In the field of comparative biomechanics, Mimi Koehl is an audacious pioneer whose success stems from a willingness to challenge assumptions. The Mr. Potato Head models don’t hurt either. Originally published in Duke Magazine. THE WEEK WAS NOT GOING WELL FOR RASTA LOBSTA or for its creator, Mimi A.R. Koehl. The robotic crustacean — built from the […]
Putting Science in the Dock
In an effort to exclude dubious experts, judges have assumed unprecedented power—and tilted the system against injured consumers. Originally published in The Nation. ON A CHILLY MORNING IN NOVEMBER 2001, David Healy stood in a witness box in Kansas City, Kansas, and received a sobering lesson on the U.S. legal system. A professor of psychological medicine at Cardiff University […]
Why Do Animals Age?
Scientists studying wild creatures, from turtles and terns to bats and parakeets, are coming up with answers that may help humans stave off some of aging’s most devastating effects. Originally published in National Wildlife. FOR THE REPTILES LIVING in the University of Michigan’s E.S. George Reserve, Justin Congdon is something of a troll under the bridge. A […]
Schweitzer’s Dangerous Discovery
When this shy paleontologist found soft, fresh-looking tissue inside a T. rex femur, she erased a line between past and present. Then all hell broke loose. Originally published in Discover. EVER SINCE MARY HIGBY SCHWEITZER peeked inside the fractured thighbone of a Tyrannosaurus rex, the introverted scientist’s life hasn’t been the same. Neither has the field of paleontology. […]
Creation Nation
Ken Ham says creationism and the inerrancy of the Bible are the solution to the world’s ills. Welcome to the world of Answers in Genesis. Originally published in Indy Week. ON THE RED-CARPETED DAIS of a church the size of a department store, a man with a Lincolnesque beard is addressing a sanctuary full of evangelical […]
When a Woman Goes Bald
A scientist’s painful battle with balding drives her to find the genetic basis for hair loss. Originally published in Discover. ON A FRIDAY MORNING LAST JUNE, Efrat Fadida threw a denim jacket over her white summer blouse and caught a ride with her father from the small Israeli town of Gedera east to Jerusalem. Walking into Hadassah […]
Lights Out
Can contact sports lower your intelligence? Originally published in Discover. SOME 20 YEARS AGO, IN FRONT OF A FRENZIED and antagonistic crowd, Harry Carson hurled his entire bulk—240 pounds—into an equally massive human body racing toward him across the field at Washington’s RFK Stadium. A middle linebacker with the New York Giants, Carson was a celebrated defensive […]
Less Sleep, More Energy?
New drugs promise to keep us sharp even when we need shuteye—but at a cost. A different version of this article was published in Reader’s Digest. IN AN ANTISEPTIC ANIMAL LABORATORY in Worcester, Mass., 160 rodents in oversized cages are hooked up, via thirty miles of wire, to a bank of computers that continuously record their vital […]
Forbidden Science
What can studies of pornography, prostitution, and seedy truck stops contribute to society? Originally published in Discover. YORGHOS APOSTOLOPOULOS WAS AT HIS OFFICE at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta last October when his red voice-mail light started glowing. When he picked up the phone, he heard a somber voice. “We need to speak,” said […]
The Scientist Who Hated Abortion
Endocrinologist Joel Brind says research has shown him the truth about abortion, and that’s why he set out on a crusade that now reaches into the heart of the nation’s most powerful cancer agency. But what if he’s wrong? Originally published in Discover. IN A LARGE, FORMAL PHILADELPHIA COURTROOM six years ago, endocrinologist Joel Brind swore on […]
