Sophie Kleeman

Bio

Sophie is a staff writer at Mic covering the intersection of tech and culture. She's based in New York and can be reached at sophie@mic.com.

I Got My Genes Tested by 23andMe, and Here's What I Learned About My Future

By Sophie Kleeman

One day in late November, I stood in the bathroom of my workplace, continuously depositing my saliva into a slim, plastic tube while my boss cheered me on. No, I wasn't on set at some sort of weird snuff film: I was the resident guinea pig…

This Bird Lies and Cheats to Get Laid Just Like a Pick-Up Artist Garbage Monster

By Sophie Kleeman

You've heard of the fuccboi. Now, allow us to introduce you to the fuccbird. Matt Simon at Wired has a detailed writeup of the great bowerbird, an opportunistic, deceptive little creature that uses a mix of visual duplicity and straight up mind…

Scientists Have Successfully Preserved an Entire Rabbit Brain for the First Time Ever

By Sophie Kleeman

If Bugs Bunny were to ask his famous question, "What's up, Doc?" today, he might not like the answer. On Tuesday, the Brain Preservation Foundation announced the winner of its Small Mammal Prize, which challenged participants to preserve a small…

Researchers Just Looked Beyond the Milky Way and Discovered Hundreds of Galaxies

By Sophie Kleeman

Our beloved Milky Way is beautiful, but it's also a giant attention hog, obscuring a substantial part of the sky with its mass and dust. In a new paper published Tuesday, however, scientists revealed that they were able to see past the Milky Way for…

Planting Certain Trees Is Actually Kinda Bad for the Environment

By Sophie Kleeman

Plant a tree, save the Earth, or so the thinking goes. But what if it's not the right kind of tree? The results could be undesirable — in fact, they might be the polar opposite of what's good for the environment, according to a new study published…

Twitter Just Announced a New Plan to Curb Harassment

By Sophie Kleeman

Amid corporate turmoil and an uncertain future, Twitter is taking another step to protect its users from harassment, the latest in its series of attempts to balance free speech and personal safety. On Tuesday the company announced in a blog post…

Despite Incredible Odds, a Meteorite May Have Actually Killed a Human

By Sophie Kleeman

The chances of dying at the stone cold hands of a meteorite are incredibly low — about 1 in 700,000 over the course of a person's lifetime, according to astronomer Alan Harris — but one man may now have the extremely morbid distinction of being the…

This Solar Farm in the Desert Will Soon Provide Power for More Than a Million People

By Sophie Kleeman

On Thursday, at the foot of the Sahara Desert, the future of solar energy made its grand debut. That afternoon, Morocco's King Mohammed VI fired up Noor 1, the first section of the country's massive, groundbreaking solar power plant. Expected to…

How to Play the Secret Chess Game in Facebook Messenger

By Sophie Kleeman

Attention, nerds and Bobby Fischer wannabes: Facebook wants to help you. Well, not really. But it does want you to play a somewhat clandestine game of chess with your friends in its chat messenger app. Simply choose a friend, type "@fbchess play"…

These Robot Chefs in China Can Make a Meal in Just 90 Seconds

By Sophie Kleeman

Soon enough, humans will be rendered obsolete when robots come for our jobs, families, partners and everything else that we hold dear. Until that moment inevitably comes, however, we can still enjoy their company, especially when they're cooking up…