Maris Fessenden

 

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

The variable stars flickering to the golden ratio are RR Lyrae — a class of pulsars first found in the constellation Lyra (bisected by the Milky Way here)

Pulsing Stars Flicker in a Pattern Close to the Golden Ratio

The famed ratio, which shows up in art, architecture and nature, can also be found in space

Gene Changes Make Humans’ Sense of Taste Unique

Our ability to eat bitter plants help distinguish us from our ancestors and chimpanzees today

A yellow crazy ant

Invasive, Acid-Spraying Ants in Hawaii Are Deforming Native Seabird Chicks

The ground-dwelling chicks are pestered by invasive ants spraying acid

One of the HIV-prevention medications, a pill called Truvada

A Setback for HIV Prevention Trial: Getting People To Take the Medicine

Women didn’t take their preventative medications, even those proven to work, for fear of side effects

Pigeons' Brains Work Kind of Like Ours

A small study showed impressive categorizing abilities in three pigeons

Dyed droplets are propelled off leaves by simulated rainfall

Life-Giving Rain Also Spreads Deadly Plant Disease

High-speed cameras show how leaf flexibility influences raindrop dispersal into the air — along with pathogens picked up from infected plants

Hikers in the North Cascade mountains of Washington, on the Pacific Crest Trail

The Pacific Crest Trail Is So Popular It Needs a New Permit System

Only 50 people per day will be allowed to start thru-hikes from the southern terminus

An Enigma deciphering machine from the German navy

Notes From Alan Turing’s Code-Breaking Days Found in Roof Insulation

The rare code-breaking documents include sheets used to calculate settings for the machine working on "Enigma"

Illustration of the Elysia chlorotica by Mary Peart from "Report on the Invertebrata of Massachusetts" by Augustus A. Gould, W. G. Binney

A Green Sea Slug Steals Power From Algae

The discovery makes this a true plant-animal hybrid

Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home

Thomas Jefferson Conducted Early Smallpox Vaccine Trials

When an English doctor discovered a safer kind of immunity, someone had to spread the word to America

The Taj Mahal Gardens Have a Special Relationship to the Solstice

On the day the sun climbs the highest in the sky, careful alignments within the gardens and buildings of the beautiful mausoleum appear

Harper Lee in 2007, accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Harper Lee is Releasing A Sequel to “To Kill A Mockingbird” in July

The novel was written before her prize-winning book and tells the story of Scout as an adult, returned to her hometown from New York

"Young people run down a snowy hill with enthusiasm, ca. 1940" in Chicago

Visit 1940s Chicago With a Film Discovered at a Garage Sale

The film, produced in around 1945, offers a thorough, fact-filled tour of the city

A nurse at the ELWA Ebola Treatment Unit in Monrovia, Liberia, picks up disinfected boots

There Aren’t Enough Patients for Ebola Drug’s First Clinical Trial

The developer called a halt after fewer than 10 people had been treated in the trial’s first month

How You Shop Can Reveal Your Identity to Thieves

Women are more easily identified from their shopping patterns than men

Meet the Friendly Virus That Might Actually Be Good For You

Many people carry it, but it doesn’t make you sick and could actually fight against viruses like HIV and Ebola

Haenyeo from South Korea's Jeju island

South Korea’s 'Women of the Sea’ Have Free Dived For Abalone Since the 17th Century

Diving supported life on the wind-scoured, rocky island of Jeju

An artist’s interpretation of an alien planet and its star

Planets Formed Close to Their Stars Are Named for Vulcan, the Roman God of Fire

Closer to their stars than Mercury is to the Sun, these hot worlds deserve an explanation

Friendship Nine members Clarence Graham, Willie Thomas Massey, David Williamson Jr., James F. Wells and Willie E. McCleod (L-R) stand in front of the renamed Five & Dine diner in Rock Hill, South Carolina, on December 17, 2014

The "Friendship 9" Who Sat At A White-Only Lunch Counter Have Been Cleared

The men who participated in a South Carolina sit-in were sentenced to 30 days hard labor in 1961

The Ohio Measles Outbreak Wasn’t Caused by "Anti-Vaxxers" But by an Amish Traveler

Blaming the anti-vaccination movement for an uptick in measles is oversimplification

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