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Photo by Logan Fahey
My son, Isaac Klein, created a podcast series as his master’s thesis at the Hussman School of Journalism, UNC Chapel Hill. I’m not only the proud mother, but my license plate is the subject of one of the episodes. Look for “Vanity” wherever you get your podcasts, or listen on Isaac’s website.
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Courtesy of The Rockefeller University
No, I didn’t win it, but I got to present this international award, which includes research support of $100,000, to Dr. Katalin Karikó, on June 8, 2022. The prize is given annually at The Rockefeller University to an outstanding woman in the biomedical sciences. As presenter, I was asked to speak for 10 minutes about my own career as a science writer.
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Guild Hall promotional poster
The Hamptons Observatory and Guild Hall hosted an evening of poetry about astronomy on April 7, 2021. Although I enjoyed timing the event to National Poetry Month and International Dark Sky Week, I hope you’ll agree we didn’t really need an excuse to read these poems aloud.
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Credit: LIGO, CALTECH, M.I.T. AND AURORE SIMONNET SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY
Beginning with the August 2020 issue, the poetry column that I edit has emerged from behind the magazine’s paywall. Poet Jessica Reed, sent the link to Corey Gray, the physicist whose actions inspired the poem. He loved it. Image credit: LIGO, CALTECH, M.I.T. AND AURORE SIMONNET SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY
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Ignite graphic courtesy of @IgniteRadioPlay
My young cousin Lucy Evans and I share an interest in plays about science. Lucy, who lives in London, recently conceived an idea to encourage young playwrights to attempt short radio dramas on scientific themes. She received a handsome grant from the Royal Society of Chemistry—and cooperation from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama—that enabled her to attract, reward and mentor a group of young creatives in the UK. Their podcast dramas about climate change are now live.
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Nebula Currents (detail) 2018 © Joanne Julian
After we stood together in the shadow of the Moon in 2012 (and again in 2017), my pal Joanne Julian expanded her artistic subjects from botanicals, fish, and birds and feathers to clouds and skies.
Image credit: Nebula Currents (detail) Acrylic, Prismacolor on paper 22x30" ©Joanne Julian 2018
Read moreIt’s been twenty years since soprano Sarah Pillow first called on me to read aloud some letters to Galileo from his daughter Suor Maria Celeste. The occasion was a concert of 17th century music at a church in Manhattan. After that Sarah formed the early music group Galileo’s Daughters, which includes her musician husband Marc Wagnon. Now that performing in person is problematic, Sarah and Marc offer weekly “anthems” for the confined from their studio in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City.
Read moreWhen I first met KC Cole, in the early 1990s, she was an editor at Discover Magazine giving me freelance assignments to cover planetary exploration. She has written several books over the years we’ve been friends, and is now contributing clever essays to Wired. The recent two look at Coronavirus from a mathematical perspective and from the point of view of evolutionary adaptability.
Read moreIn the years since Lynette Cook created her wonderful, whimsical illustrations for The Planets she has turned her artistic eye to the patterns of falling shadows. Two of her shadow paintings were recently chosen to appear in the De Young Open, a juried community art exhibition at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
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Women in astronomy, the theme of my book The Glass Universe and also the topic of a new Lego set called "Women of NASA," is a subject that has long engaged my friend Andrew Fraknoi, Emeritus Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College in San Francisco. Andy has put together an excellent resource guide that will, I'm sure, prove a great help to students and teachers alike.
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