Deborah Netburn

Staff Writer

Deborah Netburn is a features writer at the Los Angeles Times. Endlessly curious, she’s covered a wide variety of topics since starting at the paper in 2006, including entertainment, home and garden, national news, technology and science. She’s hung out with Tibetan monks in the Pacific Palisades, seen seahorses at the bottom of Alamitos Bay and spent time with the working witches of Los Angeles. She is always looking for a good story.

Latest From This Author

Climate & Environment

Q&A: Carbon emissions will reach record high in 2019, thanks to the burning of fossil fuels

Climate & Environment

Q&A: Carbon emissions will reach record high in 2019, thanks to the burning of fossil fuels

It’s a climate change milestone: The amount of carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels will hit 37 billion tons this year, setting another record high. A climate researcher discusses the latest findings.
Science

Meet the scientist who’s been counting California butterflies for 47 years and has no plans to stop

Science

Meet the scientist who’s been counting California butterflies for 47 years and has no plans to stop

A UC Davis professor’s simple mission: Record and identify every butterfly he sees. What he’s discovered has disturbed him.
California

How do wildfires get their names?

California

How do wildfires get their names?

How do wildfires get their names? A fire’s one-word name is taken from a nearby feature, such as a valley, river or canyon. The name of a road will also work.
Science

Q&A: Google claims ‘quantum supremacy.’ What could that mean for the future of computing?

Science

Q&A: Google claims ‘quantum supremacy.’ What could that mean for the future of computing?

Google has reached a milestone in computing by achieving “quantum supremacy.” Caltech’s John Preskill, who coined that term, explains what that means.
Climate & Environment

Sea gulls love In-N-Out. But their diet may be changing their Channel Islands home

Climate & Environment

Sea gulls love In-N-Out. But their diet may be changing their Channel Islands home

Will dumpster-diving sea gulls change the very chemistry of California’s Channel Islands?
Science

Babies have been drinking milk from bottles for thousands of years. Here’s the proof

Science

Babies have been drinking milk from bottles for thousands of years. Here’s the proof

Small vessels found in the graves of ancient infants were some of the world’s oldest baby bottles. New research shows they once contained milk from animals.
Climate & Environment

A giant mass of warm water off the Pacific Coast could rival ‘the blob’ of 2014-15

Climate & Environment

A giant mass of warm water off the Pacific Coast could rival ‘the blob’ of 2014-15

Since June scientists have been monitoring a troubling mass of warm water off the Pacific Coast.
California

Earthquake fault long thought dormant could devastate Los Angeles, researchers say

California

Earthquake fault long thought dormant could devastate Los Angeles, researchers say

Researchers say an earthquake fault along the L.A. coast long believed dormant is in fact active and could generate a devastating quake.
California

Man accused of arson after firefighters put out a brush fire near Hollywood Bowl

California

Man accused of arson after firefighters put out a brush fire near Hollywood Bowl

Police have arrested a man accused of lighting a series of small fires near the Hollywood Bowl.
Climate & Environment

1.3 billion tons of food being wasted each year. Can we stop it?

Climate & Environment

1.3 billion tons of food being wasted each year. Can we stop it?

A new report lays out a blueprint to cut food loss and waste in half by 2030. Doing so could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.5 gigatons per year.