Kenneth Chang

I am a science reporter at The New York Times, writing about NASA and the solar system.

What I Cover

I write mostly about space, including NASA’s efforts to send astronauts back to the moon, the search for a ninth planet (not Pluto!) and the possibility of life somewhere else. I also cover research closer to Earth, including fusion technology, superconductivity, mathematics and the physical sciences. The universe is full of interesting questions, and I’m fascinated with how science tackles bits and pieces of these puzzles: What came before the Big Bang? Can physics be written down in one equation? Where are the aliens? How did life begin?

My Background

I studied physics in college — I have an undergraduate degree from Princeton and a master’s from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign — before switching to writing about science. I joined The Times in 2000.

Of the thousands of science stories I’ve written, only a few have touched directly on my niche physics expertise — the control of chaos. But my science background guides me to ask follow-up questions like “What is the uncertainty in these findings?” and to understand what scientists say in reply. It has also nudged my curiosity to ask seemingly simple questions: “Why is glass solid?” Or “Why is ice slippery?” Sometimes the answers are complex and still not fully understood.

I took part in the earliest days of the World Wide Web. In 1993, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois released Mosaic, the first web browser that included pictures, and I, working as a research programmer at NCSA, wrote early versions of “A Beginner’s Guide to HTML” and designed some of the first web pages in the world.

Journalistic Ethics

Like all Times journalists, I uphold the standards of integrity outlined in our Ethical Journalism Handbook. My job is not to convince you that NASA is intrinsically good or bad, that it deserves more or less federal funding. My job is to tell you what NASA is doing with the money it has, so you can decide whether it is making good or wasteful use of your tax dollars. It is also my job to tell you when scientists make a discovery they are excited about, and to explain their excitement as well as any doubts about their breakthrough. My hope is that I can provide you with an accurate and fair portrayal of what I was able to learn.

• Email: kchang@nytimes.com

• X: @kchangnyt

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