The Woman With Reversed Organs

The dead woman on the exam table harbored a strange secret inside her. The medical students didn’t realize her reversed organs until they opened her up.

Bentley had a rare condition called situs inversus, which is almost always fatal. The condition places the liver, stomach, and other organs in the abdomen in the wrong place, which can be dangerous when the blood vessels don’t reach the organs properly. However, Walker explains Bentley was lucky because her heart was (literally) in the right place, so her condition was much less dangerous. Medical literature describes two other people with the same condition, with similarly positioned hearts, and they both lived normal lifespans, into their 70’s.

situs inversus anatomy organs Ripley's believe it or not! My Bylines My Ripley's Bylines

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Whaler’s village in Maui. I find it interesting that this little area gets its name from the history of hunting whales, and they formerly had a museum about the history of whaling.

Now, it’s a museum about whale conservation. The spot is basically just an outdoor mall now, with whale statues and such, and it seems like the “killing whales” thing is a bit swept under the rug.

Whaler's Village Hawaii Whaling

Mule deer was fatally caught in the fence. There was actually an opening in the fence about 10 meters away, with deer hoofprints across it and a trail cam.

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I’ve been taking pictures of deer and other animals caught in fences. I have to say I kind of like these ones, where you can’t see the body but you know what happened.

I made a Flickr Album specifically of dead animals caught in fences, including the wider (ie more gross!!) version of this one.

dead animals vulture culture

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but i wonder where you are, i call your name into the dark.

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extinctionstories

This 36x48” oil on canvas diptych is part of a series I’ve been working on based on the thylacine, also known as the “Tasmanian Tiger” or marsupial wolf.

One of my biggest interests has always been animals, and in particular the ones that humans have destroyed. Every lost or vanishing species is its own story, and as an illustrator theirs are the stories that I am the most invested in telling (hence the blog).

The thylacine is one of the classic examples of human-caused extinction: an utterly unique creature, deliberately exterminated due to a combination of greed, ignorance, hubris, and fear.

Scared or anxious marsupials have a habit of stretching their jaws in a display known as a yawn (you’ve probably seen memes of opossums that look like they’re yelling—it’s the same thing). This display was especially striking in the thylacine, which could open its jaw to over 90°. Some of the most famous photos of thylacines capture them in this attitude of fear.

Unfortunately for the thylacine, humans have more direct methods of dealing with the things that scare them.

The title of this pair of paintings is ‘When They Are Frightened, They Show Their Teeth’.

The overall series is called ‘Here Be Monsters’, as a nod to both the far-flung environs of the thylacine, and the behavior of those who intruded upon it.

Stay tuned for more.

Science Writing Resources (Elsewhere) That We Like - The Open Notebook

We aren't the only show in town when it comes to supporting high-quality science journalism! On this page, you’ll find lots of other resourc

The Open Notebook

If you’re interested in science writing, I’ve recommended The Open Notebook before and I’m recommending it again! And in turn, here is a list of things that they recommend for science writers. There really are tons of resources out there!

Full disclosure, I was looking at this site because they just put my group on there, Authors of Nonfiction Books in Progress. Most of the attendees are science writers, but if you’re writing (or seriously about to start writing) a non-memoir nonfiction book with an educational element, you’ll benefit.

authors of nonfiction books in progress sciecomm science journalism

Antler collection! I captured this person running and skipping right to that matched pair. What a lucky* moment!

*It’s actually not antler collection season at the National Elk Refuge yet, so they didn’t get to keep these. They’re doing it as a special event where scouts get to collect early BUT they all go to auction at ElkFest instead of going to the people collecting. Still, I bet it felt really cool to get them!

antler collection elk antlers elk National Elk Refuge

Panel on Vertical Videos about Science

Hi all–I’m moderating a panel on vertical video for the National Association of Science Writers Conference!

If you make great science-focused social/vertical videos (TikTok, IG Reels, YT shorts) and want to be on a panel, LMK! Or feel free to suggest someone. Since I’m already good with TikTok, I’d love someone who is best with IG Reels/YT Shorts.

This will be a one-hour online panel in the first week of October. Sadly no pay but participants get free admission to the Science Writers conference (including the in-person part, in Boulder, CO)

Vertical Video Scicomm Science Communication

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10 Years on Tumblr!

This is the 10th anniversary of this blog. I’ve got a count of 65,000 followers, but I’m sure much fewer people are actually here. Still, I’m happy to get some engagement!

I started this blog because I had applied to an internship with Huffington Post’s Crime and Weird News, and the interviewer asked if I had a blog. I figured, why don’t I have one if I’m supposed to be a professional journalist, and lots of people have blogs?

I had a lot of fun writing about what I wanted to write about, having been trained with a degree in journalism that focused a lot on stuff I wasn’t interested in (“Community Meeting About Pothole on Third Avenue,” etc). But man, did it ever start flowing when I could focus on animals and bones and stuff!

So I got a master’s in Science Journalism at Boston University, then interned at National Geographic, then freelanced for them, did a fellowship at PBS Newshour, took a job at Newsweek, then a bunch of other little things, then Bay Nature Magazine. You can see some of my writing here.

Social media has always been part of my career. I think that this blog helped me stand out on my application to Nat Geo and launched me into that. Then at PBS Newshour I was a Science and Social Media News Assistant, then at both Newsweek and Bay Nature, I really improved the social media presence of our content. (Among other things, I did @newsweekscience ’s Tumblr and Bay Nature’s TikTok). I have a list of my social media accounts in this pinned post.

In 2018 I pitched a book called Carcass to MIT Press, and they were interested, but that kind of went to the back burner in the craziness of that time. In 2020 I started a Tiktok (RollBones) which now has more than 190,000 followers. Then in 2022 I revisited the book, got an agent, and now I have a $50k advance book deal with MIT Press. Carcass (@carcassafterlives) should be out in the spring of 2025.

Thanks for sticking around!

tumblr milestone tumblr anniversary 10 year tumblrversary social media Journalism career

Strange Biology — The Woman With Reversed Organs

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.