Nesting behind waterfalls and in caves, the rarely seen black swift is only beginning to shed its secrets. With great photographs by frequent collaborator JT Thomas.

Forests in the American West are under attack by giant fires, climate change and insect outbreaks. Some ecosystems will never be the same.

Like battlefield medics, conservationists are being forced to explicitly apply triage to determine which creatures to save and which to let go.

I'm the proud co-editor of The Science Writers' Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Pitch, Publish and Prosper in the Digital Age, coming to real and virtual bookstores near you in April 2013. The book is a collaborative effort by a longstanding online community of experienced science writers, and it's full of our hard-won advice on making a living, and a life, as a science writer in today's fast-changing media landscape.