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PATRICK J. KIGER
READ MY ARTICLES
Here's the once-prolific Thunnus thynnus, a majestic creature that can reach over 10 feet in length and a ton in weight, and had been
swimming in the Atlantic for 40 million years. But some fear the species' days are numbered, due to human craving for its fatty,
succulent raw flesh. Read my piece on "The Fate of the Bluefin Tuna" from the National Geographic Channel website.
(Photo credit: Daniel Cedrone/UNFAO, via Wikimedia Commons)
I've also written a lot about the fault line between science and culture. Back in 2015, the news broke that Disneyland,
of all places, had been the epicenter of a major measles outbreak. From Orange Coast magazine, here's "The Breeding Ground," my exploration
of southern California's strident cadre of parents who resist vaccinating their children, and the growing rift between them,
public health experts and the rest of the populace. In another Orange Coast article, "Knee Deep in Doubt," I wrote about
affluent Balboa Island's struggle to come to grips with the threat of rising waters from climate change. "Stem Cell Rock Star" tells
the story of a biomedical researcher playing for high stakes in both academia and business, as he searches for a cure for paralysis. (Photo
gredit: CDC)
"Buzz Kill," my 2015 article for Sierra magazine, probes the controversy over neonicotinoid pesticides and their effect on bees,
birds and other creatures. (Photo credit: Luc Viatour via Wikimedia Commons)
Journalist, author, blogger, researcher, web content creator
Coal companies' practice of mountaintop removal turned much of rural Kentucky into a wasteland. That's why an enteprising Catholic
priest turned environmental activist made the sites into an unlikely sort of tourist attraction. Read my 2006 article "Unnatural
Wonders" from Mother Jones magazine. (Photo credit: Roston via Wikimedia Commons.)
I've long been a fan of the trippy genius of sci-fi author Philip K. Dick. That's why it was so surprising to discover that the author
of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" and "Man in the High Castle" spent his last decade living in conservative Orange
County, where he was a member of a condominum owners association and shopped at Trader Joe's. Here's the story from Orange Coast. The photo is one that I took of the talking android version of Philip K. Dick, which was built by robotics researchers a few years
back.
I've done a lot of business reporting too. Here's an article I wrote for Fast Company back in 2010 about the strange phenomenon
of job interviews via webcam. I've also profiled corporate leaders such as publicity-shy In-N-Out Burger heiress Lynsi Snyder, who
in a rare interview revealed for the first time that she had survived two kidnapping attempts. (Photo credit: Sam Howzit, via
Wikimedia Commons.)
"The problem is not so much to see what nobody has yet seen, but to rather to think concerning that which everybody sees, what
nobody has yet thought."
-- Arthur Schopenhauer, "Appendices and Omissions," 1851