August 1, 2009

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Reviews: August 2009

Celestial Views, Bigfoot Pursuits and Scientific Twitterers

By Kate Wong

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ANCIENT LIGHT: A PORTRAIT OF THE UNIVERSE
by David Malin
Phaidon, 2009 ($49.95)

Celebrated astronomical photographer David Malin takes readers on a memorable tour of the night sky with this collection of 60 large-format black-and-white photographs. Platinum prints capture galaxies, nebulae (such as the Helix nebula, above), star clusters and other phenomena in stellar detail.

Kate Wong is an award-winning science writer and senior editor for features at Scientific American, where she has focused on evolution, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, paleontology and animal behavior. She is fascinated by human origins, which she has covered for nearly 30 years. Recently she has become obsessed with birds. Her reporting has taken her to caves in France and Croatia that Neandertals once called home to the shores of Kenya’s Lake Turkana in search of the oldest stone tools in the world, as well as to Madagascar on an expedition to unearth ancient mammals and dinosaurs, the icy waters of Antarctica, where humpback whales feast on krill, and a “Big Day” race around the state of Connecticut to find as many bird species as possible in 24 hours. Wong is co-author, with Donald Johanson, of Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. She holds a bachelor of science degree in biological anthropology and zoology from the University of Michigan. Follow her on Bluesky @katewong.bsky.social

More by Kate Wong
Scientific American Magazine Vol 301 Issue 2This article was published with the title “Celestial Views Bigfoot Pursuits Scientific Twitterers” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 301 No. 2 (), p. 78
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0809-78
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