Sam Zlotnik - About

A white trans man with short brown hair, brown eyes, large round glasses, and a blue shirt, standing in front of a white sheet with a butterfly pattern on it.

About Me:

My name is Sam (he/they) and I'm a science writer based in Gainesville, Florida. As a current editorial fellow at Sierra, I cover stories about environmental science, conservation, and animal behavior. Last summer, I wrote for Smithsonian as a AAAS Mass Media Fellow.

I studied biology and psychology as an undergraduate student at the University of California Berkeley and then went on to get an M.S. in biology from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Florida. During graduate school, I studied the behavior and development of toads and leaf-footed bugs.

You can check out a selection of my work below or browse my larger writing portfolio. And feel free to contact me with any questions.

A bumble bee on a flower.

The Mysterious Death of the Bumblebee Queens

A landscape view of a swamp with blue water and trees in the background.

Environmentalists Push to Protect the Okefenokee Swamp From Titanium Mining

Sea stars in jars within a tank of water.

Sea Stars Threatened by Intensifying Marine Heatwaves

Two lions lounging by a tree.

These Five Innovative Rovers Will Soon Explore the Moon

Two lions lounging by a tree.

How Animals Survive in a Savanna Full of Predators

Two baby sloths tucked in a blanket in a box.

Baby Sloths Are About as Cute As You Would Expect

Two donkeys in a grassy field.

Cougars Are Killing Feral Donkeys, and That's Good for Wetlands

A person holding a baby bird with an open mouth and a cotton swab with yellowish oil on it.

The Done-Up Bird Gets the Worm

A pit in the surface of the Moon.

Lunar Pits Maintain Surprisingly Comfy Temperatures

Ocean with blue sky.

First images of mysterious 'milky seas' captured

A cup of tea with herbs around it.

The DNA of hundreds of insect species is in your tea

A Manx shearwater sitting on the ground at night.

This seabird species dives deeper when the water is clearer

A mosquito feeding through cloth.

Dengue fever and Zika virus make humans more attractive to mosquitoes

A black-and-white cat rolling on the ground and chewing on a silver vine plant.

When cats chew catnip, it works as a bug spray

A leatherback sea turtle hatchling sitting on the beach, facing the ocean.

Leatherback sea turtles struggle to find the ocean on moonless nights

A honeybee flying up to a sunflower.

Honeybees experience withdrawal symptoms when deprived of alcohol

A child eating food at a table with other people nearby.

Access to free school lunch creates health benefits for a lifetime

A chain-link fence with a sign that says

Living near a Superfund site shortens life expectancy for low-income residents

A domestic cat sitting in a cardboard box in a sunny room.

Domestic cats fall for the same visual illusions as we do

An agricultural field with two trucks carrying produce.

Florida Farmworkers Have Lacked Access to Basic Health Care Resources Throughout the Pandemic

A little brown bat with the white nose symptom that is characteristic of the fungal disease called white nose syndrome.

An ecological trap exposes many bats to a deadly fungus

A fossil megalodon jaw.

Even megalodon babies needed nurseries to survive

A bird nest with a large baby bird in it next to a much smaller baby bird.

Brood parasites are quite picky about who they offload their kids on, depending on the climate

A coiled-up timber rattlesnake.

How photography can overturn traditional killing of rattlesnakes

A European viper.

A viper's zig-zag colors help blur their predators' vision

Yellow flowers on the stem of a plant.

Bumble bees cut holes in plants’ leaves to trigger flowering

An adult female common glow-worm with a glowing abdomen.

Glowing worms have less sex when the lights are on