Ongoing contributions to The Molecular Ecologist and on Medium. See also my scientific publications.
Plant biologist who went from Manheim to the Mojave makes case for federal funding for science. LNP | LancasterOnline.
Dispatches from the redwood rebellion — Review of Lyndsie Bourgon’s Tree Thieves, for Science.
We’ll have to sacrifice Joshua trees to save them — Op-ed on Joshua tree conservation needs and policy solutions, with Christopher I. Smith and Cameron W. Barrows, for the Los Angeles Times.
Getting to the root of forest symbioses — Review of Suzanne Simard’s Finding the Mother Tree, for Science.
A new age of gay genomics is here. Are we ready for the consequences? for Slate — Reporting on the first large-scale genomic study of sexual orientation, by Ganna et al., and reflections on the risks inherent in this line of research
Let the mystery be? for Slate — Essay on what we could learn from the genes that underlie sexual orientation, and the risks that come with that knowledge
Provident on Medium — Recalling my first summer job, in a Christian bookstore
My graduate advisor: What did he see in me? — Thoughts on establishing the mentor-student relationship, for the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Against ecological triage, for the Los Angeles Review of Books — Considering the tensions between practicality and inspiration in conservation advocacy
I found a tenure-track job. Here’s what it took. — A breakdown of the numbers for my time on the academic job market, for Chronicle Vitae.
The March for Science shows how bad scientists are at politics and A scientist’s journal from the March for Science in Washington, DC, for The Stranger — Thoughts and experiences around the 2017 March for Science
A lab of her own, for the Los Angeles Review of Books — Reflecting on the development of scientific careers in the modern era
Gay and in STEM Fields — Letter to the editor, with Allison Mattheis, in the New York Times
Call of the rewild, for The Awl — Review of How to Clone a Mammoth, and the motivations behind the movement to re-create ecological communities that existed before human settlement of the Americas
Coming out Darwinian. Is it time to rewrite the story of sex? for This View of Life — On the role of stories in scientific reasoning, and scientists’ responsibility to consider their consequences
Evolution between the sofa cushions, for the Los Angeles Review of Books — On evolutionary changes in response to human activities
Cluster-struck, for the Los Angeles Review of Books — Review of A Troublesome Inheritance, debunking the books’ argument for meaningful biological differences among human races
The intelligent homosexual’s guide to natural selection and evolution, with a key to many complicating factors, for the Scientific American guest blog; collected in The Best Science Writing Online 2012.
J.B.S. Haldane and the case of the revivified head, on Denim and Tweed; collected in The Open Laboratory 2010: The Best of Science Writing on the Web.
Ecological Opportunity: The seed of evolutionary change in your backyard—and in your veins, for the Scientific American guest blog.
Dudes, did you see the library they’ve got here? for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.