“This is our artificial sun,” Joel Ager said, as he gestured with mock grandeur toward a metal box about the size of an old computer tower. A glowing lens, which looked like it was transplanted from a projector, shined out of a hole in its side. It was aimed at a beaker filled with water sitting a few inches away. Ager’s colleague produced a metallic toothpick-sized stick, alligator-clipped it to electrodes, and dunked it. Under the light, the submerged stick became a luminous red.

And this is Annalee Newitz, Andrew Revkin said, as he got on with down-to-earth reporting at his Dot Earth blog.  She writes clearly. She looks funny (as in, she has a sense of humor, which is equally clear from her writing). This is Annalee Newitz in her own words.

And this is Annalee Newitz, in her own words, on the topic of the end of the world as we know it (click the image above, or here, to go to the full version of her recent post on the New Yorker website) in her new book:

This speculative and hopeful work of popular science focuses our attention on humanity’s long history of dodging the bullet of extinction—and suggests practical ways to keep doing it. From bacteria labs in St. Louis to ancient underground cities in central Turkey, we discover the keys to long-term survival. This book leads us away from apocalyptic thinking, into a future where we live to build a better world.

Science reporting is an art as much as it is anything else. Facts are an essential ingredient (along with humor and others) in our daily doses of information-sharing.