I write for the Planetary Society, SRI’s blog, the West Marin Citizen, and The Pilot as both a freelance writer and photographer, and contributed to TechHive (formerly PCWorld). I enjoy finding a topic, researching it, and rapidly producing a piece that’s accessible and appealing to as many people as possible.
Here are links to some of my favorite articles and press coverage of my work:
Astronomy
- My review of Leaving Orbit: Notes from the Last Days of American Spaceflight appeared in Wellesley Magazine
- 2,800 words on How Arecibo Observatory Transmits to the ISEE-3 Spacecraft
- Press release on asteroid 2014 HQ124 covered by NBC, Universe Today, Discovery News, in addition to a joint press release with JPL
- Press release about comet 209P/LINEAR leaked to Universe Today
- Arecibo Observatory operational after repairs to fix earthquake damage – a guest expert post for the Planetary Society
- How Radar Really Works – again, for the Planetary Society
- A press release on asteroid 1998 QE2 I wrote was picked up by several news organizations, including the Huffington Post, Space.com, NBC News Cosmic Log, Discovery Magazine, Universe Today, Scientific American, among others
- Arecibo Planetary Radar looks at asteroids that safely pass the Earth – guest post for SRI International
- Citizen astronomers discover alien planet around four suns
- Seven Minutes of Terror: NASA’s Curiosity Rover to Land on Mars This Weekend
- Missed the Venus Transit in 2012? Watch It Online Until 2117
- Thank you, Space! How NASA Tech Makes Life Better on Earth
- 3D Printing in Space: Repair Your Space Station With Tools Built in Orbit (mentioned by NASA)
- Biggest Solar Flares in 4 Years Heading Toward Earth
Technology
- Life as We Don’t Know It: NASA Finds Arsenic-Eating Bacteria
- Is Apple Thwarting DIY Repair? New Screws Keep You Out of Your iPhone
- Samsung Galaxy Tab Rooted… A Month Before Release
- Hack: Control Your Car With an iPod Touch and Make James Bond Jealous
- The Car-puccino: A Car That Runs on Coffee (mentioned in Schott’s Vocab of the New York Times)
- Meet Magic-1, the Homemade CPU
- The Mythical Apple Tablet: Rounding Up The Rumors
Sailing
Some of my Pilot articles are reproduced on this blog, including an account of sailing to Marshall Beach for a campout and a logbook entry about navigating 50′ channels in 18′ boats.
Scientific Writing
In May of 2011 I completed my master’s thesis in MIT’s Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Department on magma ocean solidification and rare earth element concentrations through Earth’s mantle, Terrestrial Magma Ocean Solidification and Formation of a Candidate D” Prime Layer. My scientific writing on X-shaped extragalactic radio sources was published in the Department of Energy’s Journal of Undergraduate Education. I also contributed to a white paper on Trojan asteroids of Jupiter for the 2013-2022 Planetary Decadal Survey.
- Azenkot, S., Golfinopoulous, T., Marcus, A., Springmann, A., Varsanik, J. S. Overcoming barriers among Israeli and Palestinian students via computer science. Proceedings of the 42nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE ’11).
- Rivkin, A. S., Emery, J., Barucci, A., Bell, J. F., Bottke, W. F., Dotto, E., Gold, R., Lisse, C., Licandro, J., Prockter, L., Hibbits, C., Paul, M., Springmann, A., Yang, B. The Trojan Asteroids: Keys to Many Locks. Planetary Decadal Survey White Paper, 2009
- Springmann, A., Cheung, C.C. Host Galaxies of X-Shaped Radio Sources. Department of Energy Journal of Undergraduate Research, pp. 97-102, 2007
Very cool. Enjoyed the video. Thanks!