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Julia Ostmann

Julia F. P. Ostmann writes from Southern California about nineteenth-century mushrooms, hybrid burritos, and brain science. Next year sheâ€™s excited to move into Stephen Hawkingâ€™s old dorm at Cambridge, where she’ll be studying history and philosophy of science. If you follow her at @JuliaOstmann, she will probably retweet you.

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Julia Ostmann

Aug 16, 2016

Weekly Geekery

Science fiction has a huge race problem, and stock solutions don’t cut it. You’re welcome: 19th century math genius gets Hamilton-ized. The electrifying history of modern fencing. Ah, Ancient Greece. Land of democracy—and human sacrifice? Controversy over a canonical character in…
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Julia Ostmann

Aug 9, 2016

Weekly Geekery

Nabokov’s epilepsy, heart problems, and unpublished letters. A dictionary for the fleshy bits of brain that store our words. Ephemerality meets Instagram. The secret sauce behind NBC’s Olympics telecast. Your designated BFF might not even know your name.
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Julia Ostmann

Aug 2, 2016

Weekly Geekery

You subconsciously love car alarms and early morning construction. Nature on Mary Shelley and brains that “whizzed.” Well-aged whiskey sans barrel: researchers’ little secret. Save money! Eat salad! Click here for how! (Hint: science, not Internet scam.)
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Julia Ostmann

Jul 26, 2016

Weekly Geekery

Boy meets lichen, proves 150 years of science textbooks wrong. Want to improve your social skills? Try fiction, not speed-dating. How wasps gave us Shakespeare. In psychology, American undergrad = caveman. Birds lose sex appeal when singing over city noise.…
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Julia Ostmann

Jul 19, 2016

Weekly Geekery

If you give a mouse an Orson Welles film, he might solve human consciousness. Your great-great grandkids might text from the grave. What Westerners consider universal about music: totally incorrect. Yes, you can be high on friendship (and it’s a…
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Julia Ostmann

Jul 12, 2016

Weekly Geekery

New York Times readers who ignore The Economist: Danger, groupthink ahead. Data suggests police de-escalation can work. Goats have feelings, too. (Sheep, not so much.) Babies brainwash you with their cuteness. If the Ghostbusters need props, who you gonna call? MIT professors!
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Julia Ostmann

Jul 5, 2016

Weekly Geekery

Extremely large and incredibly close (to your tent): bison! Did you know Tom Sawyer used glowing fungi (a real thing) to light up a tunnel? Watch 6,000 years of civilization develop in three minutes. Thanks, science. Forget fireworks: a NASA…
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Julia Ostmann

Jun 28, 2016

Weekly Geekery

A professor who lived as a badger shares nature-writing tips. Casual sex after college: definitely a thing. Peanut butter purity battles—and is “natural” food really better? NASA plays God, recreates Earth. When, oh when, will you write your masterpiece? At age…
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Julia Ostmann

Jun 21, 2016

Weekly Geekery

Our intimate lives feed the meat grinder of big data. The first casualty of climate change: this adorable rodent. Racial bias in healthcare research, and why it’s dangerous. An exoplanet could soon go the way of Alderaan. The next great…
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Julia Ostmann

Jun 14, 2016

Weekly Geekery

Neurons act like Donald Trump. A beetle named for both Darwin and David Sedaris? It’s quiz time. Holy leaping electric eels! Books you can binge. The ultimate superhero is not Batman, says science. Martin Shkreli, Demon Pharmacist of Wall Street: the Musical.