About Us

Since 2005, The Columbia Heart Beat has been making and breaking news in Columbia, Missouri.  With a back to the basics of journalism approach that emphasizes old fashioned investigative reporting, The Columbia Heart Beat carries on the muckraking tradition of Jacob Riis, Upton Sinclair, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein at the local level. 

About Mike Martin, editor and founder

Mike Martin has been breaking news for international news organizations for over a decade.  For Science Magazine, he broke the story of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's attempt to "gag" his Chief Science Advisor over a climate change controversy.   Other UK publications followed the piece, including The Independent and Daily Telegraph

After breaking the story of famed evolutionary biologist Margie Profet's mysterious disappearance for Psychology Today, readers reported her whereabouts to family members.  She was reunited with her family after nearly seven years. 

A former senior science writer for United Press International, Martin has written articles for Science, The Scientist, and MIT's Technology Review, Harvard Magazine, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the Epilepsy Foundation, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the California, Oregon, and Missouri university systems.  Martin is also a member of the National Press Club and the National Association of Science Writers.