Mark Johnson
@markjohnpost.bsky.social
Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post science reporter. Author of the novel "Though The Earth Gives Way." Co-author, "One in a Billion: The Story of Nic Volker and the Dawn of Genomic Medicine." University of Toronto grad. Signal: majohnso.20
In February, I was one of 350 journalists The Washington Post laid off. Today the divorce is final. People say it's not personal. It just feels that way. I'm grateful for my time at The Post. I learned from the best. Still hunting for cool stories at: markjohnson6926@gmail.com.
OUT OF THE LAB AND INTO THE STREET. I have a freelance story in The Guardian US today profiling the woman at the helm of the Stand Up For Science organization, Colette Delawalla. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
She set out to become a clinical psychologist. Now she’s leading a US movement to save science
Colette Delawalla launched Stand Up for Science to push back against Trump’s cuts to medical and scientific research
theguardian.com
A day or two after The Washington Post laid me off, I was contacted out of the blue with an offer to go on Peter Friedman's excellent Get the Tip podcast. Turned out to be a lot of fun. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXQY...
After the Washington Post Layoffs: A Pulitzer Prize Journalist Speaks Out
YouTube video by I'll Get The Tip
youtube.com
Read this excellent article in EdSurge on the new book, "Miracle Children." It tells the story of how a small Louisiana school misled families and thwarted students’ college dreams. www.edsurge.com/news/2026-02...
How a Small Louisiana School Misled Families and Thwarted Students’ College Dreams - EdSurge News
“Miracle Children” explores how tiny T.M. Landry College Prep sold big dreams of getting to the Ivy League to dozens of kids, only to be exposed as a ...
edsurge.com
Our second most read story right now comes from @markjohnpost.bsky.social, a Pulitzer-winning science reporter on our team, who announced he was laid off. Just the latest example of how he found the most fascinating areas of science to unpack beautifully www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...
These patients saw what comes after death. Should we believe them?
Researchers have developed a model to explain the science of near-death experiences. Others have challenged it.
washingtonpost.com
Doctors in Chicago saved a man with a rare infection that had liquefied his lungs, hooking him up to what they have called a total artificial lung. My story in on The Washington Post web site: www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...
An infection liquefied a man’s lungs. This invention kept him alive.
Doctors at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago saved the life of young man using a total artificial lung that sustained him until he could receive a transplant.
washingtonpost.com
Doctors in Chicago saved a man with a rare infection that had liquefied his lungs, hooking him up to what they have called a total artificial lung. My story is on The Washington Post web site: www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...
An infection liquefied a man’s lungs. This invention kept him alive.
Doctors at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago saved the life of young man using a total artificial lung that sustained him until he could receive a transplant.
washingtonpost.com
Story in today's Washington Post describes fascinating new study of same-sex relations among primates that suggests the behavior offers evolutionary benefits. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...
The evolutionary upside of same-sex sex among primates
New science suggests why monkeys and other primates engage in same-sex relations
washingtonpost.com
If you've been diagnosed with four psychiatric disorders and take four different pills, maybe you don't need to. What if they come down to the same problem? My story in today's Washington Post examines this question. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...
Science shows very different psychiatric disorders might have the same cause
A sweeping new study of psychiatric and genetic records has the potential to change treatment for millions of psychiatric patients.
washingtonpost.com
The stimulants Ritalin and Adderall have been prescribed to treat ADHD for decades, but it turns out they don't work the way scientists previously thought. My story is in today's Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...
ADHD drugs work, but not the way experts thought
New brain research could reshape our understanding of ADHD and the most common drugs that treat it.
washingtonpost.com
Scientists build world's tiniest robot, smaller than a grain of salt, bringing medicine closer to Fantastic Voyage into the human body. My story is in today's Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
Robot smaller than grain of salt can ‘sense, think and act’
The device advances medicine toward a future that might see tiny robots sent into the body to rewire damaged nerves, deliver medicines and analyze a patient’s cells without surgery.
washingtonpost.com
Beating back the effects of aging by "supercharging cells". Here's my story on the Washington Post home page: www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
The quest to slow aging leads scientists into the powerhouse of cells
Scientists have developed a new method to boost the energy of aging or damaged cells, an innovation that could improve treatment of a variety of conditions.
washingtonpost.com
And here's the 2nd story in the series! It's on the stunning & unexpected connection between the 📉 in vultures and the 📈 in rabies in India -by @markjohnpost.bsky.social & Saumya Khandelwal www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...
Humans killed millions of vultures. Now people are paying the price.
The near-extinction of vultures in India has had severe consequences.
washingtonpost.com
The lightning decline of vultures in India, led to a surge in dogs, dog bites and rabies deaths. I was able to report the story in India, thanks to The Washington Post, the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting and my reporting partner Dino Grandoni. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...
Humans killed millions of vultures. Now people are paying the price.
