Category: Uncategorized

I love the sound that ice makes when you pour warm water on it—that splitting, rending, singing sound. It turns out that an iceberg the size of an island will make those same noises when it melts and cracks apart. But the sound, like the ice, is much, much bigger. Listen to this story for […]

When the US and the USSR were busy flexing at each other by blowing up bombs on testing fields, they were spraying the atmosphere with radioactive carbon. (What could be more obnoxiously macho, right?) That carbon is being eaten up by the ocean at a certain rate, and it can let us know how old […]

Anyone out there in the mood to live out a Disney fairy tale for a hot sec? Grab someone you feel very strongly about and sing a ditty or something together. New research suggests that your hearts will literally beat as one. Well, at least they’ll slow down and speed up together. Take a listen […]

I don’t know about you, but I hate chemistry. I battled through every one of my classes and failed two of them. I played dirty, and so did the chemistry. I cried a lot. But in the end, I’m grateful to know the damn stuff. We know the minute structure of the building blocks of […]

“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlyn, “is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you […]

My newest radio piece for VOA News! Listen in here: I would like to thank VOA reporter Steve Baragona for letting me steal the phrase “thieving lemurs.” More information can be found in the accompanying web write-up for this story. Way more information can be found in the publicly accessible PLOS ONE paper. If you’re […]

I am a bag of organs on stilts walking around a solid world. The only ways I have to peer out of the dense particulation of myself are my eyes to see photons, my ears to hear airborne vibration, my nose to sense airborne chemicals, my tongue to do nearly the same, and my skin […]

My first two stories at VOA News are figuratively hot off the presses! The first was an explanation of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn patents on specific genes, which, unlike many court cases, had plaintiffs on both sides of the aisle walking away smiling. The second is MY FIRST RADIO PIECE! Reporting on […]

On the train in front of me there are a woman and a young boy. The boy is plump and startled-looking, and the woman is fat and ugly and carries a carved walking stick. They do not smile. They sit in front of me and suddenly they are deeply involved in some crisis; the woman […]

Y’all are amazing, and I can’t overstate how useful it is hearing about how news works over at the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Sacramento Bee, and Wired. How about after this whole mess is over the fourteen of us start our own newsy business? “The Young Scientist’s Report,” we’ll call it. Or, “Modern Microscope.” Ew. […]