Me
cevans | November 2, 2012The history of science can be read as a series of brusque reality checks. Once, we thought the sun revolved around the Earth, but modern astronomy relegated our real estate, incrementally, from the center of everything to a hum-drum corner of an unimportant galaxy in a handful of generations. The theory of Evolution turned us from mini-gods into just a consequence of squicky biological randomness. The decipherment of the structure of DNA and the human genome turned the spark of life into something that can be written down, stored, and analyzed by computers. Again and again, we have found our…
cwilcox | May 5, 2009The air felt thick and heavy in my lungs. As I drove further down the narrow strip of beach, my throat closed and my eyes burned. It wasn't normal sea air - it was toxic. Red tide was hitting the area in full force, killing off thousands of marine animals and filling the air with the neurotoxic compounds the algae Karenia brevis is known for. As the waves crash on shore, they break open the delicate algal cells, aerosolizing the odorless but noxious brevatoxins.
Many people have heard of red tide, but if you haven't experienced it, you should consider yourself lucky. A few years ago I was…
cwilcox | March 20, 2009I woke up this morning feeling somehow lighter, freer. The air smelled sweet and the sun was shining - a beautiful day in paradise. But that was not the cause of my elated mood - it's always nice here in Florida. No, something was different. Something had changed.
Oh, that's right. I'd CUT OFF ALL MY HAIR.
It's amazing how good you feel waking up to tangle-free locks first thing in the morning. Having had my hair long for years now, I just took for granted that every morning had to start with a battle with the rat's nest just to look like I own a comb. Truth is, as good as it looked when it…