Environment

The extermination and reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park

Environment / /

It started when park managers began the process of wolf extermination due to their destruction of domestic livestock within Yellowstone National Park. This self-centered decision led to a cascade of change in the food web which drove entire animal species toward endangerment. Only after the extinction of gray wolves within the region nearly 100 years […]

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The science of forest bathing: Nature’s prescription

Environment / /

In recent years, the practice of shinrin-yoku — also known as forest bathing — has garnered worldwide attention for its psychological and physiological benefits.  It is well known that spending time in nature and practicing mindfulness can each profoundly improve overall health. A growing body of research supports the idea that their convergence into a

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To be or not to be: The ethics of the deliberate extinction of Anopheles gambiae

Environment, Health, World / /

As the primary malaria vector of sub-Saharan Africa, the Anopheles gambiae mosquito is the deadliest animal in the world. In 2022, there were an estimated 249 million malaria cases worldwide. Global malaria cases have increased annually since 2015, with countries in Africa facing the majority of case increases. Recent progress has stalled, and many are

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Wildfire-spawned thunderclouds: How fire-induced clouds are creating their own weather

Environment, World / /

Do you remember the blood-red skies over Australia in the wake of the 2019-2020 new year fires? The raging wildfires produced post-apocalyptic, Mad Max-esque skylines and looming columns of smoke, dubbing this period the “Black Summer.”  These bushfires caused the formation of pyrocumulonimbus clouds (pyroCbs), coined “fire clouds.” This is a fire-atmosphere phenomenon caused by

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Live music tackles its carbon crisis

Culture, Environment / /

Live music fosters connections between the musicians and their listeners in a powerful way, allowing the artist to spread their influence through a fun and memorable experience. However, recent concerts and music festivals have been criticized for their harmful carbon footprint and overall contribution to the climate crisis. Climate change has catastrophic global health impacts

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Brian Helmuth is trying to bring people closer to nature in an effort to save it

Environment, Local, Psychology / /

Living aboard Aquarius, the world’s only underwater research center, isn’t glamorous. Its interior is about the size of a bus. You eat dehydrated backpacking food with tons of hot sauce because taste buds don’t work as well in the high-pressure atmosphere. There’s a constant mechanical hum and the “ticking” of snapping shrimp. But Northeastern marine

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Crawling cures: The potential value of insects in medicine

Environment, Health / /

For thousands of years, humans have looked to nature for ways to cure disease. Ancient civilizations around the world relied on plants, animals, and fungi to treat every malady from headaches to heart disease. Even as our ability to develop synthetic drugs has increased, natural products remain crucial in the field of medicine. Between 1981

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Experimental evolution: Can scientists evolve bacteria to manage hazardous waste?

Biology, Environment / /

The industrial synthesis of many widely used chemicals ranging from fertilizers to pharmaceuticals is known to produce toxic byproducts. Some of these products, dubbed “forever chemicals,” are exceptionally resistant to degradation and tend to accumulate in the environment when improperly disposed of. One family of forever chemicals known to be widespread in the environment is

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