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Will Latin America chart a different, more sustainable path for palm oil?
What do soap, Ben & Jerry’s and Kit Kat bars have in common? They all contain palm oil— produced by the oil palm tree.Native to West Africa, oil palm has been planted throughout the tropics to...
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For generations, these Brazilian women harvested the sea, but industry...
Journalist Zoe Sullivan spent months documenting a small community of marisqueiras living south of Recife on the eastern coast of Brazil.Marisqueiras are women who harvest mollusks, crabs and other...
View ArticleWhen it gets hot, these bearded dragons change their sex
It's never been seen in the wild before now, as least in reptiles. Researchers have published a study demonstrating that when the mercury rises, the Australian bearded dragon changes its sex.The study,...
View ArticleWill Solar Impulse 2 inspire a whole fleet of solar-powered planes?
Now that a solar-powered plane has set an amazing record, we're ready with the next question: Will there soon be a fleet of solar-powered planes?Not quite, but airlines are moving in that direction.On...
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Scientists have discovered the 'missing link' between the brain and the...
A group of researchers have discovered the existence of previously unknown lymphatic vessels in the brain — a stunning find that upends current medical science and could have far-reaching implications...
View ArticleThe quest for the 'Asian unicorn'
Deep in the forests of Southeast Asia lives a creature called the saola. In profile, it looks like a unicorn — and it’s almost as rare as that mythical beast. Little is known about it, except that it...
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This historic device is responsible for measuring North America's longest...
The crystal ball on a hilltop outside Boston doesn’t look into the future, but provides an invaluable connection to the past. This antique technology, called a Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder, helps...
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How Africa gets power to 620 million more people could have a huge influence...
In South Africa, major cities are subject to regular power outages as electric utility Eskom periodically shuts down parts of its distribution system to take the pressure off the aging national grid....
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Spiders can sail now, which is terrifying
Today in your nightmares: Scientists have just discovered that you’ll never be safe from spiders, even at sea.Spiders can sail. Well, at least some of them can — according to researchers at the...
View ArticleMeet the man who gave the name to the creatures we now know as dinosaurs
Everybody likes a good dinosaur story, but one of the best dinosaur stories of them all centers on the man who gave these remarkably extinct beasts their name.Sir Richard Owen (1804-1892) was a...
View ArticleCanada is burning and America is choking on its smoke
I've lived and worked at PRI in Minneapolis for almost four years. Summers are usually the best time of year up here — temperatures are fairly moderate, days are long and the air is clear.On Monday,...
View ArticleCanada isn't the only country fighting off wildfires this week
Wildfires in Canada have gotten a lot of attention this week — but fires are burning not just in Canada.That means it's been a busy season for Paul Lane, vice president of Air Spray Airtankers, a...
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Meet the group of Ethiopians gloating over the hack of Hacking Team
Perhaps no massive hack of a private company has been met with such glee on Twitter as the one that occurred early Monday morning. A notoriously unethical Internet security firm called “Hacking Team”...
View ArticleHow pilots fight Canada's raging wildfires from above
If you thought you were having a hot summer, try fighting forest fires from a plane.There are more than 200 wildfires burning in Canada right now. Since April, half a million acres have burned in...
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Girls, you don't have to go into STEM. Look at me.
Louie Cronin is a novelist, essayist and audio engineer for PRI's The World. Previously, she worked as an associate producer for Car Talk on NPR.Recently on PRI's The World, as part of our Across...
View ArticleHe refused to kill these adorable bear cubs. Now his job is on the line.
They’re barely 8 weeks old, they squeak like Gremlins — and they’ve stolen Canada's heart.Two black bear cubs were orphaned earlier this month when their mother was destroyed for breaking into a meat...
View ArticleThis endangered salamander can regrow limbs — or even parts of its brain
The adult salamander pictured here has short limbs and toes, and gills sprouting from its head — features typical of amphibian larvae. But this species, known as the axolotl (pronounced...
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In Amsterdam, there are people paid full-time, with benefits, to fish for bikes
I went to the docks in the very center of Amsterdam with, basically, one thought in my mind: This is going to be freaking awesome.I mean, c'mon. It's bikes and fishing. For an Oregon boy, it doesn't...
View ArticleMicrobes may hold the key to future high-tech meds and materials
When most people think about advanced technology, they imagine robots or hypersonic vehicles or new additions to the Internet of Things. But there is another tool that may have more high-tech potential...
View ArticleWhether you make the right choice or the wrong choice, there's quite a bit of...
Sharing is caring. It's nice to include others in your game. Don’t steal toys from your classmates. We get a lot of lessons about ethics and morality when we’re young, and for the most part, they still...
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