One of the pleasures I enjoy as an editor at The Atlantic is bringing the work of scientists and scholars to our pages. From the Object Lessons series on the ordinary lives of everyday things, to the Metropolis Now project on technology and urbanism, to our regular coverage of science, technology, and health, I have had the privilege of editing hundreds of academics, writing on topics as varied as Google's push into smart cities, the ethics of throwing away your kids' art, how the microscope changed scientific knowledge, and why Americans love the suburbs.
I'm hardly alone in this effort. Today you can read scholars in their own words all across The Atlantic (including in the new Ideas section, helmed by Yoni Appelbaum, a historian who made the jump from academia to journalism). Those newcomers join an august cohort of Atlantic writers of the past who were also scholars, from W. E. B. Du Bois to Vannevar Bush, and a venerable group of contemporaries who are also academics, from Jonathan Haidt to Anne-Marie Slaughter.
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