Stephen Ornes is a freelance science writer based in Nashville, Tennessee. He has covered a wide range of topics, including extrasolar planets for Discover, the mathematics of pizza slicing for New Scientist, Mercury's magnetic tornadoes for Science News for Kids, and tumor banking for CR. His first book, a young-adult biography of mathematician Sophie Germain, was published in 2008. "What Happens to a Donated Tumor?", a feature story from the summer 2009 issue of CR, was recently recognized by the Association of Health Care Journalists. He is also a fact-checker for CR magazine.