We care about your data, and we'd like to use cookies to give you a smooth browsing experience. Please agree and read more about our privacy policy.
  • Physics

  • Mathematics

  • Biology

  • Computer Science

  • Topics

  • Archive

John Rennie

John Rennie

Deputy Editor

2021 in Review

The Year in Biology

By John Rennie
December 21, 2021
Read Later

The detailed understanding of brains and multicellular bodies reached new heights this year, while the genomes of the COVID-19 virus and various organisms yielded more surprises.

2020 in Review

The Year in Biology

By John Rennie
December 23, 2020
Read Later

While the study of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was the most urgent priority, biologists also learned more about how brains process information, how to define individuality and why sleep deprivation kills.

Illustration that depicts two types of simple molecules reacting in water on the early Earth.
origins of life

New Clues to Chemical Origins of Metabolism at Dawn of Life

By John Rennie
October 12, 2020
Read Later

The ingredients for reactions ancestral to metabolism could have formed very easily in the primordial soup, new work suggests.

Art for "Quanta’s Year in Biology (2019)"
2019 in Review

The Year in Biology

By John Rennie
December 23, 2019
Read Later

Researchers explored the zone between life and death, charted the mind’s system for arranging ideas and memories and learned how life’s complexity emerged.

Photo of lithium batteries
Abstractions blog

Nobel Awarded for Lithium-Ion Batteries and Portable Power

By Jordana Cepelewicz +1 authors
John Rennie
October 9, 2019
Read Later

John Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing lithium-ion batteries, “the hidden workhorses of the mobile era.”

Art for "Icefish Study Adds Another Color to the Story of Blood"
evolution

Icefish Study Adds Another Color to the Story of Blood

By John Rennie
April 22, 2019
Read Later

The rainbow of pigments that animals use for blood illustrates a central truth of evolution.

Abstractions blog

Gene Drives Work in Mice (if They’re Female)

By John Rennie +1 authors
Jordana Cepelewicz
January 23, 2019
Read Later

Biologists have demonstrated for the first time that a controversial genetic engineering technology works, with caveats, in mammals.

Biology - abstract illustration
2018 in Review

The Year in Biology

By John Rennie
December 21, 2018
Read Later

Biologists gained new insights into life’s genomically tumultuous past, viruses as crucial components of life, the hidden talents of complex cells and basic aspects of cognition and memory.

In Theory

How Complex Wholes Emerge From Simple Parts

By John Rennie
December 20, 2018
Read Later

Throughout nature, throngs of relatively simple elements can self-organize into behaviors that seem unexpectedly complex. Scientists are beginning to understand why and how these phenomena emerge without a central organizing entity.


Previous
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
Next

About the author

John Rennie joined Quanta Magazine as deputy editor in 2017. Previously, he spent 20 years at Scientific American, where he served as editor in chief between 1994 and 2009. He created and hosted Hacking the Planet, an original 2013 TV series for The Weather Channel, and has appeared frequently on television and radio on programs such as PBS’s Newshour, ABC’s World News Now, NPR’s Science Friday, the History Channel special Clash of the Cavemen and the Science Channel series Space’s Deepest Secrets. John has also been an adjunct professor of science writing at New York University since 2009. Most recently, he was editorial director of McGraw-Hill Education’s online science encyclopedia AccessScience.

Follow Quanta

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

Instagram

RSS

Newsletter

All Time

Most Read From John Rennie

This Data is Current Loading...

This Data is Current Loading...

This Data is Current Loading...

The Quanta Newsletter

Get highlights of the most important news delivered to your email inbox

Recent newsletters


  • About Quanta
  • Archive
  • Contact Us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Simons Foundation
All Rights Reserved © 2022