Samia Madwar is a science writer living in Ottawa, Canada. She was born in Montreal, grew up in Bonn, Germany and Damascus, Syria, and studied biology at McGill University in Montreal. She is fascinated by diversity among people and biodiversity in general, and enjoys learning how species evolve and adapt to their environments. She has written about worm watching, wolf research and simulated surgeries for Canadian Geographic magazine, and an article on biodiversity in Syria for Syria Today magazine. She has an especially geeky affinity for innocent‐looking, toxic creatures like Amanita muscaria, the quintessential toadstool, and Carukia barnesi, a.k.a. Irukandji jellyfish. Samia is currently writing her thesis on how subsistence hunters and scientists are dealing with zoonotic diseases in Arctic Canada. She is getting ready to graduate next spring with a Master's degree in journalism.