Emily Voigt
On manipulating life:
Isotope: A Journal of Literary Science and Nature Writing, "The Art is Alive!" (Notable Essay in the Best American Essays 2010)
"Bioart is often ludicrous. It can be lumpy, gross, unsanitary, sometimes invisible, and tricky to keep still on the auction block. But at the same time, it does something very traditional that art is supposed to do: draw attention to the beautiful and grotesque details of nature that we might otherwise never see..."
OnEarth Magazine, "Tiny Critters That Eat Oil"
"Scientists estimate that less than 1 percent of all microbial species have been identified so far. And in the ocean, microbes may represent 50 percent to 90 percent of all life. Manipulating such complex microbial systems, as ubiquitous as they are poorly understood, is akin to engineering the dark matter of biology...
Odyssey Magazine: The science magazine for young adventurers, "Invasion of the Oil-Eating Microbes"
"Who can guess what may come from understanding life on Earth — not the small fraction that we see, but all life in its wild totality?..."
On kids and biology:
The New York Times, "Teenagers, Scalpels, and Real Cadavers"
"'It’s like watching ants on something... The kids are just one on one leg, one on the other, one on the arm, one on the other arm, one on the head...'"
Odyssey Magazine: The science magazine for young adventurers, "A Gut Approach to Learning"
"'It kind of looks in a way like cottage cheese. It's a creamish white color. Except it's really thick, kind of stretchy and doesn't dissolve. It's gross...'"
On crime and punishment:
Mother Jones Magazine, "Meet the Wonder Twins of Rikers Island" (2008)
"'I remember my first time walking into the housing area on my own. I went in and I told myself — you know, you prep yourself up — 'They're human beings, they're human beings’...”
The New York Times, "The John Doe of the Brooklyn Badlands" (2007)
"He did not tell anyone outside of work about the bodies he had discovered..."
On books:
OnEarth Magazine, "A New Direction in Agriculture: Up"
"On the subject of economic viability, there’s also the question of whether a tomato could ever truly afford to compete in the New York real estate market..."
OnEarth Magazine, "Power Trip"
"Recently I walked down to 255 Pearl Street in lower Manhattan, a couple miles south of where I live. I turned onto Wall Street, passed the New York Stock Exchange, and then proceeded to circle the same short block until a parking attendant confirmed that the address I was looking for no longer exists..."
OnEarth Magazine, "The Philosophy of Saving the World"
"'Human rights were not given us by the powers above nor were they pulled out of thin air. They mark the end of a thousand-year long process of maturation...'"
OnEarth Magazine, "A Supremely Bad Idea"
"No sane person would rise at 4:48 a.m. to stand beneath a tree craning for a glimpse of a whip-poor-will — a dull, flattish bird the exact color of bark, more likely to relieve than reveal itself..."
On conservation:
OnEarth Magazine, "Gas in the Gulf"
"The first killer in the Gulf this spring was not oil. It was a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the Deepwater Horizon well, shot straight up the rig, and then ignited and exploded on the platform above..."
OnEarth Magazine, "Fisheries Expert Daniel Pauly on the Gulf Spill's Impact"
"'It is possible that a massive rebound of the fish population will occur because we are not fishing them. If the fishing is discontinued for a month or two, or a season, we may see massive changes in the Gulf...'"
OnEarth Magazine, "Our Man in Chicago"
"He grew up where the Missouri River enters the Mississippi, in the small steel town of Granite City, Illinois..."
The Colorado Springs Gazette, "Lead at Shooting Range Firing Up Concerns"
"Rampart Range sits high above a complex, underground water system scientists have only recently come to understand..."
On health:
Great Reporter, "10,000 Birdwatchers Monitor Sick House Finches to Give Scientists Insight into Avian Flu and West Nile Virus"
"The day after Christmas, Susan Williams, a 34-year-old birdwatcher in Loveland, Ohio, noticed a house finch at her backyard feeder — a lethargic brown female with swollen, pink eyes encrusted with dried ooze..."
Odyssey Magazine: The science magazine for young adventurers, "A Day in the Life of Obstetrician Dr. Robin Kalish"
"Fourteen patients. One hour..."
On movers and shakers:
OnEarth Magazine, "Robert Redford Reflects..."
