Rowan Jacobsen

2 weeks ago | ourcommunitynow.com | Rowan Jacobsen

Share E very morning Kathy Reagan Young steps out of the shower in her Virginia Beach home, towels off, dons a pair of protective goggles and stands nine inches from a light box the size of a small space heater. Young presses a button, and the box’s bulbs begin to glow a ghostly purple. She briefly bathes her torso in the ultraviolet rays coming from the bulbs, four minutes per side. Then she goes about her day. That Young can have an ordinary day is remarkable.

2 weeks ago | scientificamerican.com | Rowan Jacobsen

Every morning Kathy Reagan Young steps out of the shower in her Virginia Beach home, towels off, dons a pair of protective goggles and stands nine inches from a light box the size of a small space heater. Young presses a button, and the box’s bulbs begin to glow a ghostly purple. She briefly bathes her torso in the ultraviolet rays coming from the bulbs, four minutes per side. Then she goes about her day. That Young can have an ordinary day is remarkable.

2 months ago | bostonmagazine.com | Rowan Jacobsen

Q&A In 2020, the Broad Institute scientist ignited a controversy by suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 originated in a Chinese lab. Five years later, it sure looks like she was right. Five years ago this month, the SARS-CoV-2 virus shut down the world and changed it forever.

Feb 25, 2025 | foreignaffairs.com | Rowan Jacobsen |Richard Feinberg

As with wine and coffee, chocolate—once a homogeneous commodity—has become a highly differentiated delicacy. The chocolate cognoscenti now taste delicate aromas and obscure flavors and compete to identify the terroir, or natural environment, where a particular batch of cocoa beans originated. Jacobsen, a science journalist and travel writer, profiles modern-day Indiana Joneses who trek deep into the rainforests of Mesoamerica and the Upper Amazon in search of shade-grown wild cacao trees.

Nov 19, 2024 | newengland.com | Rowan Jacobsen

The town of Paimpol lies 3,000 miles east of Maine along France’s northern coast, which makes it an unlikely place to glimpse the future of Maine seafood, but one look at the craggy waterfront, stone houses, and fishing boats rocking in the cold Atlantic and we get it. I’m tagging along with a delegation of eight Mainers who would like to make the scallop Maine’s Next Big Thing, so we’ve come to the region that wrote the playbook.