Category Archives: My Work
oh, that’s fun
The March issue of Smithsonian arrived today. I was delighted to find this: I’m sandwiched between two of my friends! Andrew and Sarah both happen to live in Berlin and are excellent human beings (and writers).
whales get stressed
Feces are a surprisingly useful subject for research. Scientists can use them to get a window into an animal’s inner life. You might think poop is just mushed-up food, but no, there’s a lot of information in there. A sample … Continue reading
turkey surgery
For ScienceNOW last week, I wrote a quick item about turkey surgery. Well, how to close up your stuffed turkey. If you, like me, thought, “Why would you need to close up a turkey?” I will explain. Apparently some people … Continue reading
colorful frogs
There are lots of species of poison dart frogs and they come in lots of colors and patterns, even within the same species. Their colors are advertisements to predators: don’t eat me! you’ll be sorry! For ScienceNOW last week, I … Continue reading
happy people live longer
Yet again, I find reason to be happy that I am happy. Hm. That is an odd sentence. Anyway, a new study from the UK finds that happy people live longer. I wrote it up for ScienceNOW last week. This … Continue reading
brains are somethin’ else
Forget lessons. You can get better at putting just by using a famous person’s golf club. Ok, not even. A golf club that you are *told* belonged to a famous person. I wrote about it for ScienceNOW today. Confidence is … Continue reading
art and space, again
I just realized that New Scientist posted my story about the NASA Art exhibit on their culture blog, so you can read it here for free. Yay free! If my story inspires you, you aren’t too late to go see … Continue reading
plastic sea-creature-like machines
This weekend I swung by the National Museum of Natural History to check out a temporary exhibit that opened about 10 days ago. The museum has a fellowship program where artists can spend time hanging out with scientists and looking … Continue reading
neuron measurements
For the August issue of the HHMI Bulletin I wrote about how neuroscientists try to measure all those little electrical impulses going around in the brain and figure out how we think. Read it here.
chimps share the wealth
Another new story for ScienceNOW – this one about chimps being generous. It’s been kind of a mystery of primatology that chimps seem to be quite generous and sharing in the field, but stingy in experiments. The authors of the … Continue reading