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Ann Finkbeiner

Author bio

Ann Finkbeiner is a freelance science writer based in Baltimore, Maryland who usually writes about astronomy and defense science, often for Nature or Science. She is co-proprietor of a splendid group science blog, The Last Word on Nothing.

Ann Finkbeiner’s Contributions:

Jane Lubchenco

An Ecologist Organizes the World

Jane Lubchenco helped change the field of ecology by making the science useful to society.

Feb 4, 2020 | 2,800 words, about 14 minutes

When scientists discovered that the Chesapeake Bay—one of the world’s largest estuaries—was dying in the 1970s, Grace Brush (middle) and her students and colleagues set out to find out why. Photo by Skip Brown

The Scientist Who Reads a Lost History in the Mud

Hard working and tough as nails, Grace Brush did what others couldn’t—she teased out the mystery of the Chesapeake Bay.

Nov 1, 2017 | 3,500 words, about 17 minutes

After surviving starvation on the Irish island of Inishbofin, the women and children of the Halloran family never abandoned hope for a better future. Photo courtesy of Trinity College Library Dublin

Hunger’s Children

Fleeing the Irish Famine, some immigrants brought their islands with them to North America.

Jul 18, 2017 | 2,600 words, about 13 minutes

Thunderbird and Whale had a terrible fight. Illustration by Jeffrey Veregge

The Great Quake and the Great Drowning

Mega-quakes have periodically rocked North America’s Pacific Northwest. Indigenous people told terrifying stories about the devastation but refused to leave.

Sep 14, 2015 | 3,100 words, about 15 minutes