Alexandra Witze

Contributing Correspondent

Alexandra Witze is a contributing correspondent based in Boulder, Colorado. Among other exotic locales, her reporting has taken her to Maya ruins in the jungles of Guatemala, among rotting corpses at the University of Tennessee's legendary "Body Farm," and to a floating sea-ice camp at the North Pole. She has a bachelor's degree in geology from MIT and a graduate certification in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Among her honors are the Science-in-Society award from the National Association of Science Writers (shared with Tom Siegfried), and the American Geophysical Union's award for feature journalism. She coauthored the book Island on Fire, about the 18th-century eruption of the Icelandic volcano Laki.

All Stories by Alexandra Witze

  1. Earth

    External ills imperil tropical reserves

    Impacts just outside park boundaries cause ecosystems within to decline.

  2. Earth

    Earth scientists think it’s time to sync their geological clocks

  3. Cosmology

    Inflation on Trial

    Generally regarded as one of the most successful theories about the early universe, inflationary cosmology is not exactly under attack. But a few scientists are questioning whether it deserves its reputation as completely untouchable.

  4. Physics

    Higgs found

    The Higgs boson, the last particle in physics’ standard model, falls into place, opening new windows to explore in the universe.

  5. Particle Physics

    Physicists bet they’re homing in on Higgs

    In its last report, an Illinois lab presents data suggesting the Higgs particle could exist.

  6. Earth

    Icelandic volcanoes slumber today, but not forever

    Eruptions pepper the North Atlantic island.

  7. Earth

    Geologists play with puzzles about past and future supercontinents

  8. Earth

    Linking magma to quakes

    Rock crystals reveal pulses of underground activity.

  9. Earth

    13th century volcano mystery may be solved

    Indonesian volcano may be the culprit in the biggest eruption of the last seven millennia.

  10. Earth

    Ancient volcanoes destroyed ozone

    Prehistoric eruptions gave off huge amounts of a gas that erodes the UV-blocking atmospheric layer.

  11. Chemistry

    Flerovium and livermorium debut on periodic table

    New element names honor the contributions of Russian and American laboratories.

  12. Science at 15,000 feet

    It’s only natural that for her Ph.D. research, Ulyana Horodyskyj found herself rappelling down a Himalayan cliff. After all, she got bitten by the mountaineering bug at age 6, when she witnessed her first avalanche in the Swiss Alps. The Ngozumpa glacier in Nepal is covered in dirt and debris churned up as the glacier […]