How would you describe your beat?

What kinds of stories do you do?

I would say I'm on the science and technology beat.

I love stories about scientists who must confront the limits of their own science or apply

their science to themselves.

Before Dan Angberg became a senior editor at The Atlantic, he himself was trying to become

a neuroscientist.

They spent the most time studying motor control, the development of motor control in young

children.

His research was focused on kids' brains.

How exactly do kids make their bodies move?

And a really big and important concept is that of signal and noise.

When you decide to move your arm, your brain will send out a command in the form of electrical

signals, like literally traveling down the arm to the muscle.

For little kids who are just learning to move, there's a lot of noise that gets in the

way.

So it's not like, hey, move your arm.

It's like, hey, we're all on your arm.

Exactly.

You eventually left that field.

But then about a year ago, he got introduced to a scientist whose life had just been turned

upside down and whose world now revolved around finding the signal in the noise.

...