Laura Helmuth

@laurahelmuth.bsky.social

112258 Followers 5144 Following

Freelance writer, editor, columnist & consultant. Formerly at Scientific American, Washington Post, National Geographic, Slate, Smithsonian & Science. Past president of National Association of Science Writers. Birder.

A backlit tower of jars of pickles, jams, jellies , relishes & other preserves.
A ceramic sculpture of a vase studded with corn dogs and another of a hot dog.
Quilt of a Black couple
A life size cow in a glass cooler, made of butter over a frame.
Dress made of cardboard squares from butter cartons.
Quilt depicting the high and low temperatures for every day of a year.
Picture of a state fair pavilion celebrating trans love & joy
Seed portraits of Dolly Parton, Prince, Willie Nelson & more
A neon sign from a state fair that says “HOWDY FOLKS”
A yard sign for a property rental company called Noahs. The name is spelled in a slanting font with too much space between the N, O, and A, and the apostrophe is after the S.
Three large bowls on a table overflowing with tomatoes
The Olympic NP newspaper, which has a photo of the Olympic mountain range with tall evergreens in the foreground.
Moss covered trees in Olympic national park on all sides of the trees
Photo of a well-camouflaged baby rabbit next to a head of lettuce in my garden, the little monster.
Screen shot of DuckDuckGo's "NO AI" search homepage, with orange type and cheerful duck in a green bow tie.
Screenshot of part of Merriam-Webster's definition of "chowder" showing how it's supposedly used as a verb in the following sentences: "Most people want to know how Baker manages to eat without ending up with marinara sauce or clam chowder all over his face." "It's creamy, really close to clam chowder without the clams."
The edge of an orange blow-up camping mattress showing the classic Therm-a-rest slogan, an “irregular” stamp & “Laura” written in sharpie.
Lauren Sánchez Bezos wearing a diamond necklace and a strapless black dress. Her mouth looks elongated and her cheeks more prominent than when she was younger. Like a marionette.
A large colander overflowing with fresh-picked winecap mushrooms, with a mug for scale.
A sign in Harpers Ferry for the Almost Heaven Pub & Grill
A white-washed brick building with green shutters in a forest along the Potomac River
Screen shot of a "settings" page in Facebook showing that it now automatically allows AI-generated titles unless you turn that option off. The text is: "Allow AI-generated titles on your posts. Titles are generated by AI from Meta to make your posts easier to discover on search engines. Not all posts will have AI-generated titles, and posts in public groups may still show them. Learn more about AI-generated titles"
Photo of an empty wooden platform built around a rock outcrop overlooking the Potomac River. During the weekends, it is elbow-to-elbow with people.
Book cover of The Correspondent, by Virginia Evan’s, showing two European robins
Photo of a container of pellets that reduce algae and sludge in backyard ponds. It’s called “Muck Off”
A very well camouflaged American Woodcock sitting on a nest, looking like a pile of leaves.
A plastic bin labeled Lost & Found full of little-kid coats and winter gear.
Graph from a V-Dem report on academic freedom showing a stark decline in academic freedom in the United States and similar trajectories for Hungary, India, and Türkiye
A plate with chopsticks across it, with several pieces of toast balanced on top.
Screenshot of Googling Maps showing yellow for slowed traffic from New York to Chicago and throughout the East Coast down to mid-Georgia
An artwork at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum made up of license plates that spell out the preamble to the constitution.
Photo of a bookshelf with Hardy Boys books
A bookshelf filled with Nancy Drew books from the 1970s
Memorial along the river walk in Newburyport, Massachusetts. The disk is stone with a school of fish circling the inscription.
Photo of the entrance to an outdoor classroom at a nature center
Probable bear scat
Playground at Rocky Point Creamery in Point of Rocks, Maryland has a kid-size barn, silo and John Deere tractor with slides
Sign by the entrance of Cahokia Mounds historic park listing open hours and rules about camping, dogs, etc. a stand-alone sign says “no sledding “
Diorama of Glinda
Mural of Dorothy’s house being lifted up by the twister
Diorama of the Wicked Witch of the West with a flying monkey and crystal ball
Bowl of just-harvested long beans, some green and some red, and flat beans in green and purple.
Screen shot of a Washington Post headline "Donald Trump fulfills a dream role: Big city mayor"
Photo of an LL Bean store with the words “bean outsider” painted on the window. There’s a small space in the first world so it can also read “be an outsider”
Handle of a lawn mower showing the propulsion dial with a tortoise on one side and hare on the other
Chinese long beans from my garden with a quarter for scale. They’re each more than a foot long
Google trends results for the search term "zucchini recipe" from 2004 to present showing distinct late-summer spikes
A table labeled "the media capitulation index" that ranges from one star (independent), one chicken (vulnerable), two chickens (compromising), three chickens (capitulating), four chickens (obeying) and five chickens (propaganda)
Photo of the DC tennis stadium. The names of the winners of past DC Open tournaments are printed along an awning by year. For 2020 it says: ESSENTIAL WORKERS * SCIENTISTS
A Gary Larson Far Side cartoon showing two loggers on their lunch break surrounded by felled trees and one says: "You know what I'm sayin'? Me, for example, I couldn't work in some stuffy little office. The outdoors just calls to me."
A mature parch of cilantro that has gotten leggy and started to produce seeds that can be ground into coriander
Photo of an asparagus patch showing the tall, feathery branches that grow from mature stalks.
Photo of the all-gender restroom entrance at the Baltimore Museum of Art, named for benefactor and patron of the arts John Waters.
Photo of a raspberry bush with lots of ripe berries
Photo of a lightning bug on a hand
Photo of a former parking lot with plants growing up through the asphalt
Photo of a nest with three juvenile cardinals looking very small and vulnerable
Photo of a boardwalk trail through a marsh with a beaver lodge built on top
Agustín Fuentes at the Gaithersburg Book Festival with a copy of his book SEX IS A SPECTRUM
Photo of a necklace with a jade pendant in the form of a fan-shaped leaf with a small notch at the edge.