The near-extinction of vultures in India has had severe consequences.
washingtonpost.com
Swiss researchers have developed a microrobot guided by magnets that can deliver medications to precise locations, a possible solution to a major cause of drug side effects. Here's my story in The Post: www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
Robots in your bloodstream could deliver drugs with greater precision
Scientists in Switzerland are pioneering a way to precisely target drugs in the body using tiny devices controlled by magnets, a technique that could one day reduce unintended side effects.
washingtonpost.com
A new clinical trial at Children's National Hospital in D.C. is taking aim at children's solid tumors an area with little progress to show for the last 30 years. My article in The Washington Post ran today: www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
Why this clinical trial is offering some young cancer patients hope
Children’s National Hospital is poised to recruit patients for a new clinical trial that will take on an old, implacable foe: children’s solid tumors. Little progress has been made in 30 years.
washingtonpost.com
GIFT! Study Finds mRNA Covid Vaccines Prolonged Life of Cancer Patients By @markjohnpost.bsky.social "Covid-19 vaccines, credited with saving millions of lives during the pandemic, set off a powerful alarm that rallies the human immune system against cancer and nearly doubles the median survival."
Study finds mRNA coronavirus vaccines prolonged life of cancer patients
A study found that covid-19 vaccines appeared to awaken the immune system in lung and skin cancer patients, helping them live longer than those not vaccinated.
wapo.st
The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 10mo agoCovid-19 vaccines, credited with saving millions of lives during the pandemic, set off a powerful alarm that rallies the human immune system against cancer and nearly doubles the median survival length of patients, according to a new retrospective study.
Why do optical illusions work? The culprit may be a group of neurons in the visual cortex that help us fill in missing information. @markjohnpost.bsky.social for @washingtonpost.com dives into the science and how it could help demystify visual hallucinations: www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
The origins of hallucinations are traced in specialized brain cells
Researchers used lasers to record and stimulate the activity of neurons in mice to learn how the brain processes and interprets optical illusions.
washingtonpost.com
Two months after HHS eliminates almost $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccine development, a new study finds evidence that the covid-19 vaccine almost doubled median survival length in some cancer patients. www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
Study finds mRNA coronavirus vaccines prolonged life of cancer patients
A study found that covid-19 vaccines appeared to awaken the immune system in lung and skin cancer patients, helping them live longer than those not vaccinated.
washingtonpost.com
Would Xi or Putin plonk down a $1 billion bet on someone living to the age of 150? Here's my story in today's Post: www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
The $1 billion wager riding on whether a human will live to 150
The leaders of China and Russia discussed medical advances and whether a human might reach the age of 150. Two experts in the longevity field have a “$1 billion” wager riding on the question.
washingtonpost.com
New weapon in the fight against tooth decay may come from sheep's wool or human hair. I have a story in The Washington Post on research from King's College London. www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
The potential key to upgrading toothpaste? Sheep’s wool and human hair.
Scientists find keratin from hair can form a protective coating on teeth, potentially preventing tooth decay and promoting better dental care
washingtonpost.com
Great reporting by my colleagues at The Washington Post on the administration's "war on data." www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Trump’s answer to numbers he doesn’t like: Change them or throw them away
From D.C. crime rates to census collection to labor statistics, the administration has suppressed inconvenient data and conjured inaccurate statistics to bolster policy objectives.
washingtonpost.com
I'm in awe of my colleagues' excellent work on the shooting at CDC headquarters in Atlanta. Read this terrific story by Lauren Webber and Lena Sun. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
After CDC shooting, its employees turn their anger to RFK Jr. and Trump
Documents from the shooter’s home showed his discontent with coronavirus vaccines, authorities said. CDC workers want RFK Jr. to denounce vaccine misinformation.
washingtonpost.com
Harvard Medical School researchers have discovered that the depletion of lithium in the brain leads to much of the deterioration in Alzheimer's disease. In a mouse model, they were actually able to reverse the damage. Here's my story in The Post: www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
Research on reversing Alzheimer’s reveals lithium as potential key
Years of investigation by scientists at Harvard has revealed that lithium is deeply involved in Alzheimer’s disease, a finding that could lead to new treatments.
washingtonpost.com
Is NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya "not a politician" as he says? Here's my story in The Post. Let me know what you think: www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
NIH director says cuts aim to reduce ‘ideological research,’ focus on health
Science and American politics have become intertwined as perhaps never before.
washingtonpost.com
Protecting his stock portfolio while ripping away health care from 17 million Americans. This is Washington at its worst. We need to ban Congressional stock trading.
What happened to Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvadoran prison: "guards, who had determined that he wasn’t a hardened gang member, threatened to put him in with real gang members who would 'tear' him apart." Read story by Steve Thompson, of The Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
Kilmar Abrego García’s lawyers describe ‘severe beatings’ in El Salvador prison
In a rare account of conditions inside the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), Abrego’s attorneys say he and others deported there from the United States were beaten and forced to kneel fo...
washingtonpost.com
This is a terrible decision that threatens what has long been an indispensable resource for patients and their providers. The federal HIV guidelines have been a model for a living document that is constantly updated through a rigorous and collaborative process.
Mark Johnson@markjohnpost.bsky.social · last yr.What next at HHS? My story on the phasing out of NIH support for HIV clinical practice guidelines. www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
What next at HHS? My story on the phasing out of NIH support for HIV clinical practice guidelines. www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
Administration to phase out NIH support of HIV clinical guidelines
The National Institutes of Health will phase out its support of the clinical practice guidelines that advise doctors how to diagnose and treat HIV.
washingtonpost.com
One of the greatest composers of the modern era. R.I.P. www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...
Brian Wilson, singer-songwriter who created the Beach Boys, dies at 82
His early hits — “Surfer Girl,” “I Get Around,” “All Summer Long,” “Help Me, Rhonda” and “California Girls” — evoked a fantasy world of fast cars, beautiful youth, eternal surf and sunshine on an imm...
washingtonpost.com