A novelist, children’s book author, and former Psychology Today features editor, Jill Neimark finds memory fascinating because it forms the context for people’s lives and how they see themselves. But it wasn’t until she began the reporting for “Are Recovered Memories Real?” (page 72) that she came to understand how malleable memory really is. “I realized that false memory operates in my own life,” she says, citing some inaccurate details she had included in a letter to a friend. “We usually get it right in terms of the essence, but we forget and then fabricate the details.”

 

Courtesy of Michelle Golden

For “Study the Clones First” (page 44), Chris Buck photographed five different sets of twins and, in the process, discovered his preconceptions were wrong. “I found each identical twin to be quite individual,” he says. “I’m not sure why I am so surprised that they’d want their own identities.” His photos have appeared in Esquire, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, GQ, New Scientist, Los Angeles Times Magazine, and Fast Company.

 

Courtesy of Anne Nolan

While reporting “Antimatter” (page 66), Tim Folger watched scientists reenact the moment after the Big Bang by smashing particles and antiparticles together at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. “It’s like the basement of an apartment building, with all these pipes,” the former Discover senior editor says. “Except those pipes contain electrons moving near the speed of light instead of hot and cold running water.” Folger, who lives in Gallup, New Mexico, also edits the Best American Science and Nature Writing series for Houghton Mifflin.

Courtesy of Ciclops/SSI

Carolyn Porco is the Cassini imaging team leader who oversaw the creation of the remarkable photographs in “Saturn Spectacular” (page 36). As a graduate student at Caltech, she got hooked on space imaging when Voyager flew by Saturn. That mission, Porco explains, “was a journey of mythical proportions, punctuated by episodes of great discovery and unique in its legacy of scientific findings.”