In his several books and many articles in magazines and academic journals, Horace Freeland Judson dared to size scientists up, though he wasn’t one. He died on May 6, age 80. He was my teacher and my friend, and I would like to say a few things about his works both to offer tribute and […]
On Writing
One year ago today, the People of LWON published their first post. It was by Josie Glausiusz, it was on flesh-eating algae, and we thank her for setting that tone. Writing LWON — that is, writing what we want to and in the way we want to write it — turns out to be a […]
*Warning: This post starts with a story, ends with a rant, and has little to do with science. Read at your own risk. In 2001, I joined the Peace Corps and moved to a tiny village in the middle of Bolivia called Chuqui Chuqui. My job description was vague. I taught some English. I gave […]
There’s this idea, and I don’t know who started it, but it’s definitely floating around, out there, that science journalists are disheveled, frazzled, socially awkward and overall, just not very cool. That nasty rumor, if I ever believed it, was quickly dispelled the day I met Erika Check Hayden. This woman is polished — in […]
The subject line in the e-mail was, “Congratulations, I think….” The message itself said, “Just read about Dark Matter finally outing itself.” “Huh?” I wrote back. “Haven’t you heard??? Dark Matter has been telescopically (is that a word?) observed!” The message came from a graduate student of mine during holiday break this past December. He […]
(This post is the third in a three-part series. The first and second appeared the past two Fridays.) “What can we as scientists do to better communicate science to the general public?” This question didn’t stump me, but, I admit, the answer did elude me at first. I started talking about how writers are dependent on […]
A few years back, when anyone Googled me, they were directed to a bunch of (and I apologize but there is just no nice way to say this, though those nice British editors at New Scientist tried) piss fetish sites. This had nothing to do with my predilections, which I must hasten to add don’t venture […]
“What can we do about high school physics textbooks?” The question, I admit, stumped me. Not in the way that a question about whether gravity exists in other universes would stump me. That question I wouldn’t be able to answer because there isn’t an answer; the existence of other universes is speculative. This question, however, […]