Lee Billings is a science journalist specializing in astronomy, physics, planetary science, and spaceflight and is senior desk editor for physical science at Scientific American. He is author of a critically acclaimed book, Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search for Life Among the Stars, which in 2014 won a Science Communication Award from the American Institute of Physics. In addition to his work for Scientific American, Billings’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, Wired, New Scientist, Popular Science and many other publications. Billings joined Scientific American in 2014 and previously worked as a staff editor at SEED magazine. He holds a B.A. in journalism from the University of Minnesota.
Rocket Explosion Prompts Doubts about Commercial Spaceflight
This week’s fiery failure of Orbital Sciences’s Antares rocket has some wondering if the company has the right stuff to support NASA’s goal to outsource orbital flights
Google Exec's Stratospheric Plunge Breaks World Record
This morning in Roswell, New Mexico, a spacesuit-clad 57-year-old Google executive, Alan Eustace, strapped into a harness beneath a giant helium balloon and lifted off to new heights in the upper stratosphere.
Hundreds of Comets Seen Orbiting Distant Solar System
The “exocomets” swarming around Beta Pictoris mirror those seen in our own solar system, but for a few surprising differences.
The Best Seat in the House for Sunday’s Comet Flyby Is Mars
Scientists and satellites gear up for a comet’s spectacular chance encounter with Mars
The Best Seat in the House for Sunday’s Comet Flyby Is Mars
Scientists and satellites gear up for a comet’s spectacular chance encounter with Mars
Time Travel Simulation Resolves “Grandfather Paradox”
What would happen to you if you went back in time and killed your grandfather? A model using photons reveals that quantum mechanics can solve the quandary—and even foil quantum cryptography
A New View of the Sky
Issue Editor Lee Billings introduces the “Secrets of the Universe” special edition
Astronomers Use Gravitational Lenses to Push Hubble Past Its Limits
To learn how the universe evolved over time, a space telescope gazes back to the earliest galaxies ever observed
Found in Space, Part 2
Journalist Lee Billings Talks about his book Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search For Life Among the Stars, Part 2 of 2
Found in Space, Part 1
Journalist Lee Billings Talks about his book Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search For Life Among the Stars, Part 1 of 2
The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle of General Relativity
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
Book Review: The Last Ocean
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
Book Review: Oxygen
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
Astronomers Search for Moons Circling Distant Exoplanets
Moons orbiting distant exoplanets may account for most of the habitable locales in the galaxy. If only we could find them
Smart Phones as Thin as Credit Cards
Book Review: Beautiful Geometry
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
Book Review: Tigers Forever
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
Book Review: Out on a Limb
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
November Book Reviews Roundup
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
Book Review: Voyager
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
Five Billion Years of Solitude: Looking for Longevity [Excerpt]
In this excerpt from Five Billion Years of Solitude author Lee Billings chronicles the pioneering scientists who have led the hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence in their quest to answer the haunting question: Is humanity alone in the universe?
It’s Time to Modernize the Antiquated Definition of Temperature
The quest for an absolute temperature scale heats up
Book Review: Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?
Books and recommendations from Scientific American