People in showbiz talk about “triple-threat” performers who can act, dance and sing. Zack Savitsky is one of the rare triple-threat journalists who can ferret out news stories, report them deeply and write with flair and panache. Case in point: his 2023 award-winning story in Science about damage to meteorites wrought by hand magnets.

First, Zack had to get the scoop. As an exceptionally capable intern at Science, Zack was sent to help cover the 2022 AGU annual meeting, where he found and wrote up a different story about evidence for a long-lived magnetic dynamo within Mars. One of the sources he interviewed for that story clued him into a future study, which would document how powerful hand magnets — used not only to hang your kid’s refrigerator art but also to identify meteorites — can overwrite faint but scientifically important magnetic imprints. Sensing an exclusive story with wide appeal, Zack bided his time and stayed in touch, waiting until the paper was nearing acceptance in an AGU journal.

He then began reporting it vigorously. Note how he doesn’t shy away from the conflict: how TV shows and universities and even federal agencies were unwittingly abetting this damage by promoting the hand magnet technique. Note the details you learn about two famous meteorites, Black Beauty and Allende, without even realizing it. Note the diverse sourcing that includes not only a scientist in Morocco but also a Moroccan meteorite dealer. Editors can often infer a reporter’s interviewing talent by the strength of the quotes. The quotes in Zack’s story — all interpretive and colorful zingers — indicate a reporter whose questions press and probe and circle back later in the conversation for yet another push.

And finally, there’s the writing. Zack’s stories are not only structurally sound, with information meted out logically, but architecturally attractive, sprinkled with decorative felicities. I love the pop reference of a meteorite’s magnetic memory being “wiped — Men in Black style.” I also like the pacing and how long, complex sentences are sometimes followed by short declarative ones. Most everything you read from reputed media outlets has been through edits that can be harsh and bludgeoning. But most of Zack’s sentences survived unscathed. After I finished my edits to the piece, Science’s news editor handed back his unusually light topedit to me with an aside: “Zack is so good. Hope we can lure him back.”

Zack: You are so good, and so was this story. Keep it up.

—Eric Hand
Science
Washington, D.C.