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WORK TITLE: Adapt
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Los Angeles
STATE: CA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amina-khan-5197179/ * https://us.macmillan.com/author/aminakhan/ * https://muckrack.com/aminawrite
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:University of California, Berkeley, B.A., 2007.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Journalist. Classroom Matters, SAT instructor, 2004-07; Los Angeles Times, web assistant, 2007-08, reporter, 2009-; Right is Wrong, editorial researcher, 2008; Forbes, reporter, 2008-09.
AVOCATIONS:Surfing and snowboarding.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Amin Khan is a science writer and health blogger on the staff of the Los Angeles Times. She obtained her B.A. at the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied Spanish and linguistics. After graduation, she began working for Classroom Matters as an SAT instructor. She then became an editorial researcher and reporter, working first for the Los Angeles Times and then for Forbes. She returned to the Los Angeles Times in 2009 to focus on science reporting. Her articles have covered a wide range of topics, from the Mars rovers to bioengineering. To further her education, she attended the Kavli nanotechnology workshop at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the HiPACC computational astrophysics bootcamp at UC Santa Cruz.
In 2017, Khan released her first book, Adapt: How Humans Are Tapping into Nature’s Secrets to Design and Build a Better Future. The Macmillan website describes Khan’s premise, saying that she “presents fascinating examples of how nature effortlessly solves the problems that humans attempt to solve with decades worth of the latest and greatest technologies, time, and money.” A critic in Kirkus Reviews pronounced the book “meticulous” and a “richly detailed account of biologically inspired engineering.” Velcro, for example, was fashioned with the sticking power of a burr in mind. The critic concluded: “These well-crafted tales of bio-inspired innovation will entrance general readers and warrant the close attention of scientists and technologists.” In Booklist, Carol Haggas noted that in her book Khan brings together a journalist’s sensibility with a “storyteller’s desire to enthrall an audience,” going on to call it “hopeful and exciting reading for the future of personal and planetary challenges.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 1, 2017, Carol Haggas, review of Adapt: How Humans Are Tapping into Nature’s Secrets to Design and Build a Better Future, p. 26.
Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2017, review of Adapt.
ONLINE
Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/ (February 3, 2018), author staff profile.
Macmillan Website, https://us.macmillan.com/ (February 3,2017), author profile and brief book description.
Amina Khan
3rd degree connection3rd
Reporter at the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times University of California, Berkeley
Greater Los Angeles Area 301 301 connections
Send InMail Send an InMail to Amina Khan More actions
Experience
Los Angeles Times
Reporter
Company NameLos Angeles Times
Dates EmployedSep 2009 – Present Employment Duration8 yrs 5 mos
Science writer, health blogger. Previously covered education and breaking news.
Forbes Magazine
Reporter
Company NameForbes Magazine
Dates EmployedSep 2008 – Sep 2009 Employment Duration1 yr 1 mo
Los Angeles Times
Web Assistant
Company NameLos Angeles Times
Dates EmployedAug 2007 – Aug 2008 Employment Duration1 yr 1 mo
Right is Wrong
Editorial Researcher
Company NameRight is Wrong
Dates EmployedFeb 2008 – Apr 2008 Employment Duration3 mos
Researched, fact-checked and wrote continuity for Arianna Huffington's latest book, "Right is Wrong"
Classroom Matters
Academic Tutor / SAT Instructor
Company NameClassroom Matters
Dates Employed2004 – 2007 Employment Duration3 yrs
Education
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
Degree NameB.A. Field Of StudyLinguistics, Spanish
Dates attended or expected graduation 2003 – 2007
Activities and Societies: The Daily Californian, tutoring, SAT/ACT instruction
Amina Khan VERIFIED
Los Angeles
Science Writer — Los Angeles Times
Metro Los Angeles, Science
As seen in: Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, Sydney Morning Herald, Miami Herald, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida Sun Sentinel and 67 more
Is this you? Contact us to edit this page
Science writer @latimes. Worked on @BillNyeSaves Season 2. I surf, eat, read, write. Cookie monster is my spirit animal. Author of ADAPT (see link!)
AMINA KHAN
Amina Khan
Shakir Ghazi
AMINA KHAN is a science writer at the Los Angeles Times. She’s covered the Curiosity’s landing on Mars and explored abandoned gold mines in pursuit of a dark matter detector. She’s appeared on national television representing The Times on issues of health and science. She’s an alum of the Kavli nanotechnology workshop at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the HiPACC computational astrophysics bootcamp at UC Santa Cruz.
Amina Khan
Amina Khanis a science writer covering a broad range of topics, from Mars rovers to linguistics to bio-inspired engineering — but she’s perhaps best known for her repeated and brutal attacks on the office snack table. She surfs and snowboards in her spare time.
