Let there be ants

Imagine you have in your possession a fantastic new game: a programmable, mechanical ant farm. This farm consists of some dirt and water and plants, as well as a few mechanical ants that have tiny programmable brains in them. These ants are also able, by a fun...

Science Thursday

Get this: If you could get in your car and drive to Proxima Centauri, which at four light-years away is the closest star to Earth, it would take you approximately 38,262,857 years to get there, if you drove 70 mph.38,262,857 years? I get bored during the 1-1/2 hour...

The Road to Publication: The Agent Search

If you’re interested in selling a novel, you probably know that finding an agent is the usual first step on the road to publication (after completing the manuscript, of course). The most common way to start the search is to consult the Guide to Literary Agents...

Writing from New York City

I wrote my first short story when I was eleven years old. It was called (I think) “World War III and the Laser Interceptors.” The only reason you write something like that when you’re eleven is because you are genuinely interested in storytelling....