Environment – Page 14 – NU Sci Magazine

An exploration of crop diversity:
The importance of biodiverse agriculture

Biology, Chemistry, Environment / Tenzing Briggs / March 3, 2022

Humans have made many lasting, devastating changes to the world in which we live, but biodiversity loss has been one of the main changes we have wrought upon the planet. In the world of agriculture, there has also been a loss of biodiversity in the specific species of crops grown to feed a rapidly growing […]

An exploration of crop diversity:
The importance of biodiverse agriculture Read More »

Frozen frogs: Nature’s not-so-tasty popsicles

Biology, Environment / Liam O'Malley / March 1, 2022

Cardiac arrest. For most of us, it spells the end. For wood frogs, however, it’s just their annual hibernation through the winter. Hibernation is usually a similar process among most species — eat as much as possible, find shelter, and live off those energy stores until the snow begins to melt. Usually, the animal spends

Frozen frogs: Nature’s not-so-tasty popsicles Read More »

The extraordinary empathy of canaries’ immune systems

Biology, Environment / Salma Alawi / February 28, 2022

Animals face numerous dangers, one of them being illnesses. Species have found a variety of ways to protect themselves from diseases, but not much is known about how they affect the physiological state of the individual. A phenomenon surrounding the immune systems of canaries was recently discovered by researchers at the University of Connecticut. The

The extraordinary empathy of canaries’ immune systems Read More »

The future in terms of urban microclimates

Environment / Anna Ducroiset / February 19, 2022

According to the UN, approximately half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, with this number projected to grow. It is more essential now than ever to mitigate the toll urban areas have on local climates and environments. Urban areas tend to be significantly hotter than their surroundings due to heat trapping and heat

The future in terms of urban microclimates Read More »

Foliage of the future: How Harvard’s new tech aims to prevent a global food shortage

Biology, Environment / Jasmin Patel / February 11, 2022

What if humans created a leaf better at utilizing sunlight than plants? And what if that leaf was engineered with such efficiency that it could feed the future world? Researchers at Harvard University have created and improved their “bionic leaf” to do just that and are now ready to bring this new technology into the

Foliage of the future: How Harvard’s new tech aims to prevent a global food shortage Read More »

Slime mold: the cell that’s smarter than you

Biology, Chemistry, Environment / Lillie Hoffart / February 5, 2022

As you walk across campus on a warm fall day, you pass by what looks like a small, bright-yellow chunk of coral rising up from under some mulch. A few days later as you walk the same route — do you remember it correctly, or did that yellow mushroom-like blob move? That blob is no

Slime mold: the cell that’s smarter than you Read More »

War! What is it good for? Destroying the environment

Environment, World / Kaelen Encarnacion / February 4, 2022

Fields once green and lush, pockmarked and rife with forgotten land mines. Two cities, hundreds of thousands of lives, gone in an instant. Shrapnel in trees, poisoned air, scorched earth. These are the devastating effects of war. Like carbon emissions, oil spills, and deforestation, most of the environmental disasters we face today are man-made. War

War! What is it good for? Destroying the environment Read More »

The science behind earth’s red glow

Biology, Environment / Reshika Sai Devarajan / February 3, 2022

When you think of glowing space entities, your mind might jump to the Sun, but what if I told you that our very own planet emits its own mysterious red light? You might be puzzled, and so were researchers in 2009 when a satellite detected shades of red light scattered throughout the planet. The root

The science behind earth’s red glow Read More »

How climate change will change chocolate

Environment / Anya Ghai / December 8, 2021

A world without chocolate seems impossible, with grocery stores stocking shelf after shelf of products ranging from bars to powder. However, if climate change continues at its current pace, a world without chocolate may become a reality. Even the smallest changes in climate can have serious consequences for the agricultural industry. As global temperatures increase,

How climate change will change chocolate Read More »