Maris Fessenden

 

Maris Fessenden is a freelance science writer and artist who appreciates small things and wide open spaces.

This Surfboard Maps Waves and Gathers Ocean Data for Researchers

Sensors would make surfers into citizen scientists

Watch How an Expert Spots Fraudulent Wine

Distinctive labels and corks mark the truly valuable vintages

Watch a Baby Bee Go From Wriggly Larvae to Adult in Just Over a Minute

From larvae to adult thanks to the magic of timelapse photography

Healthy ochre sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus)

This Beer Was Brewed to Save Sea Stars

A new ale sends some proceeds to research on sea star wasting syndrome

A guard patrolling the ruins of Nimrud in 1995

Cyber-archeology May be the Way to Remember Artifacts Destroyed by Militants

Digitally saving 3D models is the only way to offset some lost cultural artifacts

The dark gray object lurking above the Herschel crater on Mars is the Martian moon Phobos, as seen by the Viking Orbiter 1 in 1977

Did Mars Steal its Moons From the Asteroid Belt?

Scientists still aren’t sure where the odd little moons came from, but they have ideas

A jawbone from an ancient Taimyr wolf that lived about 35,000 years ago

Humans May Have Domesticated Dogs Tens of Thousands of Years Earlier Than Thought

Genetic analysis from an ancient wolf show just how complicated dog evolution was

A map highlights the most common unique cause of death in each state

Texans Die of Tuberculosis and Other Insights From the CDC’s Distinctive Death Map

The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention compiled a list of the most common unusual deaths in every state

When People Want an Upgrade They Tend to Break and Lose Their Old Gadgets

Researchers call it the "Must-Have Effect"

A worker puts finishing paint touches on the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory in January

This New Tower Gives Scientists a Bird's Eye View of the Amazon

It pairs with a similar tower in Siberia to observe changes in the Earth's atmosphere

Detail from The herball, or, Generall historie of plantes gathered by John Gerarde, purportedly depicting Shakespeare.

Is This a Portrait of Shakespeare? One Historian Says Yes, Many Say No

Many experts doubt whether the engraving found in a 400-year old book is actually the Bard himself

Saurornitholestes sullivani attacks a subadult hadrosaur Parasaurolophus tubicen

Meet Your New Favorite Dinosaur: The Velociraptor's Cousin

A keen sense of smell gave this dino an edge

Asteroid Impacts Once Made the Earth's Oceans Boil for A Whole Year

Life had it rough back then

This 1,500 year old skeleton from the Anglo-Saxon town of Great Chesterford was a young man who had leprosy

This 1,500-Year-Old Skeleton May Belong to the Man That Brought Leprosy to Britain

Modern techniques show that the young man was in his 20s and likely Scandinavian

Researchers are Trying to Harness the Power of Music for Unconscious Patients

Plumbing the depths of the unconscious brain has thus far uncovered more mysteries than answers

Scientists Flew a Jet Plane Into a Thunderstorm to Study Antimatter

They got a little too close and saw something unexpected

Here's How Video Game Designers Give Voices to Imaginary Creatures

All they need are digital vocal cords, voice box and mouth

European Bison (Bison bonasus) at Prioksko-Terrasnyy Reserve in Russia

Europe Once Had Bison, and now They're Making a Comeback

Just like their American cousins, the bison needed help after their numbers were decimated by habitat loss and hunting

Rhodiola rosea

Alaska is Growing a Plant the Soviet Military Used in Secret Experiments

Golden root, or Rhodiola rosea, is also popular in Siberian folk medicine

An archeologist from Inrap excavates a mass grave below a supermarket in Paris

Scientists Investigate a Medieval Mass Grave Under a French Supermarket

Renovation work uncovered hundreds of individuals, perhaps all killed by disease at the same time

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