The Best Science Writing Online 2012

I've been practicing little idiosyncratic rituals on this corner of the web for years: learn something new, obsessively research, get lost in the idea, scribble, converse endlessly, then write. This blog, Universe, has never been about garnering hits or materializing an audience because, for me, thinking and writing about science is a personal tic. I can't help but yell into the void; I understand science as a poetic language for explaining reality, and when I see changes in that language all I want to do is unfasten myself into them.

I definitely don't seek any form of recognition for what I do here. In my estimation, it's niche--probably even archaic--to maintain and expect long-form discourse about peripheral science weirdness on a blog in 2012. I've made friends, gotten some work, told stories, and cross-pollinated, but it feels dorky, sometimes, to even have a blog. Mostly this is a quiet space, one where I can habitually articulate my own starry-eyed fascination with all those ideas bigger than my living room. If the Internet is a storm of ideas, then Universe is a little lean-to, a place to hunker and watch hurricane winds suck mallard ducks of out the city pond and howl, "is anyone else getting this"?

However, as it turns out, someone else is getting it.

I present to you The Best Science Writing Online 2012, an anthology of essays compiled by Bora Zivkovic and Jennifer Ouelette of Cocktail Party Physics. My essay, Moon Arts: Fallen Astronaut, originally posted here last May and part of my larger series about art on the Moon, is included.

I haven't much else to say other than it's an honor to have been nominated, chosen, and included in this formidable anthology. The book is like a fantastic cocktail party full of strange fungi, quantum clones, extinct creatures and Aspies all giving toasts, telling fascinating stories, and generally carrying on. Honestly, it's a great read, and I'm all the more inspired to carry forward, having read it. The Best Science Writing Online 2012 is out now on Scientific American Books, a division of Farrar, Straus & Giroux. You can buy it on Amazon here, or wherever you want to throw your money.

Oh, and it's not too late to submit any of my articles for the 2013 Anthology, either. ;)