Monthly Archives: June 2010
training in the mountains
A lot of endurance athletes have some kind of training regimen that includes being at high altitudes. When you’re at high altitudes, there’s not very much oxygen. That stimulates your body to make extra red blood cells and otherwise adapt … Continue reading
swimming giraffes
For the latest issue of Science, I wrote a short item about giraffes. People have said for a long time that giraffes are the only mammals that can’t swim, but nobody had actually tested this. Zoos aren’t interested in having … Continue reading
trees stay away from their relatives
Ecologists have struggled for years with the question of why tropical forests are so diverse. There are all kinds of hypotheses going around out there – I read papers on many of them in a class in the fall of … Continue reading
blogger in the Arctic
A few weeks ago I got a call from Haley Smith Kingsland, a student at Stanford who was getting ready to be the blogger for a research cruise on the USCGC Healy. She was looking for advice, based on my … Continue reading
I know everybody: [redacted]
Today I got an e-mail from a friend, with the subject “You know EVERYONE!”: There’s one person at [place of work] who I like. Guess who it is? [Person I know]. She says hi (I don’t really know everybody, but … Continue reading
I know everybody: Felipe
This afternoon I was driving to have dinner with my family for Father’s Day. I wanted to turn right, but some teenagers were in the crosswalk. A black Prius had come from the other direction on the same road as … Continue reading
museum tourist: nmnh elephant
The other day I was at the National Museum of Natural History and thought the elephant was looking particularly fine: This enormous bull elephant was shot in Angola in 1955 by Hungarian big game hunter Josef J. Fénykövi. Read all … Continue reading
coral reefs: the cultural side
Today on Science Careers – a part of the Science magazine website that’s about, you know, careers – I have a profile of Josh Cinner, a guy who studies coral reefs. Only he’s not a marine biologist. Tricky, eh? He’s … Continue reading
I know everybody: Heather & MJ
I know everybody. Ok, not really everybody. But for years, friends who go places with me have known that we will probably run into someone I know. It doesn’t matter where – festival, concert, national park, whatever. I don’t know … Continue reading