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Carlyn Zwarenstein

Carlyn Zwarenstein is the author of On Opium: Pain, Pleasure, and Other Matters of Substance, her second book about drugs, pain and solidarity. As a journalist, she writes about science, literature, social movements and health. She's on Twitter at @CarlynZwaren, and Live More Lives is her dreamy weekly newsletter about fiction and experience.

A black widow spider, a venomous species now common in the American West, wrapping up its prey. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Who’s the real invasive species: us or them? Ecologists are rethinking urban biodiversity

Carlyn Zwarenstein

Virus (Getty Images / Yuichiro Chino)

It’s time to make friends with your viruses

Carlyn Zwarenstein

(H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock via Getty Images)

Does extraterrestrial life smell like the sea?

Carlyn Zwarenstein

Three-months old baby bonobo Nakarla (L) plays with its mother Ukela on March 19, 2008 at the zoo in Frankfurt/M. (THOMAS LOHNES/DDP/AFP via Getty Images)

Animals are talking — will the legal system listen?

Carlyn Zwarenstein

A view of the famous 'Morant's Curve' offering a beautiful view of the frozen Bow River and the Canadian Pacific Railway at Banff National park near Lake Louise, Canada, late on December 06, 2013. (Photo by JOE KLAMAR/AFP via Getty Images)

We treat corporations like living things with rights. Why not rivers?

Carlyn Zwarenstein

(Photo Illustration by Salon / Getty Images / SCIEPRO / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Shutter2U)

Woolly mice and “dire wolves” are a distraction from attacks on endangered species, experts caution

Carlyn Zwarenstein

Insect design integrated with microchip. (Getty Images / Chayanan)

We can turn bugs into flying, crawling RoboCops. Does that mean we should?

Carlyn Zwarenstein

A framed vulture surrounded by beautiful flowers (Photo Illustration by Salon / Getty Images / milanosss / 500px / Eduardo R / Tomekbudujedomek / Sergey Ryumin)

Your mom’s so ugly

Carlyn Zwarenstein

Marble Roman bust with a surgical mask over its face. (Getty Images / OsakaWayne Studios)

More than a plague: How colonialism, class and incarceration feed disease outbreaks

Carlyn Zwarenstein

Bird Flu (Getty Images/Peter Garrard Beck)

Bird flu isn’t as silent as we think — experts caution the pandemic threat is still growing

Carlyn Zwarenstein

Cochliomyia hominivorax, the New World screwworm fly, or screwworm for short, is a species of parasitic fly that is well known for the way in which its larvae (maggots) eat the living tissue. (Getty Images / Ramdan Fatoni)

We once rid the US of this nasty parasite. Now it could be coming back

Carlyn Zwarenstein

A >5mm member of section Longisetae of the genus Mycena, so named for the long, hyaline spines (setae) which emanate from the pileus and stipe. Some members of this group are bioluminescent. (Danny Newman)

Weird, rare mushrooms in Ecuador reveal secrets about life and loss of biodiversity

Carlyn Zwarenstein

Scheme of parts of human brain with circuit board as brain anatomy. (Getty Images / Grafissimo)

Humans think — AI, not so much. Science explains why our brains aren’t just fancy computers

Carlyn Zwarenstein

Virus spore in an ice cube (Getty Images/Yingko)

A torrent of infectious diseases is erupting from melting ice. We shouldn’t freak out just yet

Carlyn Zwarenstein

White blood cells, a stack of platelets and red blood cells revealed in the photomicrograph of a thick film Giemsa-stained blood smear sample, 1971. (Getty Images/Smith Collection/Gado)

Our cells carry their own sexual identity. That’s science, not ideology

Carlyn Zwarenstein

Wood frog (Getty Images/Auscape/Universal Images Group)

The ultimate comeback: the science of resurrection

Carlyn Zwarenstein

A small town glows beneath a starry sky. (harpazo_hope / Getty Images)

Take back the night: Establishing a “right to darkness” could save our night skies

Carlyn Zwarenstein

Seine et Marne on march the 6th 2021 at night. Taurus constellation. On this image we can see the effect of the movements of artificial satellites through the sky. On the left we can see the planet Mars, on the right the famous stars cluster the Pleiades (M45). From the bottom right the luminous trail of the satellite STARLINK-1269, and from the top the luminous trail of the satellite STARLINK-1577. (Christophe Lehenaff / Getty Images)

Erasing the stars: Satellite megaconstellations are a mega problem for Earth and sky

Carlyn Zwarenstein

Neuronal network, conceptual illustration. (CHRISTOPH BURGSTEDT/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Getty Images)

What makes humans intelligent? These unique neurons might hold the key

Carlyn Zwarenstein

Stony Brook, N.Y.: A digital sign directs people to the drive-through coronavirus testing area which began on the main campus of Stony Brook University on March 18, 2020. Those wishing to be tested must first make an appointment. (Photo by John Paraskevas/Newsday RM vis Getty Images)

Masks off: The lessons we didn’t learn from COVID

Carlyn Zwarenstein

Girl with measles on their body (Getty Images/StockPlanets)

You don’t want to throw a measles party

Carlyn Zwarenstein

Child holding a small plant (Getty Images/lovelyday12)

Plant and human immune systems are closer than we think, study finds

Carlyn Zwarenstein

View of Mount Vesuvius from the ground of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii (Getty Images/Andrea Pucci)

An ancient volcano victim’s brain turned to glass. Scientists now think they know how

Carlyn Zwarenstein

Trump is gutting environmental data, obscuring climate and pollution risks to the public

Carlyn Zwarenstein

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