The Science Essayist

A small, straight twig, held steady between the spokes of a rotating bicycle wheel as it speeds up, slows down, speeds up, slows down, falls still, and then is set to spinning again.
The last gasps of an aerosol can, shaken and sprayed by a determined hand, liquid and air shunted out together through a [...]

The so-called goat-sucker lives on mountains; it is a little larger than the owsel, and less than the cuckoo; it lays two eggs, or three at the most, and is of a sluggish disposition. It flies up to the she-goat and sucks its milk, from which habit it derives its name; it is said that, [...]

When the sunset shares space with the waxing moon, follow a curve-billed thrasher’s crazy mimetic call—all whistle, click, and buzz, with no beginning and no end—up the rocky side of Hayden Butte in Tempe, Arizona. He will be sitting, alone like you, on the edge of an overhead line, and he will not be disturbed. [...]

There has always been, for me, something shivery and mysterious about the Book of the Thousand and One Nights. One reason is that although for years it sat quite within reach on my father’s bookshelf, both the Nights and its store of what we so (in)delicately call “adult” material were closed to me as a [...]

I’m working on a new piece; it’s about hair.
In the meantime, I have a guest arriving in about an hour and a half and there are onions to caramelize and limes to slice and coffee to brew. I’m going to leave you with something I published today for Inkling that I particularly like.
P.S. [...]