Kristen French

Journalist, Writer and Editor at Freelance

Associate Editor at Nautilus

Associate editor @Nautilusmag pitches to kristen.french @ https://t.co/Q8lSkqkBvI bylines @ Wired NewYork Guernica Al Jazeera. @ColumbiajournMA She/Her

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Articles

Author Jack Lohmann on His New Book White Light, about Phosphorus

1 month ago | nautil.us | Kristen French |Jack Lohmann

Author Jack Lohmann started thinking about phosphorus when he learned the story of Nauru, the world’s smallest island nation, which lies between Australia and Hawaii. In 1899, a geologist named Albert Ellis discovered a strange rock propping open a door at a trading and plantation firm there named the Pacific Islands Company and realized it was in fact high-grade phosphate ore, a highly sought after source of fertilizer.
Surfing the Brazilian Wave With Personhood Rights

Dec 16, 2024 | nautil.us | Kristen French

Join ADVERTISEMENT Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. or Join now . Environment The true meaning of legal protection for nature. Sign up for the free Nautilus newsletter: On a blazing morning in October, I paddled my surfboard into a caramel-colored sea off a beach in Brazil, hoping to catch a wave with its own individual rights.
When Daydreaming Becomes a Nightmare

Aug 29, 2024 | nautil.us | Kristen French

Throw on the Power Lights! Rev her up to 8,500! We’re going through!” shouts the commander to his crew, as he navigates through the worst storm in his 20 years of flying. A harrowing scene unfolds but then Walter Mitty is brought back to reality by the sound of his wife’s voice, the daydream fading into the byways of his mind. Not long after that, he’s struck with a new fantasy, and then another.
Placebo Science Is Rooted in Witch Hunts

Aug 27, 2024 | nautil.us | Kristen French

In 1599, a youngwoman in the Loire Valley of France began to suffer violent outbursts, rolling around on the floor in convulsions, eyes rolled back in her head, tongue lashing out, a tortured voice erupting from her stomach. Named Marthe Brossier, she accused her neighbor of using witchcraft to cause a demon to possess her, and she quickly became famous.
The Art of Quantum Forces

Jul 5, 2024 | nautil.us | Kristen French

Imagine a top turning and turning in a widening gyre, like a dancer without a partner, its spin axis wobbling as though it were under the influence. What keeps that top going round and round in hypnotic whorls is a force called angular momentum, a challenge to the leaden tugs of inertia and gravity.
A Tiny Insect with Extraordinary Piss

Jun 14, 2024 | nautil.us | Kristen French

What goes in must come out! Consider the milimeter-sized sharpshooter insect. This tiny creature feeds on the sap found in the xylem of plants, a specialized tissue that transports fluid and nutrients from the soil up to the stems and leaves. The problem is that Xylem sap is 95 percent water, so the thirsty bugs must suck up to 300 times their natural body weight per day to obtain adequate nutrients.
Has psychiatry lost touch with individuals?

Jun 4, 2024 | bigthink.com | Kristen French

People who suffer from mania are often characterized as inhabiting a world in which time seems to have sprinted ahead. They are said to have a flight of ideas, racing thoughts, rapid speech. In contrast, those with depression seem to suffer from the opposite: They languish in bed, unable to get up, seem to stumble over words, their thoughts and movements materializing only slowly, like wafts of smoke.
Has Psychiatry Lost Touch With Individuals?

May 24, 2024 | nautil.us | Kristen French

People experiencing manic episodes are often characterized as inhabiting a world in which time seems to have sprinted ahead, spun out of control. They are said to have a flight of ideas, racing thoughts, rapid speech. In contrast, those with depression seem to suffer from a dreary sluggishness: They languish in bed, unable to get up, seem to stumble over words, their thoughts and movements materializing only slowly, like wafts of smoke.
Four creatures that have weaponized blood, spit, and venom.

Apr 29, 2024 | nautil.us | Kristen French

Combat in nature is often a matter of tooth and claw, fang and talon. But some creatures have devised devious and dramatic ways to weaponize their bodily fluids, expelling them in powerful streams for the purposes of attack or self-defense. Researcher Elio Challita became fascinated by fluid ejections in nature when he began studying an insect called the sharpshooter, which pees one droplet at a time using a method called superpropulsion.
Talking with Tal Danino, Author of "Beautiful Bacteria"

Mar 28, 2024 | nautil.us | Kristen French

Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. orJoin now. Arts Making art out of an invisible world that shapes human health and disease. Aesthetic bewilderment” is a kind of common ground in science and art, an engine for new ideas in both disciplines, writes Brazilian artist Vik Muniz in the introduction to a new book of photographs and essays about bacteria by microbiologist Tal Danino. That book, titled Beautiful Bacteria: Encounters in the Microuniverse, was published last week.