Nuclear lab lets safety gaps languish for years
An obscure facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory for nine years provided vital scientific data about a critical gas used in America’s arsenal of nuclear weapons, until it was shuttered four years...
View ArticleIn the battle of the Internet, the trolls are winning
The former interim CEO of Reddit, Ellen Pao, appears to be a casualty in the battle between free speech and hate speech on the internet.During her tenure at Reddit, Pao tried to rein in harassment,...
View ArticleWhy we're still waiting for the Internet to revolutionize politics
The Internet was supposed to revolutionize democracy. It was supposed to take the power from wealthy elites, give ordinary people a voice in the political process and make the system more responsive.“I...
View ArticleHow a determined marine biologist and volunteers saved a giant kelp forest...
Thirty years ago, the giant kelp forests in the ocean off the coast of California were mostly wiped out by ecosystem imbalances. Now a citizen-led effort has helped to restore them.Giant kelp is the...
View ArticleBP's $18.7 billion Deepwater Horizon settlement provides relief, but perhaps...
BP has agreed to pay $18.7 billion to federal, state and local governments as compensation for the catastrophic 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.The proposed settlement ends five...
View ArticleThe SCOTUS ruling on mercury emissions stops years of momentum
The US Supreme Court recently put a stop to federal rules that would require power plants to clean up their emissions of the toxic metal, mercury.The Environmental Protection Agency has been trying for...
View ArticleClimate change is imperiling bumblebees in the US and Europe
A recent report in the journal Science says climate change has caused bumblebee habitat to shrink by as much as 180 miles in the last 40 years — a pace researchers say is quite alarming.Jeremy Kerr,...
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There's new life in Japan's tech startup scene
It’s pretty common knowledge that the Japanese economy has been sputtering since its heyday in the 1980s. Whole sectors have been slow to innovate and face problem. For years the tech startup scene...
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Here's what climate change looks like from the edge of the Greenland icecap
Greenland is melting fast, and that's bad news for sea level rise and other impacts of climate change. “I don’t mean to make it sound so scary,” reporter Ari Daniel says by satellite phone from the...
View ArticleA lion slaying in Zimbabwe sparks debate about the future of big game hunting
Outrage over the killing of a well-known lion in Zimbabwe has been loud. So loud, in fact, and so amplified by social media that Dr. Walter Palmer had to suspend his Minnesota dental practice after...
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This rugged African ant prefers to scavenge when the sand is at its hottest —...
Summer in the Sahara is scorching — sand temperatures can range between 149-158 degrees Fahrenheit. While skittering across the African desert at high noon might sound like a death wish, it’s only...
View ArticleWhat can the Indian Ocean plane wreckage tell us?
A fragment of a plane wing is on its way to Toulouse in France after being recovered from a beach on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion.There is speculation that it may be from Malaysia Airlines...
View ArticleA kilogram just isn't what it used to be — and it might never be again
The kilogram was defined back in 1795 in the context of water — “one liter of pure water at a temperature of four degrees Celsius and at standard atmospheric pressure.” A physical standard — a hunk of...
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The Colorado River is crucial to the West's water supply — and harnessing it...
Water supply in the West isn’t only about rain, or the lack thereof. A good deal of water scarcity issues have to do with decades-old policy on water issues and entrenched infrastructure.It’s a...
View ArticleClimate change is fueling a spike in wildfires across the Americas
North America is on fire. Nearly five million acres in Alaska have burned in 2015, and the wildfires are on pace to become the largest ever in Alaska’s history. More wildfires are spreading across...
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Pacific Northwest sturgeon suffer as worldwide demand for caviar soars
Caviar, prized as a luxury food, can sell for as much as $200 an ounce. Most caviar comes from the Caspian Sea, but the decline of sturgeon there is driving fishermen and poachers to fish populations...
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This 'Star Wars rebel' biologist isn't giving up on cleaning Rio's polluted bay
The city of Boston said “no” to hosting the Olympics because it didn’t want to be left with cost overruns and unkept promises. In Rio de Janeiro, the Summer Games are one year away, and residents there...
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Gassy cows: a problem you never knew you had
When you think of greenhouse gases, it's easy to imagine idling cars, oil tankers or Dickens-style smokestacks. But you really should be including cows in that lineup.Because of their complex digestive...
View ArticleWeb to stricken robot: The world is better than Philadelphia
From On the Road to Travels with Charlie, from The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test to Wild: the thrill of traveling across America romances many young people every year. This summer, a hitchhiking robot...
View ArticleMosquitoes are developing resistance to insecticides
Humans have used everything from screens to chemical repellants to protect themselves from mosquitoes and the diseases they carry. Now, however, scientists say mosquitoes are finding ways to adapt to...
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