Ant-thropology and "Doctor Bugs"

I had a fun assignment for the August issue of Smithsonian: catch up with Mark Moffett, aka "Doctor Bugs," for a short profile pegged to his photo exhibit at the Natural History museum. This guy is a true character, and a born storyteller...for days after the interview, I couldn't stop spouting trivia about ants and all the parallels between their lives and ours.

You can read it here, if you want to become a bug dork, too.

Salami, Mr. Holcomb?

My latest article for Smithsonian magazine catches up with one of the first women to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy, and the poor plebe she yelled at in a historic photo by Lucian Perkins.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Salami-Mr-Holcomb.html

It was a pleasure to report this story, because all of the people involved are just so genuinely nice!