One of fourty semi finalists in the "Journalist in Space Program" (cancelled following the Challenger tragedy); candidate from California; in 1986 working for the San Francisco Chronicle. Charles Petit has covered science for more than 35 years as a newspaper, news magazine, and freelance writer. His career includes 26 years at the San Francisco Chronicle, starting there in 1972. In 1998, he joined the staff at U.S. News & World Report and, since January 2005, has been freelancing. Recent articles have appeared in National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, U.S.News & World Report, and The New York Times. Since early 2006, he also has worked gathering and commenting on the day's science news for the Knight Science Journalism Tracker, a Web site maintained by the Knight Journalism Fellowships at MIT. He has a degree in astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley.