Sharks, Chimps and Nuts

Well, apparently you can get a flu shot and still come down with a nasty case of the flu. Or some other stomach bug. Whatever the heck it was, it laid me up for about two and a half days of last week, severely cutting back on my normally prodigious output. Oh well, I still managed to turn in my biggest assignment to date (shhh -- I can't tell you anything about it yet), interview some cool folks (for articles that I will finish up this coming week) and publish some (just four, sigh) interesting articles.

Speaking of those articles, here they are -- two for Scientific American and two for Mother Nature Network:

30 Percent of Sharks, Rays and Related Species at Risk of Extinction

Sunday Species Snapshot: Mexican Agouti

Chimpanzees gesture for (and bond over) food

Nut job: Thieves are stealing California walnuts by the truckload


So that's it for this time around, but worry not, I'm pounding the vitamin C and fluids and I am well-rested for the writing week to come. It's sure to be a fun and exciting week, so come on back here in 7 days for the links or follow me on Twitter for the latest headlines as they go live.

Mayhem Week: Diseases, Poisonings, Thefts and More

Wow, this week's articles took a bit of a dark turn...

First up, my "Extinction Countdown" articles for Scientific American, the first of which has been covered by no one else:

Typhoid Monkey: Can Social Networks Predict the Apes Most Likely to Transmit Disease?

From Saved to Stolen: Thief Absconds with Extinct-in-the-Wild Water Lily

Sunday Species Snapshot: Gulf Coast Jaguarundi


Next up, a bunch of news/science articles for Mother Nature Network:

Winner of $350,000 black rhino hunting auction goes public, now finds himself hunted

Did wine made from this poisonous flower kill Alexander the Great?

Darwin was right: Island life makes animals more relaxed

Molecular chlorine found at high levels in Arctic atmosphere

Ice-covered valley, bigger than the Grand Canyon, found hidden under Antarctica


And finally this week, here's my latest feature for IEEE-USA's Today's Engineer (which is, thankfully, mayhem-free):

IEEE-USA Board of Directors Has Big Plans for 2014


That's it for this time around. See you next Monday with another long list of article links. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest links as they go live. As always, thanks for reading!

2014 starts with a roar (of sadness)

Wow, are we 13 days into the New Year already? My, how time flies when you're busy writing. This is my first list of article links for 2014, which contains a bit more than my usual weekly reports so you probably have a bit of reading to do!

I'm happy to say that the year is off to a great start. In addition to the published links below, I am also working on several big features that will appear over the coming months, including one that won't see print until May. Yup, I'm a busy guy!

But although that's the present for me, it's the future for you. This blog is about the recent past, so here are the links from the first week-plus of 2014.

Let's start with a few Extinction Countdown articles for Scientific American:

Shocking Study Finds Lions are Nearly Extinct in West Africa [This was one of my most popular articles ever.]

New Population of Critically Endangered Rabbits Found in (of All Places) a Nature Reserve

Sunday Species Snapshot: Forest Owlet [This inspired a pretty neat article on Boing Boing.]

And here are two history articles and several news pieces for Mother Nature Network:

'Bring 'Em Back Alive': How one explorer changed what we know about animals

If you love pandas, you have one amazing woman to thank

Emperor penguins spotted climbing cliffs to avoid climate change

Ferreted away: Who's stealing the UK's ferrets?

Global warming could drive world temperatures up 7 degrees by 2100

Actual glow-in-the-dark pigs created by Chinese scientists

Poisoned oaks, now gone, loom large at Auburn University


Several of these articles were also reprinted by the Huffington Post. I won't overwhelm you with the links, though!

That's it for now. Make sure to follow me on Twitter for the latest links as they happen. See you next Monday!