brown egg sitting upright, resting in two forks that have had their tines crossed
When Reader's Digest writer Nadine Jolie Courtney was sought experts for a story on the myth of "standing eggs" during the Spring Equinox, I stood at the ready with experts to give her the facts.

Overview

In March 2020, Readers’ Digest writer Nadine Jolie Courtney sought experts through HARO (Help-a-Reporter-Out) to assist with a story regarding the Spring Equinox. I pitched Jolie Courtney on my own behalf as an expert and spokesperson for Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and Wystan Benbow, an astrophysicist at Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.

Media outcomes

Total earned stories:1
Estimated impressions:2,375,000
Estimated ad value:$16,625.00
Estimated PR value:$66,500.00
Based on national studies, a favorable placement of editorial content has approximately four to six times the value of a similar amount of advertising copy. The values here represent four times the dollar value of similar advertising.

Placements

Reader’s Digest/Nadine Jolie Courtney, “Can you really balance an egg on the Spring Equinox?” March 9, 2020

Highlight from the article

The science behind it

According to Wystan Benbow, PhD, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, and the director of VERITAS, “while it can be challenging to balance ordinary objects like an egg or a broom on their end, it is certainly not any easier or more difficult depending on the day of the year. This is because Earth’s gravitational pull is the same every day, no matter which way it ‘appears’ tilted toward the sun.”

Amy C. Oliver, Public Affairs Officer for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Visitor & Science Center Manager for the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, agrees. “The spring equinox only signals the pending shift in the season, and there’s no gravitational change on Earth,” she explains. “The only things eggs are going to do in the spring are bring baby chickens into the world and be hidden in the garden by the Easter Bunny. It doesn’t matter what day of the year it is.”

Originally published in Reader’s Digest and online.