Maris Fessenden

 

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

A Tired Brain Could Actually Be More Creative

The wandering thoughts brought on by fatigue can lead to insight

How 'Waves' Rippling Through Bird Flocks Help Them Escape Predators

Starlings are known for their coordinated movements and a common study animal for researchers seeking to explain such behavior

Gold Nanoparticles Can Remote Control the Brain

It’s just the latest twist in nanotech that is using gold as medicine

Destroyed sea walls in Otsuchi, Japan, in March 2011

Japan Is Building a 40-foot Wall to Stop Tsunamis

But the expensive, extensive wall might not be high enough

How a Stinging Swarm of Bees Can Save a Life

Bee venom might be a potent medicine

A model of Metoposaurus algarvensis

Hundreds of Car-Sized Fossil Amphibians Found in a Mass Grave

The huge creature is related to modern-day newts, salamanders and frogs

The Navajo Nation Will Have the First Junk Food Tax in the U.S.

The Navajo National Council approved a 2 percent increase in sales tax on foods like pastries, fried foods, desserts, chips and soda

The Asteroid Redirect Vehicle gets ready to push off from the asteroid after grabbing a boulder in this artist’s interpretation

An Asteroid Boulder Will Be A Stepping Stone on the Journey to Mars

NASA announces details in its plan to capture an asteroid and bring it into lunar orbit

That Time an Astronaut Smuggled a Corned Beef Sandwich To Space

The sandwich was a joke but its crumbs proved to be too much — for politicians, not for the mission

Jupiter with moons Io and Europa as seen by the Voyager I probe

Jupiter Made Our Solar System Weird

The gas giant just had to throw its mass around

Here’s Why Your Eyes Seem to Be Wired 'Backward'

Light has to pass through nerve cells to get to the rods and cones, but that order is no mistake

Electoral documents being prepared for voters

Half of All Local Council Positions in France Will Be Held by Women

Joint tickets with men and women running together will lead to councils balanced by gender

Ashima Shiraishi training at Hueco Tanks State Natural Area in Texas when she was 10 years old

This 13-Year-Old Girl Just Finished One of the World's Hardest Rock Climbs

Ashima Shiraishi scaled Spain's 'Open Your Mind Direct' in about ten minutes after a few days working on the project

The Rules of Wrinkling, From Brain Folds to Pumpkin Ridges

Creases, ridges, folds and "delaminated buckles" are all different forms of wrinkling

Illustration of Macrauchenia from the forthcoming book "Biggest, Fiercest, Strangest" W. Norton Publishers (in production)

Mystery Mammals' Ancestry Was Revealed by Proteins, Not DNA

The huge rhino-like animal and trunked llama-like animal posed a mystery until now

Every Year Spring Gets 30 Seconds Shorter

But the good news is that summer will be that much longer thanks to some peculiarities in how the Earth moves

An artists conception of NASA's MAVEN spacecraft observing the aurora on Mars

Mars Gets a 'Northern Lights’ Show Too

Earth isn't the only planet that sees auroras

Center pivot irrigation in Blythe, California

We’re Taking All the Water Out of the Ground And Causing Sea Levels to Rise

Pumping water out of aquifers at the rate we do doesn’t just threaten the water supply, it also exacerbates the effects of climate change

Walruses in Svalbard

It's Hard to Protect Arctic Mammals When We Don’t Know How Many Live There

Only a handful of animal populations are well counted — leaving researchers in the dark about how threatened the others are

The first US spacewalk had astronaut Edward White use a compressed gas "zip gun" for maneuvers

'The Stars and Sun Are Everywhere’: 50 Years of Spacewalks

Today marks five decades since cosmonaut Alexey Leonov became the first human to walk in space

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