Maya Wei-Haas

Maya Wei-Haas

 

Maya Wei-Haas is a freelance science writer who specializes in geology of Earth and beyond. Her work has been featured in National Geographic, News from Science, and AGU’s EOS.

NASA's Earth-orbiting satellite Hinode observes the 2011 annular solar eclipse from space.

How Eclipse Anxiety Helped Lay the Foundation For Modern Astronomy

The same unease you feel when the moon blots out the sun fueled ancient astronomers to seek patterns in the skies

A selection of foraminifera, tiny marine creatures that form elaborate shells of calcium carbonate or silica.

These Fanciful Microbes Need Your Coloring Skills

A vast microscopic world writhes around you. Now a coloring book lets you bring wee beasts and beauties to life

Cats rule the world. But how did they get here?

How Cats Conquered the World

Scientists use 9,000 years of feline genetics to chart their global rise to power

An artist's impression of the Restore-L craft, a space-based refueling station that will give new life to old satellites.

NASA Is Sending a Robotic Fueling Station to Space

How do you save a billion-dollar satellite? Send another robot up there after it

"I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris," President Trump said during his announcement that the United States would be leaving the Paris agreement. Pictured: a steel mill in the Monongahela Valley of East Pittsburgh in the early 1970's.

How America Stacks Up When It Comes to Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Hint: We're not number one, but we're close

The team has developed many different prototypes. Their latest iteration can display six characters at a time and images the text using an internal camera.

This Device Translates Text To Braille in Real Time

Team Tactile hopes to create an inexpensive and portable device that can raise text right off the page

Henry Bates (Calum Finlay) was a self-taught field biologist and note taker. He created remarkable drawings and watercolors of his collections and observations. Several of his original notebooks are in the archives of London's Natural History Museum.

How Filmmakers Distill Science for the Big Screen

The new film <i>Amazon Adventure</i> turns decades of research into 45 minutes of visual majesty

Mesh billboards on the Moroccan mountainside will soon be joined by numerous others—a planned 31 in all—to create the world’s largest fog collection facility.

This Device Collects Water From the Clouds

CloudFisher does exactly as its name implies—drawing water down from the sky

This image shows how an iris clip, also known as an intraocular lens, is fitted onto the eye. The clip is a small, thin lens made from silicone or acrylic with plastic side supports to hold it in place. It is fixed to the iris through a tiny surgical incision and can treat cataracts and near-sightedness.

Contest Winners Capture the Eerie Beauty of Medical Imagery

From stained mice placenta to an implant in the eye, this year's Wellcome Image Award recipients highlight the beauty of science

Check out those chompers.

If We Can Get Past the Ickiness, Hagfish Slime May Actually Be Useful to Us

The gelatinous glop could be the key to everything from bio-inspired kevlar to shark defense for divers

Iowa State University scientists modeled their artificial leaves after cottonwood leaves.

Are Artificial Trees the Future of Renewable Energy?

While a new device's flapping leaves can generate a lot of energy, extracting it is far from a breeze

There are many hurdles to building the proposed border wall. And skimping on any steps means that "big, beautiful" wall won't stand for long.

What Geology Has to Say About Building a 1,000-Mile Border Wall

Compared to erecting a marble palace or high-steepled church, a wall may seem relatively straightforward—it isn’t

While it has some kinks to work out, this sleek new device could help in the bid to limit landfill-bound waste.

Can This Trash Can Turn Food Waste Into Garden Treasure?

The Zera Food Recycler may not transform scraps into ready-to-use soil, but it could still help take a bite out of landfill-bound waste

Are stem cells the solution?

Tear Your Meniscus? This “Living Bandage” May Help

British researchers are using a newly patented technique involving stem cells to repair the common knee injury

LG exhibited a new levitating speaker.

Seven Wild Gadgets Unveiled at CES 2017

From a levitating speaker to vibrating jeans that help you navigate city streets, these innovations offer an interesting glimpse of the future

The impacts from the Nimbus satellites (Nimbus-1 pictured here) made a lasting mark on meteorology and climate science that can still be felt today.

The Day the Nimbus Weather Satellite Exploded

The writer's grandfather recalls a seminal moment in the Space Race

Several armed guards accompanied Luiz Rocha and his colleagues throughout their work in Somaliland.

Meet the Researchers Who Scour the World's Most Dangerous Corners in Search of Biological Riches

Militants, malaria and pirates are just some of the challenges these scientist-explorers face in their quest to map the world’s diversity

These ancient amber fossils from Burma in Southeast Asia help complete the patchy record of lizard evolution.

This Year in Ancient Amber: Prehistoric Feathers, Mushrooms, Lizards and More

It’s no <i>Jurassic Park,</i> but this treasure trove of new creatures will still transport you to an ancient world

Watch Rare Footage of the Mysterious Ghost Shark Gliding Through the Deep

Researchers spotted the grey-blue creature off the coast of California—far from its usual haunts in the Southern hemisphere

Mersiv is worn around a user’s neck, like a necklace, and features a silver dollar-sized pendant with an embedded camera and microphone.

This Language-Teaching Device Constantly Whispers Lessons In Your Ear

A conceptual gadget called Mersiv immerses language-learners in their tongue of choice

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