Over the last week I was lucky enough to spend several days communing with science writers in Oregon. I love going different places and seeing how different things are. This time I particularly enjoyed the difference in vegetation – ferns and mossy rocks everywhere. I have a soft spot for lichens, and friends send me […]
Month: September 2026
Your average frog loves a good meaty fly. But to this amphibian predator, a stationary fly might not register as something worth nabbing, if it is seen at all. “[A frog] will starve to death surrounded by food if it is not moving,” wrote the authors of a 1959 paper in Proceedings of the IRE […]
Since writing a book on the night sky (The Wild Dark), I can’t help looking up. I’ve slept outside most nights since the end of February, more comfortable falling asleep under stars than in a bed. The other night, I woke startled at the brightness of the Millky Way, thinking it was a wildfire. The […]
It is fall, and even though not much changes here, the light becomes low and golden. I feel like every season is my favorite time of year when it arrives, but this time, I really mean it. Here is a beautiful tree of gold from a trip to Japan, and here’s a post I wrote […]
I’m not getting any less mad about this, didn’t you hear me the first time? The New World, when the Old World was full of all kinds of people, had nobody. NOBODY WAS HERE. THEY ALL CAME HERE FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE. Everybody here was at some point AN IMMIGRANT. And yes, I’m shouting, why can’t […]
Sometimes we change our minds about big life choices: where we live, what career we pursue, who walks beside us. I’ve been pretty consistent so far, especially when it comes to what follows. A friend of mine wants to be donated to a body farm so she can “live again” by being prodded and measured […]
So there we were, on the deck of a nice restaurant with a view of the mountains and a valley with a river flowing through it, and a menu Google had described as “elevated.” Then, out of nowhere, a tiger appeared. It prowled the deck, brandishing its claws at a bachelorette party sitting next to us. […]
On the second Tuesday of October, a small subset of humanity celebrates Ada Lovelace Day in honour of the 19th Century computing pioneer. There are film screenings and museum visits, and bloggers are encouraged to write about women’s achievements in STEM. Most distinctive of the events is a Wikipedia Editathon to set the record straight […]
