Writing

Can Killer Robots Help Save the Great Barrier Reef? | Medium, Researchers in Australia are using autonomous technology to combat a notoriously hard-to-kill pest. November 2018
A Witness to the Disappearing Wonder of Wild Orcas | DeSmog, Reflections on the endangered awe of meeting endangered orcas in the wild. November 2018
RangerBot: Programmed to Kill | Hakai Magazine, A new generation of sea star-murdering robots is set to deploy. August 2018
20 Things You Didn’t Know About … Ants | Discover Magazine, Some are slaveholders, others sip blood and a few jump backward like nobody’s business. July/August 2018 issue
Raising an Eyebrow | Natural History Magazine, Scientists test why large brows went out of facial fashion in human evolution. July/August 2018 issue

The Whale That Dines Alone | Hakai Magazine, Researchers listened as solitary humpback whales made a supposedly social call. May 2018
Immobilized Plants | Natural History Magazine, Scientists are starting to understand how anesthetics also affect plant movements. March 2018
Mussels on Acid | Hakai Magazine, Variability in ocean acidity may be a bigger deal than scientists thought. December 2017

Staging Bird Murders to Save a Species | The Atlantic, A contentious way to teach captive animals what to fear in the wild. November 2017
How Not to Kill an Albatross | Hakai Magazine, Accidental albatross deaths can be curtailed if commercial fishers make one simple change. November 2017
The Global Climate Community Finally Has a Plan to Address Agriculture | Earther.com, UN climate negotiators made critical progress towards addressing the globe-warming emissions of agriculture. November 2017
Farmed and Dangerous? Pacific Salmon Confront Rogue Atlantic Cousins | Scientific American, Northwest fish escape highlights concerns—and dearth of research—over aquaculture. August 2017
Too Hot to Fly | Slate, Phoenix’s heat wave grounded planes and stranded customers. It’s about to become much more common. July 2017
Lights Out for Hawai‘i’s Seabirds | Hakai Magazine, Scientists hope lasers can save endangered seabirds from power line collisions. June 2017
Brazil Gets Lit | Hakai Magazine, Artificial lighting is spreading across the country, with unknown effects on its wildlife. May 2017
Science Stars: The Next Generation | Discover Magazine, [Subs. req., view here] Here are some of our favorite emerging science stars. April 2017

Smog Will Choke Crops If Climate Plan Is Scrubbed | Scientific American, Legal threats to Obama’s Clean Power Plan could result in ongoing crop losses as smog accumulates. April 2017
Radioactive Refuges | Hakai Magazine, A heavily-exploited Japanese fish found sanctuary after the 2011 Fukushima earthquake. January 2017
Making a More Perfect Penguin | Hakai Magazine, A long-term study shows the subtle hand of natural selection on Argentina’s Magellanic penguins. November 2016

New Research Offers a Wider View on Indigenous North American Whaling | Hakai Magazine, Additional early North American societies may have been whale hunters, not just scavengers. November 2017
The Lazarus Frog | Discover Magazine, A small frog in a dark rainforest gives one scientist hope for endangered amphibians. October 2016
The Killer Kiss of Kohn’s Snails [VIDEO] | Hakai Magazine, Venomous cone snails may be slow, but they’re deadly. September 2016
This Robot Thinks It’s a Larva | Hakai Magazine, A new robot is designed to mimic the behavior of teeny tiny larvae. September 2016

Planted Evidence | Natural History Magazine, Archaeologists find evidence connecting Madagascar’s mysterious settlers directly to Southeast Asia. Sept. 2016
How to Give a Seabird an Underwater Hearing Test | Hakai Magazine, Scientists are worried marine noise may affect seabirds, but first they have to figure out how to test it. August 2016
Accelerated Development | Natural History Magazine, Risk of infanticide quickens monkeys’ development. June 2016

Born Immunity | Natural History Magazine, How honey bees pass on immunity to their young. October 2015
Gut Reaction | Natural History Magazine, A major coffee pest relies on bacteria in its gut to metabolize caffeine. October 2015
Meet 4 Animals Who Use Chemical Deception to Camouflage Their Smell | Earth Touch News, Camouflage doesn’t have to be only about what the eyes see. January 2016
Thanks to Eavesdropping Scientists, We Can Listen to the Secret Sounds Giraffes Make at Night | Earth Touch News, What does the giraffe say? Hummmm…it’s been a mystery. September 2015

Virgin Births Are Not a Great “Plan B” for Super-Endangered Sawfish | Earth Touch News, Female sawfish may be resorting to a method of reproducing never seen before in wild animals with a backbone. June 2015
Our Six Citizen Science Picks | Discover Magazine, Try science for yourself: Join one of these citizen science projects; lab coat optional. October 2014
5 Reasons Why We’re Obsessed with Venomous Sea Snails | Earth Touch News, How about the fact that they manufacture an underwater pharmacy of nightmares? February 2015

Anty Venom | Discover Magazine, A never-before-seen ability gives crazy ants an edge over red fire ants. December 2014
3 Amazing Projects You Should 3-D Print Right Now | DiscoverMagazine.com, These designs highlight the ways 3-D printing can improve lives and empower people. August 2014
Top 4 Summer Science Road-Trip Destinations: Hanford Nuclear Reservation | Discover Magazine, The Hanford Nuclear Reservation, a onetime national secret, now hosts both a National Historic Landmark with free, guided tours and a $40 billion environmental cleanup. May 2014
Mantis Shrimp Vision Is Not As Mindblowing As You’ve Been Told | PopSci.com, It’s a lovely thought that a glass-punching, rainbow-colored crustacean could have sensory and aesthetic capabilities beyond our wildest dreams. Yet something isn’t quite right. June 2014

Great Extirpations | Natural History Magazine, between 10,000 and 4,000 years ago, intertwining stressors led to the extinction of the woolly mammoth. September/October 2012
Snug as a Bug in a Bug in a Bug | Natural History Magazine [PDF], two bacterial symbionts nested inside each other—inside mealybugs—result in dramatically reduced and complementary genomes. November 2011
A Man of New Words | Natural History Magazine [PDF], earliest record of the development of the Cherokee written language discovered in Kentucky cave. December 2011/January 2012

Ashley Braun