Writing

Nikk has written for Science, Scientific American, Science News, The Scientist, Inside Science, Eos, The San Jose Mercury News, Mongabay, The Monterey Herald, and beyond.

How intricate Venus’s-flower-baskets manipulate the flow of seawater

07/21/2021

(Science News) -- Simulations show that this deep-sea glass sponge's skeleton is more than just pretty...(read more)

How Romanesco cauliflower forms its spiraling fractals

07/08/2021

(Science News) -- By tweaking just three genes in a common lab plant, scientists have replicated the pattern...(read more)

A tweaked yeast can make ethanol from cornstalks and a harvest’s other leftovers

07/07/2021

(Science News) -- When corn farmers harvest their crop, they often leave the stalks, leaves and spent cobs to rot in the fields. Now, engineers have fashioned a new strain of yeast that can convert this inedible debris into ethanol, a biofuel...(read more)

Fossilized dung from a dinosaur ancestor yields a new beetle species

06/30/2021

(Science News) -- In a fossilized chunk of ancient reptilian poo, scientists have uncovered complete specimens of a new beetle species. The finding, described June 30 in Current Biology, suggests that fossilized dung could contain more details about past life than previously thought...(read more)

For some dinosaurs, the Arctic may have been a great place to raise a family

06/24/2021

(Science News) -- Dinosaurs didn't just summer in the high Arctic; they may have lived there year-round, new fossil evidence suggests...(read more)