Hello Defender!
I’m Sabrina, the defactor’s new staff writer. I will mainly cover the beat of animals, write about non-human life, which means all the little beautiful and strange things that generously share the planet with us. (We humans are so bad at dividing the planet, and I’m ashamed of it!)
You might be thinking: Defector is mostly a sports blog. Do animals have sports? Not too much, which is probably the best of how many historical animal-related games often revolve around killing animals (see: Eruptions, as well as related and deadly eruptions of 1886) But in my view, Defector is a perfect home for animal beats because Defector is a site that is full of joy and, more importantly, obsession.
To me, obsession with beating animals seems to be very important because if you come across a wild animal at random, you may feel confused, stunned or even banished. Maybe that animal is a small bug whose legs are bigger than you used to see. Maybe that animal has some stagnation about them, like a thorn, a slime or a stinger. Maybe that creature is actually very beautiful and mysterious but you have no interest in knowing ভালো what I say is good for them! Every day I come across animals that I do not understand. I encounter more creatures that I never noticed. But I want to notice them, and understand them!
I’m here. I’m not a scientist or an expert on any particular animal, but I’m a science journalist who loves to talk to people who dedicate their entire lives to unraveling the mystery of the frog’s feet or tiny snout. At Defector, I hope to be your guide for the many creatures that slit, flop, and crumble around us on this stupidly beautiful planet – based on Birdfector’s excellent coverage and blogging my way into the mystery of the evolution of life on Earth.
I will also write about people in science, such as people who have shaped its history, and many others who are now working to correct what the people mentioned above have done wrong or wrong. I aim to be deeply skeptical of what is morally justified in the name of science and scientific discovery, and hope to focus on the voices of those who are directly affected by that science and critical of the harm that research can do to marginalized populations. I’m interested in how science can advance equity and justice, as well as how science spreads to more mainstream cultures, whether it’s a stupid meme or another vaguely erotic film about a man and an octopus.
To put it bluntly, I will not cover our country’s headline science news, such as the contagious disease or the SpaceX rocket launch that is Kabum. Instead, I will look for stories that can be cracked or I have learned about them and now have no temporary relevance to what I want to tell all my friends. Consider the German entomologist Dr. Alexander Riedel who had to name 101 tiny babies in one fell swoop (my favorite Trigonopterus sordidusNamed for the single quality that separates it from dirt granules.)
I would be missing out on talking about science blogging, without acknowledging the best one to do it. The simple goal of Ed Young’s decade-long blog Not Exactly Rocket Science was to “celebrate the wonders of science and, above all, make it as appealing and fun to any reader as I am.” I started reading Ed’s blog when I was a tiny intern Scientific American Who had no science background, never took a science class in college (and never passed), and had no idea where in the world I was doing an internship Scientific American. Rocket Science was not only my guide to learning and loving science, it was also a science writing model that I realized I wanted to do: a blog that is accessible, engaging and full of wonder.
And now I’m here, finally free to blog about little boys – a word I use in a gender-neutral sense – to the content of my heart. Maybe some big guys will be hiding too, but only if they are a little funny. Welcome to Creaturefector. I love you here.