Miriam Quick

Data journalist

United Kingdom

Portfolio
Bbc
08/22/2018
Can data reveal the saddest number one song ever?

When I was 15 I discovered the Smiths, a band whose name had by then long been synonymous with misery. But it was Morrissey's unique style of being miserable - coquettish and laced with Northern English humour, flipping between self-pity and irony - that appealed to my teenage self.

Scientific American
The Terrible Toll of 76 Autoimmune Diseases

The idea that organisms might attack themselves with immune with immune systems that evolved to defend them from diseases in the outside world made little sense to immunologist Paul Ehrlich. In 1901 the future Nobel laureate dismissed such a theory-he called it " horror autotoxicus "-as farfetched.

Bbc
05/25/2018
Every story in the world has one of these six basic plots

"My prettiest contribution to the culture" was how the novelist Kurt Vonnegut described his old master's thesis in anthropology, "which was rejected because it was so simple and looked like too much fun". The thesis sank without a trace, but Vonnegut continued throughout his life to promote the big idea behind it, which was: "stories have shapes which can be drawn on graph paper".

Medium
05/23/2021
Telling Stories With Data & Music

Exploring a new approach to sonification By Duncan Geere & Miriam Quick Most folks who work in data visualization would probably agree that visualization is a useful tool. Our jobs depend on the world being convinced of that, after all. But, why stop at visuals? Humans have five ( six?

Bbc
05/09/2018
The data that reveals the film industry's 'woman problem'

Only one female director - Jane Campion - has ever won the Palme d'Or, the top film at the Cannes Film Festival, a fact she calls 'insane'. And in 2017, Sofia Coppola became only the second woman ever to win the best director prize, for The Beguiled.

Bbc
01/08/2018
The changing buzzwords of business books

Unlock your potential. Turbocharge your productivity. Transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. These are just some of the bombastic guarantees of self-help book titles, which make up a substantial portion of the staggering 11,000 business books published in the US every year.

Bbc
South Korea's population paradox

Research by Miriam Quick. Illustrations by Valentina d'Efilippo. When countries undergo economic change, the effects of the transition aren't only financial - they have major population implications, too. This is very much the case in South Korea where, over the last three generations, the country has evolved like few others due to rapid industrialisation.

Bbc
The 101 people, ideas and things changing how we work today

The world of work is being struck by waves of change. Some are vast and visible - leaps in machine learning and artificial intelligence or the rise of 'do anything from anywhere' technologies. Other ideas are just beginning to emerge - like monitoring content to ensure proper gender balance, or rethinking office design to promote air quality.

Bbc
12/20/2018
Is there a best time of year to buy stocks?

"Sell in May and go away" is an age-old investment adage, referring to the traditional belief that stocks show weaker performance in the summer, from May to October, and stronger performance in the winter, from November to April.

Medium
04/22/2020
Making Data Physical Could Help Us Care for the Planet

Physical data objects can help people come to terms with the interlocking environmental crises we face. And they may even make us more likely to do something about them. Welcome to Earth Week on Nightingale! In honor of Earth Day on April 22, we are publishing ...

Bbc
08/22/2017
How does a football transfer work?

Each summer, hundreds of millions of dollars change hands as the world's top football clubs vie for the best players for the coming seasons. But what actually is a transfer, and how does it work? Why should I care? There's crazy money in it.

Bbc
07/22/2017
How will we source clean energy for all?

When it comes to how we consume energy, there's good news and bad news. The bad news? Around 86% of global energy still comes from fossil fuels, which pollutes the planet and stokes climate change. The good news? In the 21st Century, we're poised to use more renewable energy sources than ever before, including those from wind or water.

Bbc
06/22/2017
The surprising economic downsides of slow internet

The internet: not even 25 years ago, people barely knew what it was. Today, the modern world could barely operate without it. In this special series, Future Now takes a close look at the biggest, most important issues we face in the 21st Century.

Bbc
03/08/2017
Five numbers that will define the next 100 years

How will the world's population continue to increase? There will be 11.2 billion of us by 2100, according to the UN's most likely scenario. But this is a projection, not a certainty. There's an outside chance the world's population could be as high as 16.6 billion by the end of the century.