"'As technology thrusts us relentlessly into the future, I find myself, perversely, more interested in the past. We seem to have lost something — something vital, something of individuality and passion. That may be why we tend to view the western outlaw, rightly or not, as a romantic figure...'"
OnEarth Magazine, "Her Legal Crusade"
"On May 12, the Sichuan earthquake devastated the countryside of Zhang's youth. But even before then the landscape had been altered beyond recognition, scarred by decades of unhindered development..."
The Colorado Springs Gazette, "When the Tesh Appears in the Flesh, Moms Go Gaga"
"Most people brought their own music, but Tesh agreed to play keyboard for Dalia Melendez, who improvised a 'tribal fusion, hip-hop, flamenco kind of thing with contemporary choreography...'"
On city living:
The New York Times, "Another Day, Another Bloody Corpse"
"'I always say the easiest way to make the guy with the chainsaw look stupid is not to run,' Mr. Pickel explained. 'Because when he gets up to you, he either has to kill you or turn and walk away...'"
The Villager, "Mixed Signals: A conflicted metaphor for New York"
"Our wealthiest friends have the least comfortable couches. Our iconic skyline is best seen from New Jersey..."
Odyssey Magazine: The science magazine for young adventurers, "Mapping Our Cities"
"What does your sympathetic nervous system think of where you live?"
On country life:
The Colorado Springs Gazette, "Their Journey"
"Bubba doesn’t like the blow-dryer. Immobilized in a halter, he can only let out a deep, mournful bellow..."
The Colorado Springs Gazette, "Coveted Opera Role Difficult to Perfect"
"Most people aren’t familiar with the role of Micaëla, the virginal village girl who loses her love, Don José, to the famous sex-charged gypsy..."
The Colorado Springs Gazette, "Musician Builds Connection in Songs, Travel"
"'We used to have big ideas about what’s possible for humanity. Now it’s like we’re driving a car that’s too old to fix. There are so many people in this world who are like, 'We’ll ride it out till it quits...'"
The Colorado Springs Gazette, "Fun, Fins at the Fair"
“'If you have five carrots, they should all be the same diameter, color and length. The same with beets and onions...'"
Isotope: A Journal of Literary Science and Nature Writing, "The Art is Alive!" (Notable Essay in the Best American Essays 2010)
"Bioart is often ludicrous. It can be lumpy, gross, unsanitary, sometimes invisible, and tricky to keep still on the auction block. But at the same time, it does something very traditional that art is supposed to do: draw attention to the beautiful and grotesque details of nature that we might otherwise never see..."
OnEarth Magazine, "Tiny Critters That Eat Oil"
"Scientists estimate that less than 1 percent of all microbial species have been identified so far. And in the ocean, microbes may represent 50 percent to 90 percent of all life. Manipulating such complex microbial systems, as ubiquitous as they are poorly understood, is akin to engineering the dark matter of biology...
Odyssey Magazine: The science magazine for young adventurers, "Invasion of the Oil-Eating Microbes"
"Who can guess what may come from understanding life on Earth — not the small fraction that we see, but all life in its wild totality?..."
On kids and biology:
The New York Times, "Teenagers, Scalpels, and Real Cadavers"
"'It’s like watching ants on something... The kids are just one on one leg, one on the other, one on the arm, one on the other arm, one on the head...'"
Odyssey Magazine: The science magazine for young adventurers, "A Gut Approach to Learning"
"'It kind of looks in a way like cottage cheese. It's a creamish white color. Except it's really thick, kind of stretchy and doesn't dissolve. It's gross...'"
On crime and punishment:
Mother Jones Magazine, "Meet the Wonder Twins of Rikers Island" (2008)
"'I remember my first time walking into the housing area on my own. I went in and I told myself — you know, you prep yourself up — 'They're human beings, they're human beings’...”
The New York Times, "The John Doe of the Brooklyn Badlands" (2007)
"He did not tell anyone outside of work about the bodies he had discovered..."
On books:
OnEarth Magazine, "A New Direction in Agriculture: Up"
"On the subject of economic viability, there’s also the question of whether a tomato could ever truly afford to compete in the New York real estate market..."
