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Brian Gallagher is a writer and editor focusing on ideas in science, philosophy, technology—and everything in between.

I spent more than a decade at Nautilus commissioning and writing stories that readers found intellectually urgent, stimulating, and delightful. My first book, with Mark Shelhamer, asks what it would actually take to send people to Mars.

Cover of Are We Ready for Mars?

Johns Hopkins University Press · October 13, 2026

Are We Ready for Mars?

Mark Shelhamer with Brian Gallagher

What it will actually take to send people to Mars — and bring them home. Biomedical engineer Mark Shelhamer and I look past the launch footage to the bodies, minds, and machines that would have to survive the trip.

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Sense DataBy Brian Gallagher

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On ideas and culture

Articles on how we think and feel, what we believe, and the cultural weather those things make. Launching from Berkeley.

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