Richard Conniff has written about natural history and American life for such magazines as "The Atlantic Monthly," "Discover," "Smithsonian," "National Geographic," and" Time, " winning the 1997 National Magazine Award for "Special Interests." He is the author of "Spineless Wonders: Strange Tales form the Invertebrate World" and is a television writer and producer of nature programs for the National Geographic and the Discovery Channel. He lives in Connecticut.