Charles Q. Choi

Charles Quixote Choi is a freelance science journalist who has written for Science News, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Science, Nature, Scientific American and Popular Science, among others. He has traveled to every continent, holds the rank of yondan in the Toyama-ryu battodo style of Japanese swordsmanship, and has written science fiction for Analog magazine. He lives in the Bronx, N.Y.

All Stories by Charles Q. Choi

  1. Animals

    The teeth of ‘wandering meatloaf’ contain a rare mineral found only in rocks

    The hard, magnetic teeth of the world’s largest chiton contain nanoparticles of santabarbaraite, a mineral never seen before in biology.

  2. Animals

    Mammal brains may use the same circuits to control tongues and limbs

    When mice drink water, they make corrective motions with their tongues that resemble similar adjustments made by primates when they grab for objects.

  3. Neuroscience

    Scientists remotely controlled the social behavior of mice with light

    New devices — worn as headsets and backpacks — rely on optogenetics, in which bursts of light toggle neurons, to control mouse brain activity.

  4. Animals

    Mantis shrimp start practicing their punches at just 9 days old

    The fastest punches in the animal kingdom probably belong to mantis shrimp, who begin unleashing these attacks just over a week after hatching.

  5. Humans

    Neandertal DNA from cave mud shows two waves of migration across Eurasia

    Genetic material left behind in sediments reveals new details about how ancient humans once spread across the continent.

  6. Anthropology

    Ancient humans may have had apelike brains even after leaving Africa

    Modern humanlike brains may have evolved surprisingly late, about 1.7 million years ago, a new study suggests.

  7. Humans

    Ancient humans may have deliberately voyaged to Japan’s Ryukyu Islands

    Satellite-tracked buoys suggest that long ago, a remote Japanese archipelago was reached by explorers on purpose, not accidentally.

  8. Animals

    How frigid lizards falling from trees revealed the reptiles’ growing cold tolerance

    Some Florida lizards’ ability to handle temperatures down to 5.5° C may provide clues to how they might deal with the extremes of climate change.

  9. Tech

    CD players could serve as cheap lab tools

    Ordinary CD disc players can be adapted to perform chemical assays and possibly medical diagnoses.

  10. Earth

    Arctic sea ice falls to modern low

    The area of sea ice in the Arctic is at its lowest in nearly three decades of satellite monitoring.