Khan, Amina: ADAPT
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Khan, Amina ADAPT St. Martin's (Adult Nonfiction) $26.99 4, 18 ISBN: 978-1-250-06040-2
Los Angeles Times science writer Khan debuts with a richly detailed account of biologically inspired
engineering.Snakes that fly; geckos that walk on walls; blindfolded seals that track swimming objects by
following their invisible wakes. These are among the "weird and wonderful" discoveries in nature that are
helping scientists find ways to improve human technology, writes the author of this meticulous, well-written
book. Following researchers from Woods Hole to an African desert, she reveals how cutting-edge,
multidisciplinary research is harnessing the efficiency of nature's "most astounding innovations" to make
human life better "in a world where we're running out of resources, in which we need to learn to live
sustainably." Grouping her stories into thematic sections--materials science, mechanics of movement,
architecture of systems, and sustainability--she offers lucid, engaging discussions of a remarkable range of
scientific work. Consider the cuttlefish, a cousin of the octopus. A shape-shifter with the many-fingered
face of H.P. Lovecraft's fictional god, Cthulhu, the creature can blend in to its surroundings by changing
colors and patterns (with an obvious application to camouflage). It uses the same color-changing to
hypnotize prey. Other stories show how scientists are building robots that mimic the gecko's ability to cling
to smooth walls (for possible use in disaster zones); refining hydrogen-producing artificial leaves that can
serve as clean, renewable energy sources; and studying mound-building termites to inform human
architecture. Khan explores fully the science behind nature's many innovative abilities and how it is being
harnessed. At the same time, she offers fascinating portraits of scientists at work--e.g., the ant researcher
who studies the "personalities" of some 300 ant colonies in annual visits to the Southwest and two
physicists whose dead-serious study of termite mounds is offset by their hilarious "odd-couple" behavior,
reminiscent of the TV sitcom Parks and Recreation. These well-crafted tales of bio-inspired innovation will
entrance general readers and warrant the close attention of scientists and technologists.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Khan, Amina: ADAPT." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A485105123/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=086c37fd.
Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485105123
1/28/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1517179354751 2/2
Adapt: How Humans Are Tapping into
Nature's Secrets to Design and Build a
Better Future
Carol Haggas
Booklist.
113.13 (Mar. 1, 2017): p26.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Adapt: How Humans Are Tapping into Nature's Secrets to Design and Build a Better Future.
By Amina Khan.
Apr. 2017. 320p. St. Martin's, $26.99 (9781250060402). 620.
The world is full of obstacles. It's also full of solutions, if one knows where to look. Increasingly, diverse
engineers, architects, biologists, chemists, city planners, physicians, and physicists are turning to nature for
inspiration in solving perplexing problems. From the energy efficiency of towering termite mounds to the
shape--and color-shifting properties of cuttlefish, to intriguing capabilities of many other marine and land
animals as well as insects and plants, all provide a nearly limitless and largely untapped resource for
scientists striving to understand how to do everything from regenerating limbs to rescuing disaster victims.
Terms such as biomimicry and bioinspiration may not be part of the general lexicon, but Khan introduces
the innovative and daring scientists who are plumbing the depths of nature to bring these concepts into the
mainstream. As a science writer for the Los Angeles Times, Khan brings to her focus on health and
technology a journalists demands for authenticity and experience as well as a storyteller's desire to enthrall
an audience. Hopeful and exciting reading for the future of personal and planetary challenges.--Carol
Haggas
YA: With an upbeat approach and infectious delight, Khan's examination of emerging technologies provides
an accessible and fresh resource for students. CH.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Haggas, Carol. "Adapt: How Humans Are Tapping into Nature's Secrets to Design and Build a Better
Future." Booklist, 1 Mar. 2017, p. 26. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A488689436/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=eac7799d.
Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A488689436
Amina Khan believes that nature does it best. In Adapt, she presents fascinating examples of how nature effortlessly solves the problems that humans attempt to solve with decades worth of the latest and greatest technologies, time, and money. Humans are animals too, and animals are incredibly good at doing more with less.
If a fly’s eye can see without hundreds of fancy lenses, and termite mounds can stay cool in the desert without air conditioning, it stands to reason that nature can teach us a thing or two about sustainable technology and innovation. In Khan’s accessible voice, these complex concepts are made simple. There is so much we humans can learn from nature’s billions of years of productive and efficient evolutionary experience. This field is growing rapidly and everyone from architects to biologists to nano-technicians to engineers are paying attention. Results from the simplest tasks, creating Velcro to mimic the sticking power of a burr, to the more complex like maximizing wind power by arranging farms to imitate schools of fish can make a difference and inspire future technological breakthroughs.
Adapt shares the weird and wonderful ways that nature has been working smarter and not harder, and how we can too to make billion dollar cross-industrial advances in the very near future.