OnEarth Magazine, "Power Trip"
"Recently I walked down to 255 Pearl Street in lower Manhattan, a couple miles south of where I live. I turned onto Wall Street, passed the New York Stock Exchange, and then proceeded to circle the same short block until a parking attendant confirmed that the address I was looking for no longer exists..."
OnEarth Magazine, "The Philosophy of Saving the World"
"'Human rights were not given us by the powers above nor were they pulled out of thin air. They mark the end of a thousand-year long process of maturation...'"
OnEarth Magazine, "A Supremely Bad Idea"
"No sane person would rise at 4:48 a.m. to stand beneath a tree craning for a glimpse of a whip-poor-will — a dull, flattish bird the exact color of bark, more likely to relieve than reveal itself..."
On conservation:
OnEarth Magazine, "Gas in the Gulf"
"The first killer in the Gulf this spring was not oil. It was a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the Deepwater Horizon well, shot straight up the rig, and then ignited and exploded on the platform above..."
OnEarth Magazine, "Fisheries Expert Daniel Pauly on the Gulf Spill's Impact"
"'It is possible that a massive rebound of the fish population will occur because we are not fishing them. If the fishing is discontinued for a month or two, or a season, we may see massive changes in the Gulf...'"
OnEarth Magazine, "Our Man in Chicago"
"He grew up where the Missouri River enters the Mississippi, in the small steel town of Granite City, Illinois..."
The Colorado Springs Gazette, "Lead at Shooting Range Firing Up Concerns"
"Rampart Range sits high above a complex, underground water system scientists have only recently come to understand..."
On health:
Great Reporter, "10,000 Birdwatchers Monitor Sick House Finches to Give Scientists Insight into Avian Flu and West Nile Virus"
"The day after Christmas, Susan Williams, a 34-year-old birdwatcher in Loveland, Ohio, noticed a house finch at her backyard feeder — a lethargic brown female with swollen, pink eyes encrusted with dried ooze..."
Odyssey Magazine: The science magazine for young adventurers, "A Day in the Life of Obstetrician Dr. Robin Kalish"
"Fourteen patients. One hour..."
On movers and shakers:
OnEarth Magazine, "Robert Redford Reflects..."
"'As technology thrusts us relentlessly into the future, I find myself, perversely, more interested in the past. We seem to have lost something — something vital, something of individuality and passion. That may be why we tend to view the western outlaw, rightly or not, as a romantic figure...'"
OnEarth Magazine, "Her Legal Crusade"
"On May 12, the Sichuan earthquake devastated the countryside of Zhang's youth. But even before then the landscape had been altered beyond recognition, scarred by decades of unhindered development..."
The Colorado Springs Gazette, "When the Tesh Appears in the Flesh, Moms Go Gaga"
"Most people brought their own music, but Tesh agreed to play keyboard for Dalia Melendez, who improvised a 'tribal fusion, hip-hop, flamenco kind of thing with contemporary choreography...'"
On city living:
The New York Times, "Another Day, Another Bloody Corpse"
"'I always say the easiest way to make the guy with the chainsaw look stupid is not to run,' Mr. Pickel explained. 'Because when he gets up to you, he either has to kill you or turn and walk away...'"
The Villager, "Mixed Signals: A conflicted metaphor for New York"
"Our wealthiest friends have the least comfortable couches. Our iconic skyline is best seen from New Jersey..."
Odyssey Magazine: The science magazine for young adventurers, "Mapping Our Cities"
"What does your sympathetic nervous system think of where you live?"
On country life:
The Colorado Springs Gazette, "Their Journey"
"Bubba doesn’t like the blow-dryer. Immobilized in a halter, he can only let out a deep, mournful bellow..."
The Colorado Springs Gazette, "Coveted Opera Role Difficult to Perfect"
"Most people aren’t familiar with the role of Micaëla, the virginal village girl who loses her love, Don José, to the famous sex-charged gypsy..."
The Colorado Springs Gazette, "Musician Builds Connection in Songs, Travel"
"'We used to have big ideas about what’s possible for humanity. Now it’s like we’re driving a car that’s too old to fix. There are so many people in this world who are like, 'We’ll ride it out till it quits...'"
The Colorado Springs Gazette, "Fun, Fins at the Fair"
“'If you have five carrots, they should all be the same diameter, color and length. The same with beets and onions...'"
Copyright © 2010 Emily Voigt
