Libby Copeland

Writer. Editor. Cultural Spelunker.

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She thought she was Irish, until a DNA test opened a 100-year-old mystery (The Washington Post, Longreads Best of 2017)

Libby Copeland November 15, 2017

If the information Alice Collins Plebuch was seeing on her computer screen was correct, it posed a fundamental mystery about her very identity. It meant one of her parents wasn’t who he or she was supposed to be — and, by extension, neither was she. We are only just beginning to grapple with what it means to cheaply and easily uncover our genetic heritage.

Categories: Best Of, Science, Technology, Washington Post Tags: Alice Collins Plebuch, at-home DNA testing, DNA, recreational genomics

The Gowanus Canal’s Beacon of Hope

Libby Copeland January 29, 2016

But the mechanical robot is impervious to the rats and the stink of the Gowanus Canal, a mechanical scientist willing to swim where few humans would dare.

Categories: Environment, Pacific Standard, Technology Tags: Gowanus Canal, pollution, robotics

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