Prosthetics, Wombats and Wedding Disasters

Last week saw publication of a wide range of new work, including two new features.

As I usually do here, I'll start off with my two Extinction Countdown articles for Scientific American:

An Invasive Plant Is Killing Wombats in Australia

Little Time Left for the Tamaraw? Philippine Buffalo Species Down to Last 300 Animals


Next up, my latest feature for Today's Engineer magazine. I spent about two months researching this one and it's about as good an article as I've ever done. The folks I interviewed were amazing people who do good in the world every single day:

Prosthetics: A Career That Changes Lives


Mother Nature Network gave me a couple of odd stories this week:

Do you have a wedding disaster plan? CDC offers tips for surviving the season of love

Brits sing the praises of cheddar cheese


And finally, here's another new feature, this time for IEEE's The Institute. While this is written for engineers, I think it's good advice for just about anybody:

Sales Skills for Engineers 


Enjoy the latest reads and check back next week for another batch of links!

Needy seals and zero-g bubbles

This was an odd week. I don't remember the last time a major holiday like the Fourth of July fell on a Wednesday. Of course, as a freelancer I was working pretty much the entire week, but most of my editors (not to mention my readers) were in vacation mode.

But there were still four new articles this week. Here are the links:

Citizen Scientists, Funding Needed for Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Project

Greening the fleet: Republicans criticize $26 a gallon biofuel being tested by the Navy

Animal-borne diseases cause 2.7 million human deaths per year

European Space Agency and Nestle study bubbles in zero gravity

This coming week should put things back to normal. I'll have my usual posts for Scientific American and Mother Nature Network, plus I should have at least two features (maybe three) pop up online. Make sure to follow me on Twitter for the links as they go live!

A species dies, ivory burns and a technology emerges

Last week brought just three new articles, but hey, it's the start of summer and a lot of folks are already on vacation. Don't worry, there's tons more in the works.

As usual, this week brought two new Extinction Countdown articles for Scientific American:

Sigh...

RIP Lonesome George, the Last-of-His-Kind Galapagos Tortoise

Massive Ivory Burn in Gabon Sends Message to Elephant Poachers

As not usual, this week also brought a long-in-the-works feature for Earthzine, a journal dedicated to satellite technology:

Remote Sensing Emerges as an Important Tool for Habitat and Species Conservation

And that's it! But I already have at least five more articles pending publication and a dozen others in the works, so stay tuned for more updates!

Flying kiwis, purring monkeys, a blind elephant and tiny horses

What a week... I am deep, deep, deep into several new features, but the weekly news stories continue.

First up, this week's two new Extinction Countdown articles for Scientific American:

Rarest Kiwi Species Takes Flight

Critically Endangered Purring Monkey and 1,900 Other Species Added to IUCN Red List


And here's my latest batch of articles for Mother Nature Network, which definitely gave me odd stories to write about this week:

Neigh-sayer: Utah congressman seeks to be ban miniature horses from restaurants

Auburn tree poisoning trial update: Jury selection begins [I can't believe I've been covering this story for a year and a half!]

How clean is the air? Your smartphone has the answer [This was reprinted by Forbes.]

Swarming bees keep New York City on alert

Surgery prepares elephant for possible contact lenses

That's it! More next week!

Cougar comeback, underwater astronauts, an aphrodisiac fungus and more

This week brought "only" five new, but they were good ones:

Cougars Are Returning to the U.S. Midwest after More Than 100 Years

Yarsagumba: Aphrodisiac Fungus Faces Extinction in Nepal

Live webcams follow NASA astronauts as they simulate asteroid mining on the ocean floor

Mexican drug trafficker accused of laundering profits through American race horses

Sacred banyan tree from Bhagavad Gita slowing dying

In addition to the new articles, Mother Jones reprinted another of my endangered species pieces.


Lots more in the week to come!

Platypus in peril, the wisdom of crowds, history mysteries and more

Wow, this is my 200th post here at the John Platt Library. That's a lot of articles and other goodies. I'm scared to actually go back and count the number of items that I have linked to over the years.

Anyway, here are this week's new articles. I'm going to start the links with this week with my latest feature article for IEEE-USA's Today's Engineer:

Crowdfunding: A New Opportunity for Science and Innovation


Next up, this week's two Extinction Countdown articles for Scientific American:

100 Amazon Bird Species Are at Greater Risk of Extinction Due to Deforestation


Platypus Populations on Small Australian Islands Show Lack of Genetic Diversity

Meanwhile, last week's saiga article was reprinted by Mother Jones, linked to by io9 and a bunch of others, and ripped off by more than a few sites. It's good to be loved.


Moving on, here are four new articles for Mother Nature Network:

2,000 former NFL players file lawsuit over brain injury risks


New web site offers landowners interactive tools for managing woodlands


Lost for 147 years: First doctor's report from Abraham Lincoln's assassination unearthed


Amelia Earhart: Anti-freckle cream and forgotten distress calls may hold clues to her disappearance


And finally, the new annual report for Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences contains 5 articles by me. They're not bylined (I got a credit at the end), but that's fine. Bigelow does phenomenal work and I had a lot of fun working with them on this.

More next week!

Blame the spaceman, Chagas disease, Creativity and more

Last week, the week after Memorial Day, may have only lasted four work days, but my productivity didn't suffer: I had 6 new articles and a few reprints appear during those 96 hours.

First up, my coverage of endangered species for Scientific American:

3rd Annual Antelope Die-Off in Kazakhstan—Was a Spacecraft to Blame? [This was also reprinted by the Huffington Post.]

Researchers Capture Fleeting Images of Incredibly Rare Sumatran Rabbit [Video]

Meanwhile, Mother Jones reprinted last week's article on California Condors.


Next up, four new articles for Mother Nature Network, some of which were in the queue as the week began:

Chagas disease called 'the new HIV/AIDS of the Americas'

Kalamazoo ospreys get safe new roost thanks to enterprising filmmaker

Study: Nature inspires more creative minds [This was also reprinted by CNN's HLN]

New ParkScore website ranks 40 largest American cities 


In other news, the IFAW posted a short video from their Animal Action Awards. Give it a watch for a few brief comments from me:



 
I have at least four new features pending publication this month. One or two might be online as early as this week. Keep watching my Twitter feed for updates.