One reason Antarctica is so unique is because it's been isolated from the rest of the planet for about 20 million years: ever since the Antarctic Circumpolar Current formed. The ACC - you guessed it - is an ocean ... Read More  

Four more sleeps until Polar: Wildlife at the Ends of the Earth lands in a bookstore near you! During preliminary research for the book, when I was trying to figure out which adaptations I would cover and which animal ... Read More  

Despite the giant window in my office, the room was unbearably dark. Aging eyes feeling the strain, I replaced the light fixture with a brighter one. That helped, sort of. But on cloudy days, it was still a dim ... Read More  

It's International Polar Bear Day! Since it's 2023, I've rounded up 23 cool facts about these icons of the Arctic, including a surprising discovery I helped make during in my former life as a wildlife geneticist. Is your favourite ... Read More  

Did you have a dinosaur phase when you were a kid? I did. I was in the second grade, and I was obsessed. I pored over library books, memorizing five-syllable names and amazing the adults with my stockpile of ... Read More  

If you're anything like me, media coverage of climate change has given you the following impressions: Dependence on fossil fuels is the main reason for climate change. Individuals bear ultimate responsibility for climate change, because we make choices that are bad ... Read More  

When I was writing The Boreal Forest, one of my goals was to shine some light on ecological processes - by showing how a forest works, I could hopefully show what a forest is for... by which I mean, ... Read More  

It's a grey, rainy Friday and I'm seriously tempted to go back to bed until spring shows up. I'm also feeling very grateful that I live in an area that is not seriously affected by flooding, and a great ... Read More