Diane Ackerman (October 7, 1948)

I enjoyed Diane Ackerman's World War II story of two quiet heros and how they used the Warsaw Zoo as a hiding place for Jewish and other refugees.

She recently wrote a very nice article for the New York Times about recent astronomical observations: Planets in the Sky with Diamonds. She said: "The past month has been a marvel in the planetary world. In addition to HD 85512b [an Earth-like planet that might harbor life], astronomers spotted a planet that may be fashioned entirely of diamond, a brilliant diadem set in the black velvet of space. For all we know, it has baguette moons in tow. And a few weeks later, planet hunters confirmed the discovery of Kepler-16b, a planet that circles two suns in the constellation Cygnus."