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Stories from this author

"While classified ads in the newspaper are mostly limited to local opportunities, Craigslist lets me go global."

Will Work for Brain Scans

Your dream job—part-time zombie? candle consultant?—is only a click away

Columbian mammoths were larger than mastodons. Both once roamed North America.

Mammoths and Mastodons: All American Monsters

A mammoth discovery in 1705 sparked a fossil craze and gave the young United States a symbol of national might

"In the bad old days, when medical life was more free-wheeling, "MASH"-style humor was commonplace."

UBI in the Knife and Gun Club

The secret language of doctors and nurses

At an 18th-century auction in Amsterdam, Vermeer's Woman in Blue Reading a Letter sold for about one-third the amount that its owner spent to obtain a then rare Conus gloriamaris shell.

Mad About Seashells

Collectors have long prized mollusks for their beautiful exteriors, but for scientists, it’s what inside that matters

In the '80s, the challenge was to limit acid rain from power plants; now, it's to cut carbon emissions.

The Political History of Cap and Trade

How an unlikely mix of environmentalists and free-market conservatives hammered out the strategy known as cap-and-trade

"Some halls of fame are admittedly just a nice way for industries to give loyal timeservers a pat on the back."

Your Name Here

If you’re not yet a Hall of Famer, maybe you’re just not trying

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On the Origin of a Theory

Charles Darwin’s bid for enduring fame was sparked 150 years ago by word of a rival’s research

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Blame the Rich

They made us who we are, some researchers now say

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Who’s Fueling Whom?

Why the biofuels movement could run out of gas

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In the Name of the Law

How to win arguments without really trying

Jokim Githuka, 3, displays a portrait of his dead father, Robert Njoya, in a Kenyan maize field. Other sons stand by his grave with Njoya's widow, Serah. The trial of his undisputed killer, Thomas Cholmondely, has electrified this former British colony.

Death in Happy Valley

A son of the colonial aristocracy goes on trial for killing a poacher in Kenya, where an exploding human population is heightening tensions

A verreaux's sifaka lemur can jump 30 feet

For the Love of Lemurs

To her delight, social worker-turned-scientist Patricia Wright has found the mischievous Madagascar primates to be astonishingly complex

The warts and all approach of obituarists such as Andrew McKie of the Telegraph (left) and the Denver Post's Claire Martin (right) gives an "accurate portrait of those who have embellished and undermined our society," says obits scholar Nigel Starck (center).

Dead Lines

Today’s obituary writers sum up lives famous and not with pans as well as paeans

Having logged thousands of hours observing chimpanzees and other apes, Frans de Waal (left, at his Atlanta field station) argues that primates, including humans and bonobos, are more cooperative and less ruthless than once thought.

Rethinking Primate Aggression

Researcher Frans de Waal shows that apes (and humans) get along better than we thought

"Among dung beetles, for instance, the smallest sneaker males relentlessly attempt to slip into tunnels where females are sequestered while Mr. Big, the guarding male, is looking the other way."

Close Encounters of the Sneaky Kind

When it comes to mating, the brawny guy is supposed to get the girl, but biologists are finding that small, stealthy suitors do just fine

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Kon Artist?

Though evidence against his theory grew, Kon-Tiki sailor Thor Heyerdahl never steered from his course

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Monkey Wrench

An American couple’s ingenious research challenges the popular notion that baboons and other monkeys are almost human

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Following the Track of the Cat

The Bushmen of Namibia are so good at reading the language of footprints they can tell what a leopard did the day before they started pursuing it

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Dear Smitty

Our authors write Smitty, our travel editor, about their journeys

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So Tiny, So Sweet…So Mean

If hummingbirds were as big as ravens, it probably wouldn’t be safe to go for a walk in the woods

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