Posts by Ilima Loomis
Is your hospital prepared for a disaster?
“Are you breathing?” Emergency-Room Doctor David Williams leans over a “patient” covered in realistic-looking ash and blood. Surrounding him in the pop-up hospital tent lie a dozen more volunteer victims, ready for triage after a plane has crashed at Kahului Airport. Don’t worry yet, it’s a simulation, part of a training program by Maui Memorial…
Getting excited about Dark Matter!
It makes up a quarter of the universe. Without it, galaxies would fall apart, and stars would spin off into space. Dark matter is five times more abundant than normal matter (the stuff that makes up trees and stars and us), yet scientists can’t see it or figure out what it is. The one thing…
Covering space junk for Nature
The US military has long taken the role of traffic cop in space: monitoring satellites, tracking debris and, in recent years, warning satellite operators and foreign governments of potential collisions and hazards. But now it has company. A wave of private firms is seeking to build a commercial market for space situational awareness (SSA) —…
Interview with David Karl
I interviewed the pioneering microbial oceanographer for Hakai magazine. Read the Q&A here .
“Gold Diggers”
I cover the rebirth of Maui Gold pineapple in the latest issue of Hawaii Business magazine. Read more here.
“Like Tatooine in Star Wars, this planet has two suns”
Read my latest story for Science News for Students here.
Are we overdue for a solar “superflare”?
Astronomers studied distant stars to estimate how frequently these devastating bursts of energy occur. Read my story for Science here.
“Seal blubber sheds light on deep sea contaminants”
Deep-diving elephant seals provide samples of some of the pollutants found in the most remote reaches of our oceans. Read my story for Science here.
“In a Pickle”
I cover the mysterious depletion of sea cucumbers in Hawaii — and the state’s emergency measures to protect these important invertebrates — in the June 30 installment of Hakai magazine. Read my story here.
More Mauna Kea coverage for Science…
I covered the latest round of Thirty-Meter Telescope protests and the arrest of 11 Native Hawaiian activists for the June 25 installment of ScienceInsider. Read my story here: “Protesters block effort to restart work on controversial Hawaii telescope; 11 arrested”