Nicholas Wade is a British-born scientific reporter, editor, and author who currently writes for the Science Times section of The New York Times. His book Before the Dawn received a 2007 Science-in-Society Journalism Award.

Wade worked for Nature, a weekly scientific magazine based in London, from 1967 to 1971, becoming deputy editor and Washington correspondent. In 1971 he joined the news staff of Science, a weekly scientific journal published in Washington, and in 1982 became a member of the editorial board of The New York Times, writing editorials on science, health, the environment and military technology.

He was science editor of The New York Times from 1990 to 1996, and was a science reporter at the Times from 1997 to 2012.

Wade is the author of several books, including The Ultimate Experiment, The Nobel Duel, Betrayers of the Truth (written with William J. Broad), A World Beyond Healing, Lifescript, Before the Dawn, and The Faith Instinct.