Monthly Archives: February 2009

new quizzes, hot off the presses

Posted on February 27, 2009 by

I’m writing a whole batch o’ quizzes for the Science Channel (it’s part of the Discovery empire, which is based just up the road in Silver Spring). Three more went up today! You can test your knowledge on: Dinosaurs! This … Continue reading →

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paper balloon

Posted on February 26, 2009 by

I just came across a charming story in Air & Space magazine. It’s by Don Piccard, an American balloon pilot and member of the Piccard dynasty of Swiss balloonists. He writes about this time in 1947 when he flew a … Continue reading →

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latin + diving = one career path

Posted on February 25, 2009 by

In the summer of 1998, I spent a few weeks traveling around Turkey with my mom. It’s really easy traveling in Turkey – the intercity bus system is very reliable. Western Turkey is full of ancient Greek ruins, and my … Continue reading →

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the romans loved their fish

Posted on February 24, 2009 by

On Friday I finally made it down to the National Gallery to see the Pompeii exhibit. I visited Pompeii in the summer of 1998, and it was really cool – lots of halfway-standing houses to run around in – but … Continue reading →

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here, cute animal, have a disease

Posted on February 20, 2009 by

Hey, another story! This one’s about a National Geographic grantee who’s studying a bunch of mongooses in a national park in Botswana who get the human version of tuberculosis. Which, it turns out, is really bad for mongooses. When she … Continue reading →

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pterosaur flight

Posted on February 19, 2009 by

Hey, lookit – I wrote this. Things I know now that I did not know 38 hours ago: 1. Pterosaurs were not dinosaurs. They were reptiles like dinosaurs, and they lived with the dinosaurs and went extinct with the dinosaurs, … Continue reading →

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bering sea adventure

Posted on February 18, 2009 by

On March 31st, I’m leaving for the adventure of a lifetime. One Wednesday night in November, I got an e-mail about a freelance gig – someone was looking for a science writer to go along on a six-week research cruise … Continue reading →

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romans and persians and greeks, oh my!

Posted on February 17, 2009 by

It’s always so satisfying to ask smart people stupid questions. I wrote a story recently about some archaeology along the west coast of Turkey, and the editor asked me some stuff I didn’t know. So tonight I called the researcher … Continue reading →

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skrik-kake

Posted on February 17, 2009 by

Here’s a follow-up to my Munch post: I visited the Munch Museum on my February 2007 trip to Norway, and just didn’t feel like I could pass up a piece of Scream cake. (Norwegian lesson of the day: skrik = … Continue reading →

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very bright lights

Posted on February 15, 2009 by

I blogged again! This one is about using synchrotrons to look at ancient things. A synchrotron is a really bright x-ray machine the size of a football field. If you point it at a bug in amber or an ancient … Continue reading →

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