W. Wayt Gibbs is a contributing editor for Scientific American magazine and is Executive Editor at Intellectual Ventures, an invention and investment firm near Seattle. Gibbs studied physics and English at Cornell University, where he worked as a science writer for the school's national supercomputer center. After a brief stint as a science and technology reporter with The Economist in London, Gibbs joined Scientific American in 1992. He was promoted to Senior Writer in 1998, and served in that position until 2006. In his tenure with the magazine, Gibbs wrote more than 220 bylined articles for Scientific American. His work has been honored by the National Association of Science Writers, the Wistar Institute Science Journalism Award, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science Journalism Award. One of his recent articles was included in the Best American Science Writing 2006 anthology.