In deciding on a cover image for this issue, the Science News team had a difficult choice to make: Do we print a picture of a tick that reminds readers how much we all despise these critters? Or, do we go with a closeup view that masks ticks’ revolting character and makes you wonder: “Ooh. What’s that?” We chose to highlight hostilities to match the story headline, “Bulletins from the tick wars.”
“I have pangs now and then that I put so much tick rage and too little tick wonder into the story,” life sciences writer Susan Milius told me. Her story covers the ways researchers are trying to keep ticks from spreading diseases, from genetically manipulating mouse hosts to luring ticks to their death with raccoon-sized robots. Milius has a knack for helping readers appreciate all aspects of nature: the gross and charming, maddening and pleasant, horrifying and awe-inspiring. On behalf of tick wonder, she offers the following observations, which didn’t make it into the story: