Laura Baisas

Staff writer

Highlights

  • Former Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Ocean Science Journalism Fellow
  • Has reported on the offshore wind farms coming to the northeastern United States, climate epidemiology, space weather, and more.
  • Laura has completed numerous open-water marathon swims, including from the Tappan Zee Bridge to the George Washington Bridge (16 miles), from Battery Park, NY to Sandy Hook, NJ (17 miles), and around Manhattan Island (28.5 miles).

Favorite weird science fact

The Hawaiian blue rice coral produces a protein that not only gives it a beautiful deep blue color, but acts as a sunscreen. It’s thought that the natural sunscreen filters out harmful UV radiation that may be detrimental to coral reproduction.

About

Laura is a science news writer, covering a wide variety of subjects, but she is particularly fascinated by all things aquatic, paleontology, nanotechnology, and exploring how science influences daily life. Laura is a proud former resident of the New Jersey shore, a competitive swimmer, and a fierce defender of the Oxford comma.

Experience

Laura joined Popular Science as a staff science news writer in 2022. She spent a decade at NBC News, first as a videotape engineer and eventually a producer/writer. Her freelance work has appeared in Inside Climate News and Hell Gate.

Education

Laura has a Master’s degree in science journalism from Columbia Journalism School. She received her BA at Marquette University, focusing on broadcast journalism and theology.

More from Laura Baisas

a flat map of the planet jupiter, showing reddish-orange lines and the planet's great red spot
Deep Space

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot keeps shrinking

By Laura Baisas

a bee kicks away an ant
Animals

Ant gets bee-slapped, and other strange bug moments

By Laura Baisas

a baby crocodile hatches from an egg, surrounded by other eggs.
Animals

106 critically endangered Siamese crocodile eggs spotted in Cambodia

By Laura Baisas

plaster cast of human remains in Pompeii
Archaeology

Two Pompeii skeletons reveal a new story of death at mega disaster

By Laura Baisas

a 3D rendering of three early humans butchering a giant armadillo
Animals

Early humans butchered enormous armadillos

By Laura Baisas

a long, dark brown millipede crawling on brown and green leaves
Animals

Expedition finds a 10-inch long millipede lost to science for 126 years

By Laura Baisas

several snakes entwined together on a rock
Animals

Ssssso many snakes: Watch a ‘mega-den’ of rattlesnakes in real time

By Laura Baisas

beluga whales
Animals

Beluga Whale Live Cam brings the ‘canaries of the sea’ to your screen

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of newly discovered crocodile relative named Benggwigwishingasuchus eremicarminis on the coast of an ancient ocean called Panthalassa.
Animals

Say hello to the surprising crocodile relative Benggwigwishingasuchus eremicarminis

By Laura Baisas

a thick mammoth foot preserved in permafrost. it is round and dark brown
Animals

Woolly mammoth ‘jerky’ preserves 52,000-year-old fossil chromosomes

By Laura Baisas

a male lion sits in a tree
Animals

Lion brothers take risky swim across crocodile-infested channel

By Laura Baisas

several stone circles marking gravesites in a field in norway
Archaeology

Stone circles unearthed in Norway mark ancient children’s graves

By Laura Baisas

Located in the foothills of a rock emerging from a green field
Agriculture

Iron Age plant remains tell new agricultural story in east Africa

By Laura Baisas

circles of red, blue, and green bacteria
Biology

‘Bacterial glitter’ shimmers without pigments

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a large shark jumping out of the water and eating a winged dinosaur
Animals

When the ocean got hot, the sharks bulked up

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a blue exoplanet with white swirls near a sun-like star
Deep Space

A nearby exoplanet reeks of rotten eggs

By Laura Baisas

a nearly complete skeleton of a salamander-like creature that lived 300 million years ago. it's head is round and shaped like a toilet seat
Animals

This giant tetrapod sucked in prey with its ‘toilet seat-shaped’ head

By Laura Baisas

a striped cat scratching a grey armchair
Animals

Why some cats scratch more than others

By Laura Baisas

a small grey and black reef fish swims
Animals

Fish in Earth’s hottest water defy the odds

By Laura Baisas

two ants face each other in a lab. one has purple dye where a wound was treated.
Animals

Watch a carpenter ant chew off another’s wounded leg to try to save its life

By Laura Baisas