Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death & the Mother of Forensic Science To Mrs. Frances G. Lee, Captain, New Hampshire State Police, And One of the Few Women Who Ever Kept Perry Mason Guessing –Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom In Chicago, on 25 March 1878, John Jacob and Sarah Frances Glessner welcomed a […]
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Mushroom Kayaks “It was just like a psychedelic experience.” –Sam Shoemaker A gorgeous, archipelagic octet dots the Pacific Ocean off the shore of the Southern California Bight, a 430-mile bend stretching from Point Conception to Baja California. Five of the Channel Islands constitute the eponymous National Park, while the US Navy utilizes another two as training
Why Don’t Spiders Get Stuck in Their Webs? Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. –Sir Walter Scott, Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field Despite filling a large number of us with arachnophobia, spiders are marvels of engineering and pest extermination. The form of eight creepy-crawly legs surrounding a bulbous center with
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Black Moon While the Sun is invariably the most important body in space, an argument could easily be made that humans care more about the Moon. The queen of the night sky, we’ve looked at our satellite with awe for millennia. The ability to look at the Moon might be why we give it more love than
The Longest Lightning Flash Of the naturally occurring phenomena, one of the most visceral is lightning. Few things can fill us with wonder and a sense of immense, dangerous power like a bolt from the sky. So, it’s no surprise that we’ve studied lightning during this project over the years. We’ve seen it show up
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Corn Sweats We’ve editorialized multiple times about how fantastic firefly season is. Late June, early July, when the insects come out to tap Morse code in the grass, the days are long, the temperatures are warm, but the humidity has not ravaged our will to go outside. The love for this window is not a blanket
Failure I’ve been thinking a lot recently about failure. At the end of June 2025, I intently followed two incredible forays in the mountains. The first was an attempt at a fastest known time on the mighty Appalachian Trail; the second was the annual Western States Endurance Run, a 100-mile jaunt through the Sierra Nevada and,
The Violet Crown City of light, with thy violet crown, beloved of the poets, thou art the bulwark of Greece. –Pindar, Fragment 76 The drawing-rooms of one of the most magnificent private residences in Austin are ablaze of lights. Carriages line the streets in front, and from gate to doorway is spread a velvet carpet,
Indigo Buntings One of the most distinctive birds of the Americas is the indigo bunting. Named for its resemblance to an ancient dye, the bird can be brilliantly colored. A male indigo bunting – photo by Dan Pancamo Indigo is the black sheep of the ROYGBIV colors. Is it closer to blue or purple? Is it even a
