Maris Fessenden

 

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

The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy Rocket lifts off with the Orion spacecraft for its first test flight

A Successful First Flight For NASA's Orion Spacecraft

American spaceflight enters a new era

A steel engraving of Walt Whitman in his 30s from the first edition of Leaves of Grass, published in 1855.

Found in "Penny Papers" from the 1800s, A Lost Walt Whitman Poem

A professor at the University of Nebraska stumbled upon an ode to Whitman’s contemporary William Cullen Bryant

Bats Have Specific Brains Cells for Tracking Their Location While in Flight

Humans likely carry the same kind of cells in our own brains

Goodbye CAPTCHA: Just Click a Box to Prove You're Not a Robot

Google is getting rid of spam bots and annoying squiggly text at the same time

A historical altered photo showing a mushroom cloud over the United Nations and New York City waterfront

Tour the Great Wide World of Mushroom Cloud Imagery

Nuclear testing yielded far more, and more diverse, images of mushroom clouds than those that are commonly shown

Half the Cells in This Mouse’s Brain Are Human

Researchers implanted immature human brain cells in mouse pups, which then grew and replaced nearly half the mice's own cells

An engraving of "Mr. Garrick" as Richard III in a production of Shakespeare’s play

Richard III’s DNA Analysis Reveals Cuckoldry in the Family

Researchers can trace the monarch’s maternal lineage to modern relatives, but not the male side

An artist's interpretation of HIV in the bloodstream

HIV's Ability to Cause AIDS Is Weakening

A combination of advanced treatments and viral evolution are slowing virus’ reproduction

Hollywood Asked for Freeway Noise Barriers First

It only makes sense that the problem of road noise cropped up in Los Angeles

frame from Winnie-the-Pooh part 1 (1969)

Russia Has Its Own Classic Version of an Animated Winnie-the-Pooh

Three short films produced from 1969 through 1972 follow the adventures of A.A. Milne's characters

Older People’s Brains Notice More But Filter Less

A small study shows that elderly people notice patterns even when those patterns aren’t useful

Experts Have No Idea Who This Roman God Is

A recently unearthed carving combines Roman and Mesopotamian elements but may represent a god from an even earlier time

A MONIAC at Roosevelt College, pictured with economics professor Abba P. Lerner

This Computer From 1949 Runs on Water

Computers at the time didn’t have displays; one economics student created a visualization using water-filled tanks and tubes

A Civil War historical re-enactment at Tunnel Hill, Georgia

A Nurse Describes the Smell of the Civil War

The overpowering stink of blood and decaying flesh can surprise even trained soldiers

Will Mandatory Calorie Counts Rain on Cinnabon's 8,300-Rolls-Per-Hour Thanksgiving Parade?

Cinnabon staffs up to cope with the holiday rush for their 880-calorie cinnamon rolls

Lemmings Do Not Explode Or Throw Themselves Off Cliffs

A popular myth about these arctic rodents has its roots in faked documentary footage from Disney

Artifacts from the Antikythera Shipwreck, the famous mechanism in the center, as exhibited in Athens, Greece

Mysterious Antikythera Mechanism Is Even Older Than We Thought

This ancient astronomical calculator is now dated to 205 B.C. and is 1,000 years more advanced than anything else found from that time

A Dutch Actress Is Journeying to the South Pole on a Tractor

She pays tribute to great polar expeditions of the past and carries the dreams of thousands with her

The Black Sea Devil, a Rare Deep-Sea Anglerfish, Filmed for the First Time

Fewer than half a dozen anglerfish have ever been recorded swimming in their undersea habitat

We Weigh the Most on Mondays

The weekend’s excesses can pack on a few extra pounds, but routine during the week tends to strip them away again

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