How crazy ants live up to their name
Crazy ants (named for their strange, jerky walk) are displacing fire ants from the Southern US. Fire ants are notorious for their toxic venom, so researchers wondered how the crazy ants were able to overcome them. It turns out they’ve developed a neat behavioral trick, smearing their own formic acid venom all over their bodies […]
Back to work: Of bats and bumblebees
Well, I had a nice, relaxing, vacation in India. It was great to see friends and family after a long while, and enjoy the good food and warm weather. Now I’m back, well refreshed, and it’s time to get back to work. Right after I got back, I attended the 2014 Beckman Initiative for Macular […]
Writing, coding, and time for a vacation
I finished my last freelance story for 2013, a NationalGeographic.com article about a dinosaur fossil with a fleshy comb like that of a rooster. I also took a few lessons on CodeAcademy. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a quick primer on various programming languages, I find their lessons quite a bit of […]
Productive month
It’s been a productive first month freelancing, I got to work on lots of fun stories, mostly for NationalGeographic.com (I did some other assorted work, including for PNAS). I wrote about the fact that African elephants can apparently understand human pointing gestures, and how dogs react differently when they see other dogs’ tails wagging left […]
A new adventure: Freelancing
After two years at PNAS, I’ve left to become a freelance science writer/journalist. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and for a number of reasons this seemed like a good time to transition into freelancing. Unfortunately, unlike the videogame, there’s a distinct lack of flying through space while trading supplies and fighting off other […]
A break
As is probably obvious from my lack of posts, I’m taking a break (or have been taking a break) from this blog. It’s been a busy couple of months, with some ups and downs. Been reading and thinking a fair bit, about various things, but haven’t been motivated to mention particular articles/books or write down […]
Smithsonian video game exhibition
Saw my name scrolling on the wall, thanks to my contribution to the Art of Video Games exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, which I went to see yesterday. (I think I paid $10 in an online campaign a year ago). The exhibition was interesting, although it was more like a quick walk […]
The Birth and Partition of a Nation: India’s Independence Told in Photos – The Atlantic
The Birth and Partition of a Nation: India’s Independence Told in Photos – Armin Rosen – The Atlantic. Pictures from India’s independence in the Atlantic, on the occasion of India’s Independence Day on August 15. An interesting look at this momentous event.
Testing out my camera’s HD video recording abilities
[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXO7AluhYzw[/youtube] Testing out my camera’s 1080p recording mode, edited and uploaded a video to Youtube. Try watching it at 1080p if you have a fast enough connection. Was just fooling around with my camera before coffee this morning, the video took about 10 minutes to put together. Suffice it to say, I’m not […]
Axon: A game about growing neurons
Wellcome: Axon Game. Wellcome seems to have an interesting collection of educational web games. Axon, in particular, seems pretty fun to play (although my 5-year-old computer seems a bit too slow for it). They have more on their main games page. I was impressed with how well produced the games were, they all look pretty […]