Liza Gross (Twitter: @lizabio) is a freelance journalist, a senior editor at the open-access biomedical journal PLoS Biology, and a contributor to Environmental Health News. She studied political science and political theory at Penn State, where she explored structural impediments to social and economic justice, and took a crash course in biology as editor of an environmental health column at Sierra magazine and then staff writer at the Exploratorium. She edits the front section of PLoS Biology and contributed a chapter (called “Science as a Public Resource: Rules of Engagement”) to the 2012 Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook, “The Sciences' Media Connection - Public Communication and Its Repercussions,” that explored how unfettered access to research enhances the communication and practice of science. A recent course at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting led to an in-depth investigation for Environmental Health News that revealed a $23 million chemical industry lobbying campaign in California that helped kill five bills to regulate flame retardants. Gross writes about a broad range of topics, from wildlife conservation, ecology and evolution to environmental health, film, and the science of wine. Her stories have appeared in diverse outlets, including San Francisco Chronicle, AlterNet, High Country News, East Bay Express, Scientific American, National Geographic's News Watch, Sierra, Tikkun, PLoS Biology, Wines & Vines, and Wine Spectator.