Fighting the Second Skeleton

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The skeleton of Harry Eastlack

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva is an incredibly rare disease, striking just one out of every two million people. It’s also an incredibly astonishing disease. A single mutation to a single gene causes muscles to spontaneously turn into new bones. Over time, people with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP for short) grow a second skeleton–one that can cut their lives short.

I wrote about FOP in “The Girl Who Turned to Bone” in the Atlantic in 2013. At the time, FOP served as a microcosm for the struggles of people with rare diseases. (In the United States, almost 30 million people have rare diseases of one kind or another.) Continue reading “Fighting the Second Skeleton” →

The Slow Process of Countering the Emerald Ash Borer

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The New York Times, August 27, 2015

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In 2001, ash trees began dying in Detroit, and no one could say why. Then glittering green beetles were discovered crawling out of an ash log.

American scientists had never seen the beetles, and they reached out to experts around the world for help. A Slovakian entomologist named Eduard Jendek solved the mystery: Detroit’s ash trees were being killed by Agrilus planipennis, the emerald ash borer, an obscure species native to East Asia.

In its home forests, the emerald ash borer causes little trouble. Sadly, that is not the case in North America.

Continue reading “The Slow Process of Countering the Emerald Ash Borer” →

Friday’s Elk: A break from summer break

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Greetings!

I hope your summer has unfolded well. The picture here is from a trip I took to the Galapagos Islands in July. After writing for years about this special place, it was fabulous to finally see it in person.

The last time I sent out a Friday’s Elk, before my trip, I said I’d be taking off the rest of the summer. I’m breaking my summer silence (briefly) primarily to let you know about some housekeeping matters at Friday’s Elk. Continue reading “Friday’s Elk: A break from summer break” →

Evolving a Defense, Mimics Save Themselves

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The New York Times, August 20, 2015

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The Canadian tiger swallowtail caterpillar is a plump green creature that spends all its time munching leaves. It ought to be an easy meal for a bird, yet many birds pass it by.

The caterpillar is protected by a remarkable defense, researchers have found: It tricks birds into thinking it’s a snake.

The caterpillar grows concentric yellow and black rings that look like a giant pair of eyes. When the caterpillar senses a bird nearby, it quickly inflates the front part of its body, making it resemble a snake’s head.

Continue reading “Evolving a Defense, Mimics Save Themselves” →

How Autistic People Helped Shape the Modern World

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

WIRED, August 20, 2015

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THE CENTERS FOR Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in 68 children in the US are on the autism spectrum, a number that stands in staggering contrast to a 1970 study that put the figure at one in 14,200. Some people believe we’re in the middle of an autism epidemic. But autism has always been part of the human experience, as journalist (and WIRED contributor) Steve Silberman shows in his new book, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity. It’s only recently, he argues, that we have become properly aware of it. We spoke to Silberman about how the modern world came to recognize autistic people and how autistic people helped shape the modern world.

Continue reading “How Autistic People Helped Shape the Modern World” →