Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Scientific American Editor Resigns After Allegations of Sexual Harassment

Following on the heels of “Urban Whore” scandal — in which an editor at Biology Online used that epithet to refer to blogger and frequent contributor to Scientific American Dr. Danielle N. Lee for refusing to take unpaid work — the American science magazine of record is facing down another scandal, this one in its own ranks.

On Friday October 18, Scientific American announced that Dr. Bora Zivkovic, Scientific American’s blog editor, had resigned his post following a post on the personal blog of Monica Byrne.

Byrne, a writer and playwright, posted the story a year ago, in which she alleged that a “prominent science editor and blogger” had sexually harassed her. At the time she did not name names, but she asked others to come forward if they had similar experiences.

Following the incident with Dr. Lee, in which Scientific American posted, took down, then re-posted Lee’s story about the offensive email, Byrne updated her story to name Zivkovic. Zivkovic, as science and health editor Laura Helmuth noted over at Slate, is extremely influential in the science blogging world, co-founded Scientific American as well as the ScienceOnline conferences — one of the most popular science blogging meet-ups. He also interacts regularly with his large social media audience, and has been known to jump start science writing careers.

Zivkovic confirmed Byrne’s assertions via a blog post, and offered his “sincere apologies to Ms. Byrne for the distress she suffered as a result of my inappropriate remarks and emails to her,” but asserted that “It is not behavior I have engaged in before or since.”

This was apparently, not true. Hannah Waters, another science writer, also came forward in a comment on Byrne’s original blog, and then posting her own story

Zivkovic subsequently resigned from Scientific American and, via twitter, offered another apology.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.