"In the deepest hour of the night, confess to yourself that you would die if you were forbidden to write. And look deep into your heart where it spreads its roots, the answer, and ask yourself, must I write?" --Rainier Maria Rilke

THE FOURTH ESTATE

Want to know what I'm writing these days? You'll find articles past and present, print and electronic, bloggy or otherwise, right here. (NOTE: Some of the articles are no longer available online, or are behind a paywall.)

"Let the Geek Worship Begin," New Scientist, March 26, 2011 (book review)

"The Scholar and the Caliph," Physics World, January 2011 (fiction)

"Big Game Theory," Discover, November 2010

"Going With the Flow," Wall Street Journal, July 21, 2010 (book review)<.p>

"A Many Worlds Thriller," Physics World, June 2, 2010 (book review)

"Genius in Hiding," &mdash New Scientist, November 21, 2009 (book review)

"Apollo with Warp Drive? Make It So," &mdash The Washington Post, July 19, 2009

"Corporate Interests," &mdash Physics World, October 2008.

"Can You Solve These Mysteries?" &mdash New Scientist, July 16, 2008 (book review)

"Nature's Surround Sound," New Scientist, July 12, 2008

"The Big Bang Theory," &mdash Symmetry, January/February 2008.

"Judge Imposes Stricter Measures on US Navy Sonar Tests," &mdash Physics Today, February 2008

"Femtosecond Lasers Prepare to Break Out of the Laboratory," Physics Today, January 2008

"Mechanical Mysteries of the Yodel," &mdash New Scientist, December 22, 2007

"Cold Plasmas Enter the Biomedical Arena," &mdash Physics Today, December 2007

"White LEDs Poised for Global Impact," Physics Today, December 2007

"Opals Inspire Shameless Sheen-Stealing," New Scientist, July 28, 2007

"Beginner's Mind," &mdash Symmetry, March 2007

"Soap Suds and Cosmic Secrets," &mdash New Scientist, February 24, 2007

"Scientists in Love: When Two Worlds Collide," &mdash Nature, February 15, 2007

"Architects Bridge the Void," New Scientist, June 13, 2006

"Lucky Horseshoe," On Earth, Fall 2003

"Bubble, Bubble: The Physics of Foam," Discover, June 2002

"Teaching Old Masters New Tricks," &mdash Discover, December 2001

"Pollock's Fractals," Discover, November 2001

"The Scrooge of Science," &mdash Salon, March 15, 2000

"The Call of the Past," &mdash Salon, September 15, 1999

BLOGGY STUFF

I maintain a science and culture blog at Scientific American called Cocktail Party Physics, hosted by my faux-French avatar/alter ego, Jen-Luc Piquant.

I also blog regularly for Discovery News, and you can find my musings on space-related topics here.

3 Quarks Daily

Back in 2006, 3QD co-editor Abbas Raza asked me to write a monthly column called "Random Walks" as part of the site's Monday fare (featuring original essays instead of the usual links). I don't know what Abbas was expecting, but it probably wasn't quirky musings on Alice Cooper, C.S. Lewis, the Ultimate Fighting Championships, Jack Chick comics, and tarot decks. Time constraints forced me to bow out of the column after a year, but it was fun having an outlet for my non-scientific musings. Here are the collected columns for your reading enjoyment:

Past Perfect
Narnia, Schmarnia
Band of Brothers
Casino Royale
Heart of Darkness
She's a Rebel
Less Than Zero
The Trouble With Harry
Primal Instincts
Shuffling the Cards
Nightmare Theater
Tunnel Vision

THE INDUSTRIAL PHYSICIST MAGAZINE:

In 1995, back when I was just starting out as a science writer, I became a contributing editor of a brand-new publication: The Industrial Physicist magazine, published by the American Institute of Physics. The magazine folded after a nine-year run, but the archives remain online for your reading pleasure.

Quantum key distribution, December 2004
Seeing with sound, June 2004
John Woollam's career in ellipsometry, April 2004
Time-resolved spectroscopy comes of age, February 2004
Smart fluids move into the marketplace, December 2003
Bioinformatics moves into the mainstream, October 2003
A new wave of microfluidic devices, August 2003
Switching from physics to biology, April 2003
Quantum dots for sale, February 2003
Building the nanofuture with carbon tubes, December 2002
Science goes exploring under the sea, August 2002 (PDF)
Silicon-germanium gives semiconductors the edge, June 2002 (PDF)
Illuminating new territory with lidar, April 2002 (PDF)
Inventing high-tech instruments, February 2002 (PDF)
Seeing the future in photonic crystals, December 2001 (PDF)
Biomaterials facilitate medical breakthroughs, October 2001 (PDF)
Physicist leads theory group at Microsoft Research, August 2001 (PDF)
Semiconducting polymers on display, June 2001 (PDF)
Quantum cascade lasers turn commercial, April 2001 (PDF)
Developing fiber-optic communications, February 2001 (PDF)
Exploiting molecular self-assembly, December 2000 (PDF)
Radio on a chip will revolutionize communications, August 2000 (PDF)
Shirley Jackson puts a new face on physics, June 2000 (PDF)
Detection on the cutting edge, April 2000 (PDF)
Physicists graduate from Wall Street, December 1999 (PDF)
Young researcher pushes display technology, October 1999 (PDF)
The incredible shrinking microphone, August 1999 (PDF)
Smart pixels wed optics and electronics, June 1999 (PDF)
Lasers open up the life sciences, April 1999 (PDF)
Electronic noses sniff out new markets, February 1999 (PDF)
Fuel cells gather steam, February 1999 (PDF)
Combinatorial materials synthesis, December 1998 (PDF)
Superconductor power applications, December 1998 (PDF)
New ultrasound therapies emerge, September 1998 (PDF)
Biosensors: Microelectronics marries biology, September 1998 (PDF)
SQUID sensors penetrate new markets, June 1998 (PDF)
Failure analysis in a nanometer world, June 1998 (PDF)
Speech recognition: Humanizing the interface, March 1998 (PDF)
Optical data storage looks beyond CDs, March 1998 (PDF)
Materials competition for flat panel displays, December 1997 (PDF)
Science and art converge in concert hall acoustics, September 1997 (PDF)
(Science writing award from Acoustical Society of America)
Contamination control in vacuum systems, September 1997 (PDF)
Digital displays with micromirror devices, June 1997 (PDF)
Nanostructured materials get tough, June 1997 (PDF)
Solving real-world problems virtually, March 1997 (PDF)
Free-electron lasers: A radical alternative, March 1997 (PDF)
How smart are smart materials?, December 1996 (PDF)
MEMS: Mega promise for micro devices, September 1996 (PDF)
TRIZ-based tools promote innovation, September 1996 (PDF)
The diode-pumped laser revolution, June 1996 (PDF)
New waste treatment methods being developed, June 1996 (PDF)
The microfabrication boom, March 1996 (PDF)
GPS industry poised for explosive growth, December 1995 (PDF)