
recent work
Some major stories I've written recently include:
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"Monster or Machine: A Profile of the Coronavirus at 6 Months," June 2, 2020 (NYT)
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"Looking for Life on a Flat Earth," May 30, 2018 (newyorker.com)
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And I wrote this essay, "The Secret Life of Time," for The New Yorker, about Augustine, William James, and what I think about at 4:27 a.m. And another, for Nautilus, about how time is contagious.
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I've also written about:
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Space, including ​​the discovery of the nearest-known exoplanet, just 4.3 light-years from our own (and whether we'll ever get there); celebrating the summer solstice throughout the universe, and the discovery, maybe, of Planet Nine, an ice giant out beyond Neptune.
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Bugs, like the dung beetles that navigate by the light of the Milky Way; a moth called Trump; an elegy for the world's oldest spider, and an elegy for Barbara York Main, the amazing Australian scientist who studied the world's oldest spider (and many spiders beyond).
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Soccer, notably the mystery of Sunderland F.C., which once excelled at being the worst team in the Premier League season after season; the World Cup for forgotten nations; a brief history of cheating in the other World Cup, and the momentary tragedy of Manuel Neuer.
And so much more, including the usefulness of a March for Science, what trap-cams reveal about what animals do when humans aren't looking, the entirely reasonable fear of pole-vaulting that every world-class pole-vaulter feels, and why we are all scutoids.
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Oh, and here's a chat I had with Pluto-killer Mike Brown about Planet Nine:
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