Amber Dance is an award-winning freelance science journalist based in Southern California. She earned a Ph.D. in biology from the University of California, San Diego, before retraining as a journalist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She enjoys covering topics beyond her life-sciences comfort zone and contributes to a variety of publications. Follow her on Twitter @amberldance.
When the bureau’s Art Theft Program teamed up with a cultural anthropologist to investigate one man’s private collection, they began a yearslong project to return cultural objects and human remains to their rightful homes.
Space anthropologist Jack Stuster has interviewed and observed astronauts for decades. In a Q&A, Stuster tells journalist Amber Dance how he has worked closely with NASA to improve the human experience of space exploration.
A combination of factors, from geography to group identity, supported the endurance of this traditional body art—even as similar practices were lost in other cultures.
Whether trick-or-treating in the United States or costume play celebrations in Japan, Allhallows Eve has taken many forms as its traditions travel the world.
How and when our ancestors mastered the use of fire remains a hotly debated question. Researchers are hunting for answers buried in ancient ash and baked soils.