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Nautilus

Ericka Johnson is a professor of gender and society at Linköping University, Sweden; director of the National Graduate School of the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems, and Software Program—Humanity and Society (WASP-HS); and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. She is the author of many books, including <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262543040/a-cultural-biography-of-the-prostate/">A Cultural Biography of the Prostate</a> (MIT Press) and the editor of the book <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262550949/how-that-robot-made-me-feel/">How That Robot Made Me Feel</a>, from which this article is adapted.

Ericka Johnson

Technology

I Bought a Robot Cat for My Rabbit

Evelyn Lamb is a freelance math and science writer based in Salt Lake City, Utah. She has written for outlets including Scientific American, Slate, and Quanta. She is the cohost of the My Favorite Theorem podcast and author of the American Mathematical Society’s math-themed page-a-day calendar.

Evelyn Lamb

Math

The Mathematical Mysteries of Fireflies

Brandon Keim (<a href="https://brandonkeim.substack.com">Substack</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/9brandon/">Instagram</a> |<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/brandonkeim.bsky.social">Bluesky</a> | <a href="https://mastodon.social/home">Mastodon</a>) is a freelance journalist and contributing editor at Nautilus. His new book, <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324007081">Meet the Neighbors</a>, explores what the science of animal intelligence means for how we understand and live with the wild creatures around us.

Brandon Keim

Zoology

How Animals Understand Death

Lisa S. Gardiner is a writer, geoscientist, and educator whose work has appeared in Scientific American, The Atlantic, bioGraphic, and other publications. Her second nonfiction book, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691247335/reefs-of-time?srsltid=AfmBOopVqyhkwLk59g-d8vlzyYmuqB-KTEhmAbl4XctK3hNSaEsdOewd">Reefs of Time: What Fossils Reveal about Coral Survival</a>, was published in June 2025.

Lisa S. Gardiner

Evolution

In Search of the First Animals

Chris Cosma is a pollination ecologist at the Conservation Biology Institute.

Chris Cosma

Environment

The Secret Lives of Moths

Elena Kazamia is a science writer from Greece. She has a master’s degree in conservation from University College London and a Ph.D. in plant sciences from the University of Cambridge in the U.K.

Elena Kazamia

Genetics

The Last of Their Kind

<a href="https://www.evameijer.nl/en/indexen.html">Eva Meijer</a> is a philosopher working at the University of Amsterdam, a writer, and a visual artist. Their books include <a href="https://www.aup.nl/nl/book/9789048564422/multispecies-dialogues">Multispecies Dialogues: Doing Philosophy with Animals, Children, the Sea and Others</a> and <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262044035/animal-languages/">Animal Languages</a>. Meijer is also a member of the <a href="https://themultispeciescollective.cargo.site/">Multispecies Collective</a>.

Eva Meijer

Living with Lab Mice

Neil Shubin is an evolutionary biologist whose team discovered Tiktaalik roseae, the iconic fossil fish that was among the first to walk on land. His search for fossils has led him to all seven continents including over three decades in the Arctic and Antarctica. An elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, he is a professor at The University of Chicago and author most recently of Ends Of The Earth: Journeys to Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and our Future.

Neil Shubin

General

The Extraordinary, Imperiled Science at the End of the Earth

Alison Spodek is an associate professor at Vassar College with a focus on environmental chemistry and pollution. She lives in Beacon, New York, with her husband and two children.

Alison Spodek

Health

When Did I Start Getting Cancer?

Adam Piore, a veteran journalist, is the author of two books and a longtime Nautilus contributor. He currently covers health and infectious disease for the Boston Globe.

Adam Piore

How Neanderthals Kept Our Ancestors Warm

Katy Kelleher is the author of <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ugly-History-of-Beautiful-Things/Katy-Kelleher/9781982179366">The Ugly History of Beautiful Things</a>, a book of essays about coveted objects and their dark backstories. She publishes a semi-regular newsletter on Substack, <a href="https://colorstories.substack.com/">Color Stories</a>. She currently lives and hikes in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Katy Kelleher

Scent Makes a Place

John Wallingford is the Mr. and Mrs. Robert P. Doherty, Jr. Regents Chair in Molecular Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow and a past president of the Society for Developmental Biology.

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