Jeff Hecht is a freelance science and technology writer based in the Boston area who covers topics from climate and evolution to lasers and dinosaurs for magazines including New Scientist, Nature, IEEE Spectrum, Sky & Telescope, and Laser Focus World. He also writes short science fiction which has been published in Nature Futures, Daily Science Fiction, Analog, Interzone, Asimov's, and other magazines and anthologies. His latest book is Lasers, Death Rays, and the Long, Strange Quest for the Ultimate Weapon, published this year by Prometheus Books.