Christie Aschwanden is an independent journalist, essayist and science nerd. She writes a health column for the Washington Post and blogs about science at LastWordOnNothing.com. She's the managing editor of The Open Notebook, a contributing editor for Runner's World and contributor to a variety of publications, including The New York Times, Discover, Smithsonian, Slate, Men's Journal, Mother Jones, NPR.org, and O, the Oprah magazine. She was a National Magazine Award finalist in 2011 and a Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting fellow in 2007. She lives on a small farm in rural western Colorado with her winemaker husband and raises heritage poultry in her spare time. Find her on Twitter @cragcrest.