopamine, possibly the most widely popularized and misunderstood neurotransmitter nytimes.com/2023/06/30/well/…
Dana Smith retweeted
Great piece from @SmithDanaG on all the panic and bad science comms around dopamine these days. "You don’t have to deny yourself pleasure to be a good or healthy person." nytimes.com/2023/06/30/well/…
The moral panic about dopamine has bothered me for awhile (probably because I’m a pedantic former addiction researcher). So I wrote about it for @nytimes nytimes.com/2023/06/30/well/…
Spending less time on social media and more on books is probably a good idea - but that’s not because cell phones have rewired your brain’s dopamine system. That does happen with drugs like cocaine and amphetamine, but there’s zero evidence for it with everyday rewards.