Stories featured in
A New Cooling Technology Protects Against Severe Heat and Viral Spread
In the face of dangerous heat waves this summer, Americans have taken shelter in air-conditioned cooling centers. Normally, that would be a wise choice, but during a pandemic, indoor shelters present new risks. The same air conditioning systems that keep us cool recirculate air around us, potentially spreading the coronavirus. “Air conditioners look like they’re bringing in air from the outsideREAD MORE
The Lobstermen of the Eastern Yucatán (PHOTOS)
José “Josh” Catzim Castillo, a 25-year-old lobster fisher, circles a hollow concrete box resting on the seafloor, just off the coast of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. He slips a snare into the box and shakes it. Three spiny lobsters, or langostas, shoot out and try to flee, but Castillo is too quick. He surfaces, hoisting his catch. Its tail snapsREAD MORE
Toxic Algae Are a Menace. Humans Are Giving Them Ammunition.
Matteo Farinella is a neuroscientist-turned-cartoonist who uses comics to explain science. You can follow him @matteofarinella. Jeremy Deaton writes for Nexus Media, a nonprofit climate change news service. You can follow him @deaton_jeremy.READ MORE
How Rain in the Midwest Devastated Oyster Farmers in the Gulf
This story was produced in collaboration with PBS News Hour. Debbie Fountain and her husband are oyster farmers in Biloxi, Mississippi. They are part of a new wave of shellfish farmers looking to feed the growing demand for seafood while also helping to preserve nature. “I feel a stewardship, you know. We’re doing something that’s renewable,”READ MORE
Scientists Use Underwater Speakers to Lure Fish to Dead Reefs
A healthy coral reef sounds like a bowl of Rice Krispies in milk. Snap. Crackle. Pop. “Thousands of invertebrates make this constant crackling, sizzling, static-like sound as … shrimp snap their claws and sea urchins scrape over rocks,” said scientist Tim Gordon. “Punctuated throughout that, you can hear the grunts, whoops, and chatter of many different fishes.”READ MORE
Environmental Scientists Want Help Coping With Their Grief
Scientist Tim Gordon studies how rising temperatures are damaging corals in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, where intense cyclones and warm waters have caused extensive damage in recent years. What he sees brings him to tears. “They used to be some of the most colorful, vibrant, bustling, noisy ecosystems in the world, but now many of themREAD MORE
Illegal Gold Mining Is Laying Waste to the Amazon
Last summer, scientist Maria Rodriguez traveled to the Peruvian region of Madre de Dios, once the home of lush rainforests, meandering rivers and thriving wildlife. But her destination was anything but picturesque. She’d come to study several sites ravaged by illegal gold mining that had left a legacy of destruction and mercury poisoning. One area, inREAD MORE
How Your Prescription Drugs Could Kill You During Heat Waves
One day during the summer of 2018, Nita Sweeney, a 58-year-old retired lawyer-turned-author from Upper Arlington, Ohio, set off for a 7-mile run — a normal distance for an avid runner. It was warm at 7 a.m. when she started, and it kept getting warmer. She was sweating heavily, a side effect of the antidepressant she takes. ByREAD MORE
Scientists Use the Dark of Night to Generate Clean Energy
Scientist Aaswath Raman long has been keen on discovering new sources of clean energy by creating novel materials that can make use of heat and light. And lately, he has focused on developing better cooling systems, perhaps inspired by childhood summer visits to his grandparents in Mumbai, where the temperature can hover at 100 degrees FREAD MORE
There’s a Fungus Among Us — And It’s Deadly.
Most of us know that those mushrooms we love on top of a pizza are a fungus. But not everyone realizes that some fungi also cause disease, unless, of course, you’ve suffered through a bout of athlete’s foot or a pesky yeast infection. For the most part, however, the fungi that cause severe illness have aREAD MORE
Microbes Help Humans: Our Invisible Allies
Microbes are everywhere — on land, in the sea and in the air. They are on us and inside us. All living things interact daily with bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms. We consume them in yogurt, beer and bread. Trillions of them live within our bodies, keeping the human ecosystem in balance. Among other things, they strengthen immunity,READ MORE
Steak Made From Insect-Inspired Lab-Grown Meat? Yum!
