Nick Keppler

Joined: Jun 8, 2015

Nick Keppler is a Pittsburgh-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in The Village Voice, Nerve, Vice, and Slate. When he’s not on his laptop, he’s probably kayaking on one of the city’s rivers with a Led Zeppelin track blaring through his earbuds.

Pool Party and Prosper With This Star Trek Swimsuit

Here's the scientifically backed way to make perfect hard-boiled eggs.

How to Cook a Perfect Hard-Boiled Egg, According to Science

The Jet Stream (left, over northern Canada) and the Gulf Stream (right, near Florida) both have big effects on global climate.

Jet Stream vs. Gulf Stream: What’s the Difference?

Powerful winds fuel the Palisades and Eaton fires in the Los Angeles area.

How Wildfires Get Their Names

Roman coins from the Hoxne hoard, buried in the 5th century in Hoxne, Suffolk, UK.

Lead Pollution May Have Lowered IQs in Ancient Rome, Study Finds

The mass production of silver coins in the Roman Empire had an unintended effect: spewing so much lead into the atmosphere that it may have lowered citizens’ IQs.

Bird Flu: 8 Fast Facts You Should Know

Bird flu is one of the reasons egg prices have skyrocketed. Here’s what else you should know about the current outbreak of the H5N1 virus among U.S. poultry and dairy cows.

Please remain seated with your seatbelt fastened.

Thunderstorms Can Cause Air Turbulence Up to 55 Miles Away from the Source

The effects of weather disturbances and resulting turbulence can be widespread. Airplane passengers might want to pay more attention to that fasten-seatbelt sign.

Why Don’t Casinos Have Windows?

Most casinos lack windows, and gamblers like it that way.

The squirting cucumber can blast its seeds dozens of feet from the parent plant. The stem and fruit of the plant have been colored green in this image.

Solved: The Mystery of the Squirting Cucumber’s Powerful Projection

The little gourd can shoot its seeds nearly 40 feet via "ballistic dispersal”—but until now, the mechanism behind the plant’s power and proliferation was poorly understood.

An eagle pair in Alaska tend to their gigantic nest.

Minnesota Launches New Bald Eagle Livestream After the First Ends in Tragedy

The 20-year-old nest that starred in the state agency’s first livecam was destroyed by a snowstorm. Now, viewers can tune into watch another eagle pair raise their family at a new spot.

The Caduceus: The Mistaken Meaning of the Medical Symbol

This ancient symbol, also called the Staff of Hermes, depicts two snakes intertwining around a stick that is capped by wings. It’s used as a medical logo, but for almost all its roughly 5000-year history, the caduceus had nothing to do with medicine.

Animals Might Be Drinking More Than We Thought

You’ve heard the stories of birds drunk on fermented fruit, but scientists suspect that many animals ingest alcohol on a regular basis.

New Fossils Add to Mystery Surrounding the “Hobbit,” Our Smallest Human Ancestor

A fragment of an arm bone found on Flores, Indonesia, suggests that some of our human ancestors were even smaller than we thought.

Scurvy decimated sailors, explorers, and regular citizens for centuries before a cure for the vitamin deficiency was discovered.

Scurvy—a “Disease of the Past”—Is Making a Comeback

A case study of a man in Australia is highlighting the return of a disease associated with Elizabethan sailors and polar explorers.

This scene near Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks shows why New York is the top state for fall road trips.

The 19 Best States For Fall Road Trips

There’s nothing quite like peeping peak foliage, dashing through a corn maze, and spending an afternoon at an apple orchard to celebrate autumn—and in some of these top states for fall road trips, you can do all three.

Do Wombats Use Their Butts as Deadly Weapons?

An important investigation of the muscular marsupials’ bony backsides.