Pen Sapiens

Critically endangered spotted handfish have taken to artificially created ceramic nests, used in unique springtime courtship rituals.

Ravenous caterpillar that eats hundreds of plant species, unstopped by pesticides, and that's never been to the Americas arrives in the Americas and hybridises with the locally adapted caterpillar. What more?

A whirlwind tour of venomous animals the world around, featuring animals from 'Venom' (2017).

LOG 3: My final log after two weeks at sea. We found a shipwreck, lost for 70 years, saw flocks of boobies, flying fish, turtles, and sharks, and formed a strong bond doing so.

LOG 2: Initial experiences at sea. Meeting some of the researchers and tech on board, some good ol' etymology and more.

LOG 1: Went on a research voyage on RV Investigator from Sydney to Broome across the top of Australia. Seasickness, STEM teachers, iron fertilisation. Here's blog one.

A piece I wrote for CSIRO on a few of my favourite/most common families of spider to promote the new ID book: 'A Field Guide to Spiders of Australia'.

Australian white ibis: the smelly canaries in our city. Here's a piece I wrote for the Australian Geographic.

Here are some quick facts about the Moon. Awooo.

My two artworks for the book 'Secret Lives of Carnivorous Marsupials' (2017).

Our insides are a terrarium: biodiverse with bacteria, fungi, and more; it's an evolving ecosystem.

My first videogame article published online at The Escapist.

One of Australia's only active volcanoes — Big Ben — erupts. Here's my article and radio appearance on the story.

A regularly updated collection of musings about science, culture, and everyday minutiae, sometimes sincere, sometimes facetious, sometimes I can't even tell.

The time I tried a music review without knowing how to do a music review.

A failed Cracked article about my social media concerns.

The feeling of 'wetness' seems to be no more than an illusion.

Pokémon has been a testing ground for almost every creative pursuit I've ever done. Here's the gamut.

DNA was analysed to write out the complete family tree for birds. They found that bird species diversified only once dinosaurs went extinct.

Researchers used a carefully designed experiment to show that anole lizards in Florida evolved in just 15 years to cope with an invading lizard species.

Bumblebees have been shown to misremember traits of desirable stimuli, conflating two familiar traits to pursue an unfamiliar mix.

Eleven years after the Beagle 2 spacecraft disappeared on Mars, NASA’s orbiting reconnaissance satellite has snapped photos of what appears to be the Beagle 2’s hull in the dusts of the Red Planet.

Geneticists have used fish fin-forming genes to generate wrists and digits in mice — providing evidence for limb homology.

Sterile, bacteria-free mice with damaged guts can have their insides healed by a common rodent virus, providing the first evidence of internal, beneficial, virus communities.

Researchers used MRI to show that chronic marijuana users had increased brain connectivity but also reduced orbitofrontal cortices.

Ravens in stable social alliances will actively disrupt other relationships from forming in order to maintain social capital.

Why do we keep coming back to our Facebook feeds and scrolling for so long?

Exposing the elderly to positive stereotypes can be healthy.

5 quasi-scientific ways to pep you up, maybe.

The brains of mothers respond with similar feelings to their children and pets.