Patrick Kiger
Patrick J. Kiger has written for HowStuffWorks since 2008 covering a wide array of topics, from history and politics to pop culture and technology. He worked as a newspaper reporter for the Pittsburgh Press, and the Orange County Register in California, where he covered one of the biggest serial murder cases in U.S. history, and also as a staff writer at Baltimore Magazine. As a freelancer, Patrick has written for print publications such as GQ, Mother Jones and the Los Angeles Times, and on the web for National Geographic Channel, Discovery News, Science Channel and Fast Company, among others. In recent years, he's become increasingly interested in how technological advances are altering urban life and the design of cities, and has written extensively on that subject for Urban Land magazine. In his spare time, Patrick is a longtime martial arts student and a fan of crime fiction, punk rock and classic Hollywood films.
RECENT CONTRIBUTIONS
Fast radio bursts are over in less time than it takes to blink your eye. They come from way beyond the Milky Way. And astronomers can't say with certainty what causes these enigmatic bursts.
The tiny HaloSat probe will investigate a galactic halo of hot gas that may account for missing matter from the early universe.
Chernobyl affected European wines. Fukushima seems to have affected at least a small slice of California wines. The question is how much?
But don't buy your lakefront property just yet.
Composites from DNA in cold cases is helping investigators make predictions about the appearance of both suspects and victims in hopes of generating leads.
The Russian anthropomorphic robot can fire a handgun, do push-ups and even drive a car. Now it's going off into space.
The Trump administration wants to develop a new generation of low-yield nuclear weapons that could be used without launching an all-out nuclear war.
The new 3D color scans look like cross sections from a vividly realistic anatomical model, revealing great detail and true-to-life color.
Who takes the hit when the U.S. president levies tariffs on our trading partners?
Researchers say that Otzi, the ancient man found in the Alps in 1991, lived on a diet loaded with fat to maintain warmth and energy in his cold, high-altitude environment.
Plastic road materials-maker MacRebur is paving the way to a greener environment, using recycled waste to build roads.
Harmful algal blooms wreak havoc in oceans around the world and occur nearly every summer along the coastline of Florida.
Ancient humans used symbols to communicate. Are we regressing to a pictorial system of language?
Sweden puts less than 1 percent of its household trash into landfills, in part because it burns nearly half to generate heat and electricity.
Scientists have used long-lost data tapes to show that Apollo astronauts probably caused the lunar surface to warm slightly during moon missions in the 1970s.
Experts who've studied this say you have to look at several factors regarding parenting, toy guns and aggression.
There's nothing worse than having your AC go on the fritz in the middle of summer. And one of the biggest reasons for air conditioning failure can be easily prevented.
Influenza can jump from pigs to dogs and is becoming more diverse in canines, increasing the possibility that it could eventually evolve to endanger humans.
People who consume massive quantities of animal protein report experiencing the meat sweats, a sensation of feeling flushed and fatigued, accompanied by profuse perspiration.
To define the location of objects in the sky, astronomers utilize a system of celestial coordinates, which extends latitude and longitude from Earth's surface into space.
