Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Niamh Ordner

Niamh Ordner

Niamh Ordner is a science, environment and health journalist from Florida and a 2025 AAAS Mass Media Fellow. Her work, which covers scientific research, environmental policy and public health, has appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

Stories from this author

Like Astrophage, the solar-radiation-eating microbes in Andy Weir’s novel Project Hail Mary, some sea slugs can derive energy from sunlight.

These Sea Slugs Can ‘Eat’ Sunlight—but They’re No Astrophage. Here’s How the ‘Project Hail Mary’ Antagonist Has a Real-Life Analogue in Earth’s Oceans

By snatching chloroplasts from algae, animals called sacoglossans produce their own energy through photosynthesis