Sarah Scoles

Westcliffe

Science Writer and Journalist at Freelance

Journalist, universe liker, trail runner, contributor @SciAm @Undarkmag. Author, They Are Already Here, Making Contact, Countdown.

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Articles

How Science Might Help Keep Wild Places Wild

2 weeks ago | undark.org | Sarah Scoles

Most people used to think the Crestone Needle, a jagged peak in Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo range, was unclimbable. Until, that is, Albert Ellingwood and Eleanor Davis reached its summit in 1916. Looking down, they saw a basin whose pristine nature was marred only by their own camp. The Needle was the last of Colorado’s 14ers — peaks higher than 14,000 feet — to be climbed on record. Today, Ellingwood and Davis would have company up there.
AI-Powered Rescue Dogs

2 weeks ago | nautil.us | Sarah Scoles

A blur of golden fur and exuberance, the search and rescue dog bolts from a handler’s side and carves a wide arc through a patchy field in Missouri. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . The dog, who is part of an elite urban search-and-rescue team, knows what her duty is: Find a scent trail, locate the person at the other end of the odor, and alert her handler—guiding them to someone who might be lost, trapped, injured, or dead.
Norway, A Surprising Satellite Powerhouse — With A Troublesome Neighbor | Flipboard

1 month ago | flipboard.com | Sarah Scoles

3 hours agoAppeals court reverses Trump firings of 2 board members in cases likely headed for the Supreme CourtWASHINGTON (AP) — Two board members fired by President Donald Trump can go back to their jobs for now, a split appeals court ruled Monday ahead of a likely Supreme Court showdown on the president’s power over independent agencies.
Xenolinguistics-the Study of Alien Languages-Helps to Reveal Why All Beings Communicate

1 month ago | scientificamerican.com | Sarah Scoles

In the 2016 movie Arrival, water-dwelling extraterrestrials make an appearance on Earth. The main human character’s job is to learn how to communicate with the seven-tentacled extraterrestrials before tensions escalate into war.
Book Review: Casting a Brighter Light on Nuclear Energy

1 month ago | undark.org | Sarah Scoles

In 2000, a reporter attended a climate conference and wrote in an article for the Dutch alternative magazine Ode that purveyors of nuclear power hailed the energy source as “a ‘safe and clean’ way to generate electricity.” Perhaps, the speakers said, nuclear energy was even the singular solution to climate change.
A powerhouse of global satellite infrastructure: Norway?

1 month ago | popsci.com | Sarah Scoles

The KSAT Svalbard Ground Station, or SvalSat, consists of more than 150 antennas ensconced in spherical coverings.
A Powerhouse of Global Satellite Infrastructure: Norway?

1 month ago | undark.org | Sarah Scoles

Timothy Stryker was making his second visit to Svalbard, a Norwegian island chain nudged up against the North Pole, but the yield signs still caught his attention: They directed drivers to defer not to other cars but to polar bears. Stryker didn’t encounter such hazards in his day-to-day work in Washington, D.C. Nor did he normally encounter the austere landscape now surrounding him — fjords, ice, lunar-like rock piles, snow-studded mountains bearing down on the sea.
Mood Lighting and Hilton Interiors—Meet the Private Space Stations of the Future

2 months ago | scientificamerican.com | Sarah Scoles

NASA wants to get out of the space station business and put it in the hands of, well, businesses. The agency is planning to send the International Space Station (ISS) to a fiery death through Earth’s atmosphere in 2031 so it can focus on its longer-term, farther-out (literally) goals such as going back to the moon. Elon Musk recently called for the agency to deorbit the station much sooner.
Her Discovery Wasn’t Alien Life, but Science Has Never Been the Same

Feb 13, 2025 | virginislandsdailynews.com | Sarah Scoles

With TV cameras pointed at her, Felisa Wolfe-Simon began speaking at NASA headquarters in Washington on Dec. 2, 2010. “I’ve discovered — I’ve led a team that has discovered — something that I’ve been thinking about for many years,” Wolfe-Simon said. She was at that time a visiting researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey, speaking to a sizable audience of journalists and bloggers, two of them wearing tinfoil hats, and hordes of streamers online.
Her Discovery Wasn't Alien Life, but Science Has Never Been the Same

Feb 11, 2025 | nytimes.com | Sarah Scoles

With TV cameras pointed at her, Felisa Wolfe-Simon began speaking at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 2, 2010. "I've discovered - I've led a team that has discovered - something that I've been thinking about for many years," Dr. Wolfe-Simon said. She was at that time a visiting researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey, speaking to a sizable audience of journalists and bloggers, two of them wearing tinfoil hats, and hordes of streamers online.