Katherine J. Wu
She holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from Harvard University. Before joining The Atlantic in 2021, she was a science and health reporter for The New York Times focused on COVID-19. She won a Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communication in 2022, a Science in Society journalism award in 2021, and the Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award for Young Science Journalists in 2020. At The Atlantic, she covers science.
Are Our Immune Systems Stuck in 2020?
You never forget your first time with SARS-CoV-2.
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Ford A Classic American Car Is Having an Identity Crisis
Ford’s electric Mustang, the Mach-E, is attracting an unusual bunch of drivers—including me.
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Corbis / Getty Tattoos Do Odd Things to the Immune System
When you stick ink-filled needles into your skin, your body’s defenders respond accordingly. Scientists aren’t sure if that’s good or bad for you.
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Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty A Major Clue to COVID’s Origins Is Just Out of Reach
A key set of data could shore up the case for a purely animal origin. So why aren’t scientists sharing it?
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Alphotographic / Getty The Strongest Evidence Yet That an Animal Started the Pandemic
A new analysis of genetic samples from China appears to link the pandemic’s origin to raccoon dogs.
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Sean Gallup / Getty The Next Stage of COVID Is Starting Now
What happens when everyone first gets immunity to the coronavirus as a very young kid?
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International Film Bureau / Internet Archive Pregnancy Shouldn’t Work Like This
Some mammals pause their pregnancies for nearly a year, like a DIY version of freezing your embryos.
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Didier Ruef / VISUM / Redux There’s Something Odd About the Dogs Living at Chernobyl
Pets left behind when people fled the disaster in 1986 seem to have seeded a unique population.
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Joanne Imperio / The Atlantic No One Really Knows How Much COVID Is Silently Spreading … Again
More immunity and relaxed behavior add up to a new COVID mystery: How common is symptomless spread now?
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FPG / Hulton Archive / Getty Colds Haven’t Changed. So Why Do They Suddenly Feel So Bad?
We all forgot how nasty colds are.
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Manuel Romaris / Getty Junk Food Is Bad for You. Is It Bad for Raccoons?
Some wild animals that seem “too heavy” are doing just fine.
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Debrocke / ClassicStock / Getty Wash Your Hands and Pray You Don’t Get Sick
Once a norovirus transmission chain begins, it can be difficult to break.
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Ernesto Benavides / AFP / Getty Eagles Are Falling, Bears Are Going Blind
Bird flu is already a tragedy.
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Tyler Comrie / The Atlantic The Future of Long COVID
This emergency is not about to end.
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Sergey Taran / Alamy A ‘Distinctly Human’ Trait That Might Actually Be Universal
Disgust is surprisingly common across nature.
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Getty; The Atlantic I Bought a CO2 Monitor, and It Broke Me
I thought I could fix the air quality in my apartment. I was wrong.
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Olivier Douliery / AFP / Getty We’re Bungling the COVID Wind-Down
A successful vaccine-outreach group confronts the pivot to “normalcy.”
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Tyler Comrie / The Atlantic; Getty Someday, You Might Be Able to Eat Your Way Out of a Cold
A nascent scientific field is working to untangle the complex relationship between metabolism and infection.
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Matt Chase / The Atlantic; Getty Scientists Tried to Break Cuddling. Instead, They Broke 30 Years of Research.
Oxytocin, often lauded as the “hug hormone,” might not be necessary to induce affection.
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Craig Ruttle / Redux The Flu-ification of COVID Policy Is Almost Complete
The government is pushing harder than ever to make “yearly COVID shots” a thing.
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Alex OGLE / AFP/Getty Wait, Is This Winter Going … Okay?
Experts say things have gone better than expected with COVID, the flu, and RSV. But the bar set by the past few years is awfully low.
