I am back from a few days on Appledore Island, a severely gorgeous patch of rock and scrub ten miles off the coast of Maine. Cornell and the University of New Hampshire run a marine biology station there called Shoals Marine Lab, where students come for crash courses on all things marine, from sustainable fisheries to shark biology. Last year I came to give a talk about evolution; this year I was back to talk to students about writing about science. I pulled out some of my marine stories to discuss, on topics such as moray eels that are weirder than science fiction and the mindless intelligence of fish swarms.
When I wasn't wandering around the island with our kids in search of mermaids, I paid a couple visits to the shark class, where students were poking and prodding a bunch of specimens. I learned from the instructors about the ...