Edible insects are a great source of protein. But it’s probably folly to think that more than a few people want to swap crickets for steak on the dinner plate. Chomping on a sautéed cricket or savoring a spoonful of caterpillar stew just wouldn’t be the same. Natalie Rubio, a doctoral student and researcher at TuftsREAD MORE
Could Snow Be the Next Source of Clean Energy?
When the conversation turns to clean, renewable energy, the talk almost always is about sun and wind. No one ever brings up another natural power source, as yet untapped — snow. Incredible as it may sound, falling snow carries an electrical charge. Scientists have known this for decades, but until recently they couldn’t figure out how to turnREAD MORE
Cars Are Giving Millions of Children Asthma
Children spend a lot of time outdoors playing tag, shooting hoops or climbing trees. If they live in cities, they might run around near busy roads. Parents always teach their kids to watch out for oncoming cars and never run into the street — but no one tells them not to breathe. Just being outside near traffic canREAD MORE
Ghana’s “Queen Fishmongers” Face An Uncertain Future
Each morning, men living in fishing communities along Ghana’s coastline push off in search of the day’s catch. But when the boats come back to shore, it’s the women who take over. In Ghana’s fishing industry, women process and sell the fish caught by men. A “queen” fishmonger — known as the “Konkohemaa” — holds court as the most powerfulREAD MORE
Like the Oceans, the Great Lakes May be Souring
Imagine diving into the shallow waters off the coast of Lake Michigan. You can see bare rocks and sand as you descend. Pinky-size spottail shiners swim by, shimmering in silver. When you reach the bottom, an indigenous yellow spotted molted sculpin is lying flat on its belly, flapping its boney fins like wings. “That was atREAD MORE
Environmental Stress Can Be Passed on Through Pregnancy
Climate change is a growing threat to mental health, particularly in the aftermath of severe storms, floods or wildfires, when victims can develop post-traumatic stress disorder. Now, scientists are wondering if climate-related mental health problems developed during pregnancy can be passed on from one generation to the next. The early answer appears to be yes. ItREAD MORE
Meet the Gribble. She Holds the Key to Cheaper, Cleaner Biofuels.
The tiny gribble — less than an inch long — lives in coastal marine environments and feasts upon wood. It gobbles up sticks and logs that wash into the sea from river estuaries, performing an important ecological function. But it also can be a damaging nuisance, eating the wood from boats and piers, causing considerable damage. Unlike other wood-eating creatures,READ MORE
Swim Across Pacific Thwarted by Storm
Some people like to support a good cause by hosting a bake sale or maybe a car wash. The more spritely do-gooders might run a 5K or — if they are especially vigorous— a marathon. Ben Lecomte swims across oceans. This summer, the environmental consultant set out to swim 5,500 miles across the Pacific to raise awareness ofREAD MORE
The Seafloor is Disappearing
Much of the deep sea has never been explored close-up by humans. Some submarines have plumbed its depths, but reaching the ocean bottom is a complicated and expensive journey, challenging because the seabed lies under more than three miles of water, which exerts huge amounts of pressure. “We know more about space than about the bottomREAD MORE
Students at Black Prep School Lead the Charge for Solar on Campus
At the Piney Woods School near Jackson, Mississippi, the mission for more than a century has been to prepare the “heads, hands, and hearts” of black students. Now, the school is enlisting solar power in that mission, using a planned solar array to educate students about a booming industry. The historically black prep school aims toREAD MORE
Finding A Future in the Forest
One of the largest remaining tropical rainforests in the Americas stretches across the Mexican states of Yucatan, Quintana Roo and Campeche, and reaches down into Guatemala and Belize. The forests are home to an innumerable number of species, from jaguars and mahogany trees, to plants, insects and animals still yet to be named and classified byREAD MORE
City Trees Are Disappearing
Forests are essential to combating climate change. They drink up huge amounts of planet-heating carbon from the atmosphere and provide shelter for species struggling to adapt to global warming. For that reason, experts have called for measures to protect forests. But what about trees in cites? We hear much less about them. Yet the trees thatREAD MORE