Contributing writer

Katherine Xue

Latest Content


Science Column: You Two? That’s My Birthday

Here are three questions for your weekend reflections. Number one: how many people would it take to build a human pyramid 22 layers tall? Number two: if 23 people in a room shake hands with everyone else exactly once, how many handshakes take place? Number three: what’s the chance that two of those 23 people have the same birthday?


Darwin, Meet Friendly Mr. Fox

The mid-20th century Soviet Union was not a friendly place for biologists. Stalin’s regime had outlawed all research in genetics—declaring ...