Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson

@markjohnpost.bsky.social

Pulitzer Prize-winning freelance reporter, formerly of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Author of novel "Though The Earth Gives Way." Co-author, "One in a Billion: The Story of Nic Volker." University of Toronto grad. Signal: majohnso.20

308 followers241 following69 posts

Mark Johnson reposted

cluftnyc.bsky.social
@cluftnyc.bsky.social

Replying to @markjohnpost.bsky.social

This is a beautiful and beautifully written article, exemplifying excellent science writing with a deeply empathetic voice. Thank you for writing it and sharing it.

Mark Johnson reposted

Harry Lime
@harrylime.bsky.social

Amazing story here.

Mark Johnson@markjohnpost.bsky.social

The 30-year quest to treat the ultrarare disease C3G: How science and its supporters banded together to save lives. I was blessed to work on this story for the last year. Thank you to The Atavist and editor Seyward Darby for bringing it into the world. magazine.atavist.com

magazine.atavist.comHomepage - The Atavist MagazineThe Atavist Magazine publishes one incredible true story every month. We specialize in longform narratives, the kind you want to read to the very last word.
Mark Johnson
@markjohnpost.bsky.social

The 30-year quest to treat the ultrarare disease C3G: How science and its supporters banded together to save lives. I was blessed to work on this story for the last year. Thank you to The Atavist and editor Seyward Darby for bringing it into the world. magazine.atavist.com

magazine.atavist.comHomepage - The Atavist MagazineThe Atavist Magazine publishes one incredible true story every month. We specialize in longform narratives, the kind you want to read to the very last word.
Mark Johnson
@markjohnpost.bsky.social

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.

Mark Johnson
@markjohnpost.bsky.social

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...

edsurge.comHow 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 ...

Mark Johnson reposted

Fenit Nirappil
@fenitn.bsky.social

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/...

washingtonpost.comThese 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.
Mark Johnson
@markjohnpost.bsky.social

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/...

washingtonpost.comAn 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.
Mark Johnson
@markjohnpost.bsky.social

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/...

washingtonpost.comAn 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.
Mark Johnson
@markjohnpost.bsky.social

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/...

washingtonpost.comScience shows very different psychiatric disorders might have the same causeA sweeping new study of psychiatric and genetic records has the potential to change treatment for millions of psychiatric patients.
Mark Johnson
@markjohnpost.bsky.social

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/...

washingtonpost.comRobot 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.
Mark Johnson
@markjohnpost.bsky.social

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...

washingtonpost.comRobots in your bloodstream could deliver drugs with greater precisionScientists 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.
Mark Johnson
@markjohnpost.bsky.social

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...

washingtonpost.comWhy this clinical trial is offering some young cancer patients hopeChildren’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.

Mark Johnson reposted

allen institute
@alleninstitute.org

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...

washingtonpost.comThe origins of hallucinations are traced in specialized brain cellsResearchers used lasers to record and stimulate the activity of neurons in mice to learn how the brain processes and interprets optical illusions.
Mark Johnson
@markjohnpost.bsky.social

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...

washingtonpost.comStudy finds mRNA coronavirus vaccines prolonged life of cancer patientsA 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.
Mark Johnson
@markjohnpost.bsky.social

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...

washingtonpost.comResearch on reversing Alzheimer’s reveals lithium as potential keyYears 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.

Mark Johnson reposted

Elizabeth Warren
@warren.senate.gov

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.

Mark Johnson
@markjohnpost.bsky.social

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/...

washingtonpost.comKilmar Abrego García’s lawyers describe ‘severe beatings’ in El Salvador prisonIn 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...

Mark Johnson reposted

Ferric Fang, MD
@fangferric.bsky.social

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

What next at HHS? My story on the phasing out of NIH support for HIV clinical practice guidelines. www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...

washingtonpost.comAdministration to phase out NIH support of HIV clinical guidelinesThe National Institutes of Health will phase out its support of the clinical practice guidelines that advise doctors how to diagnose and treat HIV.
Mark Johnson
@markjohnpost.bsky.social

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch called the court’s refusal to review the case a “grievous mistake — one with consequences that threaten to reverberate for generations.” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

washingtonpost.comSupreme Court declines to stop transfer of Native American site for miningThe justices left in place a lower-court decision that allows the transfer of land in central Arizona known as Oak Flat that is sacred to Western Apache Indians.
Mark Johnson
@markjohnpost.bsky.social

Scientists say a new AI device can tell your biological age from a photograph of your face. Not how old you are in years, but how old you are in health. Here's my story in The Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...

washingtonpost.comNew AI tool predicts your biological age from a selfieScientists at Mass General Brigham in Boston have developed an AI tool called FaceAge, an algorithm designed to tell patients’ biological age from a photograph.