Maris Fessenden

 

Maris Fessenden is a freelance science writer and artist who appreciates small things and wide open spaces.

Almost Half of Black and Latina Scientists Report They’ve Been Mistaken for Administrative Assistants or Janitors

Women of color in science are more likely to experience some forms of bias

An artist’s illustration of the Prandtl-m flying above the surface of Mars

This Boomerang-Shaped Aircraft Could be the First to Fly on Mars

The lightweight glider would search for potential landing spots to be used by a future manned mission to Mars

An active basalt lava flow in the wild (from a volcano, not from the lab)

To Better Understand Lava, an Artist and Scientist Make Their Own

A lab at Syracuse University creates melts basaltic rock in a modified furnace

A collection of fish teeth and shark scales from the Early Cenozoic period.

After the Dinosaurs Died, Earth Experienced the Age of Fish

The fossil record shows how ray-finned fishes took over the planet's oceans

A view of Butterfly Valley in Turkey

This Beautiful Valley in Turkey is Home to 100 Species of Butterflies

The valley's remote location keeps the butterflies happy and thriving

Screenshot from the "Multi-scale Multi-physics Heart Simulator UT-Heart" video

Travel Inside a Human Heart With This Video

An informative video shows off a research team’s simulation of the beating heart

Lesser spotted eagle (Clanga pomarina)

Germany is Turning its Old Military Bases Into Nature Reserves

While downsizing the military, Germany sets aside land for wildlife

Screenshot from "Toy Figurines / How It’s Made"

Here's How Plastic Toy Dinosaurs are Made

A series of molds help the toy creators’ vision pop into 3-D

Here’s Why Scientists Want to Flood the Grand Canyon

Without sediment flowing through the canyon, it loses sandbars vital to the river ecosystem

Pet goldfish in a tank, where it belongs

Pet Goldfish Released into the Wild Are Getting Really Huge

Monster goldfish are trouble for native fish

Redwood tree canopy in California

Here’s A Map of All the Trees in California

Every meter covered by trees shows up

Pasquino in Rome

Have Something Rude to Say? Put it on This 2300-Year Old Statue in Rome

A cardinal started the tradition of decorating this statue with snarky poems and insults

Colorized radar images from the Cassini spacecraft show some of the many lakes on Titan

Lakes on Saturn’s Moon are Really Sinkholes Filled With Liquid Methane and Ethane

Strange and changeable lakes might form just as certain water-filled lakes do on Earth

A photograph of Claude Monet in his gardens circa 1917

An Art Dealer Just Found a Forgotten Monet Pastel Hidden Behind Another Drawing

The pastel depicts a lighthouse and jetty near Monet’s childhood home

A cownose ray caught as bycatch off the coast of Virginia

Catch and Release: This Device Could Help Accidentally Caught Fish Survive

The SeaQualizer returns fish safely to the depths of the ocean

Sand Mining on the banks of the Sita River near Mabukala bridge in Brahmavar, India

The Demand for Sand is so High There are Illegal Sand Mining Operations

Only certain kinds of sand can be used in construction and mining it causes problems

Super Mario Bros. creators Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka in a screenshot from Kotaku's YouTube video "Design History of Super Mario Maker, E3 2015"

The Creators of Super Mario Drafted The Game on Graph Paper

The levels were originally planned out one at a time by hand

A screenshot of the new visualization from Pitch Interactive and Google News Lab

Here’s What People Are Asking Google About Climate Change

The visualization reveals what people want to know about the environment

An image of the galaxy NGC 1097, home to the black hole researchers just weighed

How Do Scientists Weigh a Supermassive Black Hole?

A new method puts the mass of one black hole at 140 million times the mass of our Sun

An emerald ash borer, the problem the wasp is supposed to address

Colorado Hopes This Asian Wasp Can Save its Trees

Researchers are hoping to use one non-native species to fight another, more destructive one

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