Maris Fessenden

 

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

A woolly rhinoceros painted by a prehistoric artist on the wall of Chauvet cave in France

Why Some Woolly Rhinos Grew Ribs on Their Necks

These misplaced ribs don't grow unless something unusual is going on in the gene pool

New York City Could Finally Lose Its Prohibition-era Dancing Rule

The infamous "Cabaret Law" is rooted in racism

A newspaper's photograph of six men, all of different ethnicities. The caption reads: "Through by birth the men in this group, photographed at a National army cantonment, are as diverse as one could possibly imagine, they stand together in their readiness to fight for Uncle Sam."

Help Find Historic Cartoons in World War I-era Newspapers

The crowd-sourcing effort is the first project in a new digital workspace that aims to make the Library of Congress' vast resources more accessible

Kathy Niakan at work in the lab

Gene Editing of Embryos Gives Insight Into Basic Human Biology

A genetic tool allows researchers to disable a gene key to human development in a closely regulated experiment

White plastic horse, 3. Plamacina retroversta ic. III. Specimen collected from Cobh shoreline, Cove of Cork, Ireland

These Haunting Photographs Call Attention to Plastic Trash Swirling in the Ocean

Award-winning photographer Mandy Barker explores the beauty and tragedy of marine plankton and plastic waste

Submerged Beach, 1400 Fathoms, Else Bostelmann, Bermuda, 1931. Watercolor on paper, 11 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches.

In the Early 20th Century, the Department of Tropical Research Was Full of Glamorous Adventure

A new exhibition features 60 works by artists the New York Zoological Society department hired to help communicate field biology

Watch the Causes of Death Change Across America

The patterns highlight key social and economic issues in the country

A surfer at Huntington Beach in Southern California

California May Lose Popular Surfing Spots to Rising Seas

A changing climate may make iconic breaks disappear

A TeleGuide terminal developed in the early 1990s by Swedish phone company Televerket, with IBM and Esselte.

A New Museum in Sweden Is All About Failure

Visit the many examples of products that were short-sighted, short-lived or just silly

NASA technicians and engineers place a tent over the folded-up James Webb Space Telescope to protect it from dust and dirt once it leaves the "clean room" and proceeds to acoustic and vibrational testing.

Watch Scientists Freeze and Shake the James Webb Space Telescope

The largest space telescope ever built has a few last tests to pass

A composite image of asteroid 2014 JO25 created with data from NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar.

Watch a Large Asteroid Streak Through the Night Sky

Only a small telescope will be needed

The slimy skin of Hydrophylax bahuvistara harbors antimicrobial powers

This Frog’s Slime Kills Flu Viruses

But don’t go kissing frogs just yet

A Minnesota Home Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Is For Sale, Original Furniture And All

Everything from the floor color to the light fixtures is as the architect designed it

Scientists Want to Freeze and Pulverize Your Old Computers

E-waste is a growing problem worldwide, but a new method could help take a byte out of the issue

The City Palace of Jaipur was designed with vastu shastra ideals

Ancient Architectural Science is Coming to a Renowned Indian Engineering School

Principles of alignment with the sun and magnetic fields in vastu shastra stretch back 8,000 years

This Artificial Neural Network Generates Absurd Pickup Lines

But the technology probably won't be able to land you a date anytime soon

One Million Internet Users Created This Piece of Art

Contributions range from the juvenile to bizarre to strangely beautiful

Ada Lovelace, “The world’s first computer programmer.” In the mid 1800s, she predicted that machines would compose music and forward scientific progress, based on her experiences programming Charles Babbage’s “Analytical Engine,” to calculate Bernoulli numbers.

These Bold Illustrations Celebrate the Incredible Contributions of Women in Science

A designer's touch brings the achievements and faces of female pioneers to a wider audience

Patrick O'Brien, "Dinosaur and Volkswagen," Gigantic, 1998, oil on canvas - How big is “gigantic?” Patrick O'Brien shares his life-long fascination with the illustrations of prehistoric animals in children's books with a new generation of young readers. Other images in Gigantic compare dinosaurs with modern devices such as monster trucks, cherry pickers and tanks. O’Brien lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

A New Exhibition Explores the Science and Math in Children's Book Illustrations

The 29 artworks on display capture the wonder in nature, engineering and discoveries

The beauty of this mutant strain of the fungus Trichoderma reesei belies the organism’s potential for dismantling biomass.

Scientists Make Art From Objects Invisible to the Naked Eye

Sophisticated microscopes, satellites and other instruments can create stunning images in experts’ hands

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