“It was magical from an imagery perspective.”On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. But Willyard, who has worked as a science writer for two decades, deliberately pursues stories with a lot of complexity. “Then humans show up, and in the blink of an eye we’re endangering that.”Rebecca GelernterThe Dawn of Polar Bird MigrationIllustrator Rebecca Gelernter loves doing paleoart, “and I don’t get to do it very often,” she says. As Gelernter talks about skeletal reconstructions, it’s easy to feel her joy at bringing fossil birds back to life. They have all kinds of bizarre display structures, so it’s hard to come up with something that’s really unreasonable.”