Wired
(longer pieces only; to find my shorter pieces please check the Wired archive)
Marc van Roosmalen is one of the most famous biologists in the Amazon. Now he’s looking at 14 years in prison for biopiracy.
June, 2008
Rare Mummified Dinosaur Unearthed
Wired News, December 2, 2007
Q&A: Zillow’s Rich Barton on Real Estate, AI, and Basement Floods
December, 2007
The Plant That Will Save America
Made from cheap, fast-growing grasses, cellulosic ethanol could cure our addiction to oil. But first scientists have to break down one of nature’s strongest molecules.
October 2007
How Google Maps is changing the way we see the world.
July 2007
First Blood
HIV, Ebola, SARS–many of the world’s most horrifying diseases are caused by animal viruses that made the jump to humans. Now a UCLA scientist thinks he can stop the next pandemic before it even starts.
May 2007
Jeff Hawkins created the Palm Pilot and the Treo. Now he says he’s got the ultimate invention: software that mimics the human brain.
March 2007
Spanish to English? French to Russian? Computers haven’t been up to the task. But a
December 2006
TEST, November 2006
Larry Brilliant has the coolest - and hardest - job around: Decide how to donate $1 billion of the Google fortune
July 2006
POST: May 2006
POST: October 2005
How homeland security became the biggest market opportunity since the dotcom boom
December 2005
In the beginning there was
October 2004
It’s got full flavor at one-third the calories. It’s safe for teeth and diabetics. And it’s all-natural. The long, strange search for the ultimate sugar substitute.
November 2003
(Reprinted in Chinese: Advanced, April 2005)
Desert storms from
April 2003
(Reprinted in French: “La Grande Muraille verte de Chine, Courrier International)
July 17, 2003
In-your-face marketing. Extreme camera angles. Trash-talking superstars. Sound like TV sports? Try sports videogames, where the nastiest competition is the battle to take down the reigning champ, EA Sports.
January 2003
A decade after
March 2002
The once proud Soviet missile fleet has set its sights on the deep-discount launch business.
December 2001
The Electric Kool-Aid Bandwidth Test
Luke Stewart boldly sold politicians, businesspeople, and financiers on his trillion-dollar idea: Use the electrical grid to carry data at speeds faster than we’ve ever seen. Never mind how.
November 2001
Microchips promise to make artificial legs as good as new. Fast-forward amputees are remaking life and limb on their own. The race is on.
July 2001
Twenty years ago, Tracy Kidder published the original nerd epic. The Soul of a New Machine made circuit boards seem cool and established a revolutionary notion: that there’s art in the quest for the next big thing.
December 2000
The invention police can’t stand Greg Aharonian, who says the fuss over Amazon’s “one-click” plan is old news. The real problem: The government lost its grip on intellectual property long ago.
June 2000