Client Work
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Every now and then, I get to write about a topic that combines geology, history, art, and a little bit of mystery. One of my favourite examples of this is a SciShow video I wrote about azurite, a striking blue mineral that humans have been using to make art for thousands of years. Unlike many
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Last year I was handed one of those rare and delightful projects as a science communicator: a deep-dive story that was as strange as it was true, and that went on to reach more than 6.5 million viewers on YouTube (so far!) The video: “An Ancient Roman Shipwreck May Explain the Universe”, was later named
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Every so often, I come across a story in geology that reminds me how much of Earth we still don’t fully understand. Take the Younger Dryas: a sudden, sharp return to ice-age cold about 13,000 years ago. It coincided with the disappearance of mammoths, and with the vanishing of the Clovis people in North America.
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On May 5th 2024, a 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook New Jersey. It was the first sizeable quake the region had seen in years, and it made headlines across the US. What struck me, though, was how different the response was compared to the west coast, where quakes of that size happen fairly often without much
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Like many children, I was captivated by museum gift shops, especially the shelves of glittering geodes. Crack one open and you’re rewarded with a surprise display of crystals hidden inside. Those pocket-sized treasures, though, are nothing compared to the largest geode in the world – one so vast it could swallow the entire gift shop
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At first glance, epidote might look like a perfectly ordinary rock: greenish, slightly glassy, nice enough to put on your bookshelf. But this mineral is far more than just decoration. Epidote could help unlock the mystery of life’s earliest origins on Earth, and perhaps even beyond. The fossil record is our best archive for understanding
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Back in the 1840s, the hills of California glittered with the promise of fortune. Prospectors rushed west, hoping to strike it rich in the Gold Rush, only to find themselves duped by an impostor: pyrite, better known as fool’s gold. But pyrite might not be as foolish as we once imagined. Far from worthless, it’s
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When you picture the materials behind our modern gadgets, gemstones probably don’t spring to mind. We expect wires, silicon, and circuits — not jewelry-box treasures. Yet one humble mineral, tourmaline, bridges the glittering world of gemstones with the hidden forces powering today’s technology. Tourmaline is one of Earth’s most colorful crystals. It can emerge pink,
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Trapped in ancient glass, 800,000-year-old plant molecules may hold clues to life’s survival—and its cosmic origins. Formed by a fiery meteorite impact in Tasmania, Darwin Glass isn’t just beautiful—it’s a natural time capsule that could reveal whether life can travel between planets, and maybe even how it began.
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Anyone who knows me knows that I love animals. So when Twenty Thousand Hertz approached me to produce a pair of podcasts all about understanding the sounds that our cats and dogs make, I absolutely leapt at the chance. After all, who hasn’t wondered what that particular bark or meow means, or whether our animals
Leila Battison 