12 Facts About Nicholas Wade

Nicholas Michael Landon Wade was born on 17 May 1942 and is a British author and journalist.

Nicholas Wade is the author of numerous books, and has served as staff writer and editor for Nature, Science, and the science section of The New York Times.

In May 2021, Wade published an article in support of the COVID-19 lab leak hypothesis, contrary to the prevailing scientific view, and fueling controversy on the origins of the virus.

Nicholas Wade was born in Aylesbury, England and educated at Eton College.

Nicholas Wade is a grandson of Lawrence Beesley, a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic.

Nicholas Wade earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Natural Sciences from King's College, Cambridge in 1964, and immigrated to the United States in 1970.

Nicholas Wade was a science writer and editor for the journals Nature from 1967 to 1971, and Science from 1972 to 1982.

Nicholas Wade joined The New York Times in 1982 as a staff and editorial writer, was appointed science and health editor in 1990; he left the Times in 2012.

Nicholas Wade released Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors in 2006, which is about what Wade referred to as "two vanished periods" in human development, and The Faith Instinct in 2009, about the evolution of religious behaviour.

In 2014, Nicholas Wade released A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History, in which he argued that human evolution has been "recent, copious, and regional" and that genes may have influenced a variety of behaviours that underpin differing forms of human society.

Nicholas Wade's article fuelled the controversy around the origins of the virus, and has become one of the most-cited pieces in support of the lab leak hypothesis.

Nicholas Wade's argument is at odds with the prevailing view among scientists that the virus most likely has a zoonotic origin.