Aggregated News

I’m really optimistic about the future for long, deep, rich science reporting. There are more places that are publishing it, more ways of finding it, and a seemingly huge cadre of people who are writing it well. So without further ado, here’s a list of my top pieces of the year. It has blossomed to 15 from last year’s 12 because I was gripped by indecision and they’re all so good. In no particular order:

1) Bones of Contention, by Paige Williams for the New Yorker. The curious case of USA v. One Tyrannosaurus Bataar Skeleton frames this exquisitely crafted tale about a Florida man’s trade in Mongolian dinosaurs, and the amazing world of fossils, auctions, and private collectors.
“He sold sloth claws, elephant jaws, wolf molars, dinosaur ribs—a wide range of anatomical fragments that went, mostly, for between ten and fifty dollars. Increasingly, Florida Fossils got into triple digits, especially when Prokopi started selling dinosaur parts. In the fall of 2011, he sold two Mongolian oviraptor nests for more than three hundred and fifty dollars each, a...