The Fish on Your Plate May Not Be What You Ordered
This story was originally published by HuffPost and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. If you eat seafood, even occasionally, there’s a good chance you’ve been served a fish species you didn’t order. A new months-long investigation by ocean advocacy group Oceana finds widespread and persistent fraud in the US seafood…
How to Make Your Commute as Cheap and Fast as Possible
They say that "time is money," which might indeed be true. But if that's the case, how do you best optimize your costs? Let's consider your daily commute to work. Should you drive fast (but still within the legal speed limit) to save time? Or maybe you should drive slowly, so that your car gets…
Earth's Depths Are Teeming With Otherworldly Microbes
This story originally appeared on The Guardian and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The Earth is far more alive than previously thought, according to “deep life” studies that reveal a rich ecosystem beneath our feet that is almost twice the size of that found in all the world’s oceans. Despite extreme heat, no…
Antibiotics Are Failing Us. Crispr Is Our Glimmer of Hope
Humans and antibiotics have had a good run. These “miracle” molecules have saved millions of lives and and alleviated incalculable suffering around the globe. But in the last few decades, as millions of tons of antibiotics were indiscriminately pumped into humans (and farm animals), the pace of bacterial evolution began to outstrip pharmaceutical innovation. Today,…
The Science Behind Social Science Gets Shaken Up—Again
Taking a lice-grade comb to press coverage of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign can feel a little like relitigating, but in light of recent news about President Donald Trump, consider this article: “It Really Doesn’t Matter if Hillary Clinton Is Dishonest.” Published in the Washington Post just before the Iowa caucuses, it was…
Think Rivers Are Dangerous Now? Just Wait
A river is a mercurial thing, running deep and fast in the rainy season, and low and slow when the rains fade. It can dry up completely one year, then turn into a raging flood the next. Every so often, a river disappears entirely, bringing down the communities it once nourished. You hear a lot…
China Built the World’s Largest Telescope. Then Came the Tourists
“I hope we go inside this golf ball,” Sabrina Stierwalt joked as she and a group of other radio astronomers approached what did, in fact, appear to be a giant golf ball in the middle of China’s new Pingtang Astronomy Town. Stierwalt was a little drunk, a lot full, even more tired. The nighttime scene…
Carbon Capture Is Messy and Fraught—But Might Be Essential
On paper, carbon capture is a simple proposition: Take carbon that we’ve pulled out of the Earth in the form of coal and oil and put into the atmosphere, and pull it out of the atmosphere and put it back in the Earth. It’s like hitting undo on the Industrial Revolution. And scientists can indeed…
Invisible Swarms of Particles Envelop Us All. Come Have a Look
For two and a half years, Michael Snyder began each day by strapping a device to his arm the size and shape of a large matchbox. Gray in color with a nozzle extending from its top, the box went with him everywhere, whether he was traveling abroad, hanging holiday decorations at his home in Palo…
We're Destroying the Sea—But It Could Save Us From Ourselves
The oceans have nourished our species for millennia, but we sure have a funny way of showing our appreciation. Overfishing, pollution, climate change, acidification—I could go on. The sea has always been an indispensable tool for transportation and sustenance, and we’re in danger of breaking that tool beyond repair. Yet the ocean also presents a…