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JoAnna Wendel, freelance science writer and illustrator

JoAnna Wendel

JoAnna Wendel is a freelance science writer and cartoonist. She covers topics ranging from the geology of faraway moons to the behavior of animals in our oceans. She served as a staff writer for Eos from 2014 to 2018, then worked in communications in NASA’s Planetary Sciences Division. JoAnna is now freelancing full time as a writer and artist.

Scientist with guano core.
Posted inNews

Bat Guano: A Possible New Source for Paleoclimate Reconstructions

JoAnna Wendel, freelance science writer and illustrator by JoAnna Wendel 14 December 20164 October 2021

Nitrogen isotopes within samples of bat excrement accurately reflect modern precipitation patterns. So could guano serve as a paleoclimate record?

A house destroyed by a large, powerful tornado that struck Joplin, Mo., in 2011.
Posted inNews

Rise in Tornado Numbers per Outbreak May Not Be Tied to Warming

JoAnna Wendel, freelance science writer and illustrator by JoAnna Wendel 7 December 201614 February 2023

Scientists studying why previous research revealed a steadily increasing number of tornadoes in the United States per outbreak find an unexpected result.

Venus
Posted inAGU News

Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets Celebrates 25 Years

JoAnna Wendel, freelance science writer and illustrator by JoAnna Wendel 30 November 201621 April 2023

Two editors look at the past, present, and future of the American Geophysical Union's planetary science journal.

GOES-R
Posted inNews

First of Next Generation of U.S. Weather Satellites Hits the Sky

JoAnna Wendel, freelance science writer and illustrator by JoAnna Wendel 23 November 201626 October 2021

The novel spacecraft and three sister satellites to follow are expected to vastly improve storm forecasting.

Asteroid strikes Earth 65 million years ago
Posted inNews

Cores from Crater Tied to Dinosaur Demise Validate Impact Theory

JoAnna Wendel, freelance science writer and illustrator by JoAnna Wendel 17 November 201628 January 2022

Drilling into the famous, deeply buried Chicxulub crater off Mexico, researchers found deformed and porous granite that opens new avenues of research.

Santa Maria Island cliff
Posted inNews

Scientists Offer New Explanation for Island's Unexpected Uplift

JoAnna Wendel, freelance science writer and illustrator by JoAnna Wendel 17 November 20163 May 2022

Researchers developed a new timeline for the rise, fall, and rise again of a puzzling island in the Azores.

New mineral merelaniite looks like fine hairs.
Posted inNews

Whiskers on Familiar Crystal Revealed as New Mineral

JoAnna Wendel, freelance science writer and illustrator by JoAnna Wendel 9 November 201614 November 2024

A 14-year-old girl's chance encounter with a random sample of tanzanite led scientists to find an entirely new mineral.

Researchers studied ant species interactions in response to experimentally simulated warming climate.
Posted inNews

Ant Populations Destabilize Under Warming

JoAnna Wendel, freelance science writer and illustrator by JoAnna Wendel 4 November 201611 January 2022

In forest experiments in which artificial warming mimicked future climate conditions, heat-tolerant ants thrived, leaving other populations unstable.

A picture of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, taken by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft early this year.
Posted inNews

Cracking Comet: A Window to the Past

JoAnna Wendel, freelance science writer and illustrator by JoAnna Wendel 1 November 201615 November 2021

An unusual feature on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko offers insights into cometary origins.

Cracks in a lava lake in the eastern rift zone of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano form an eerie smile.
Posted inFeatures

Thirteen Ghoulish Place-Names Across the Globe

JoAnna Wendel, freelance science writer and illustratorMohi Kumar headshot by JoAnna Wendel and M. Kumar 28 October 201628 September 2021

Feeling devilish this Halloween? Open a map.

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