Birth Of The World’s First Underwater Museum
for The Last Word on NothingPublished: September 2013
A few months ago, I got my dream assignment. Well, okay, it wasn’t really an assignment – I cajoled an editor into letting me write about Cancun’s famous underwater museum, Museo Subacuatico de Arte, or MUSA.
Saving the survivor: China scrambles to keep the finless porpoise from extinction
(For the full story click here)
On the morning of July 14, 2002 Qi Qi ate breakfast as he always did. As the world’s only captive baiji – or Yangtze river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer) – Qi Qi was something of a celebrity in China and his caretakers kept a close eye …
Conservation isn’t winning. Extinction is.
for The Washington PostPublished: July 13, 2018
An opinion editorial about how desperate small wild populations have become the norm in conservation.
First-Aid Snakebite Drug Could Save Thousands of Lives
for Discover Crux BlogA decade ago, Joe Slowinski of the California Academy of Sciences went into the jungles of Myanmar in search of new species of snakes and other vertebrates. One morning, he groggily reached into a bag of vipers he thought to be harmless and when he pulled his hand ou
Donald Trump Is the World’s Greatest Performance Artist
for The Last Word on NothingPublished: September 2014
My (relatively) serious theory that Donald Trump is not who he says he is.
This Man Spent 30 Years Solving A Rare Bird’s Murder Mystery
for National GeographicPublished: August 2018
The Attwater prairie chicken has been on the verge of extinction for decades. Now it has one more chance.
Dusting Off Metaphors
for The Last Word on NothingPublished: September 2013
As a science writer, I trade in metaphors. It’s not just how many dump trucks to fill the Grand Canyon or how close whale intestines would get to the moon if stretched out – that’s amateur hour.
Boobies Behaving Badly
for The Last Word on NothingPublished: September 2015
Hugh Drummond’s work on booby behavior is some of the most profound and enlightening science I have ever come across. But first, you have to understand that boobies are dicks. Seriously, they are profoundly selfish douchebags.
Heavy Rains and Hurricanes Clear a Path for Supercharged Mold
for Scientific AmericanPublished: December 4, 2018
Warmer temperatures and rising CO2 can also ramp up some fungal toxins and allergens
The Souless Flesh-Eating Kea
for The Last Word on NothingPublished: August 2013
In the Southern summer of 2004, my then-girlfriend and I were camped in a shelter near a rock climbing area in New Zealand called Flock Hill. It was a gorgeous landscape, sweeping grassy hills made famous as Rohan in the “Lord of the Rings” and glacial erratics from the final …