Vampire finches: how little birds in the Galápagos got a taste for big bird blood

Finches have evolved to feed off blood from red-footed and Nazca boobies – and we've seen it first-hand.

Jaime Chaves, Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolution, San Francisco State University • conversation
Jan. 15, 2021 ~7 min

Peat bogs: restoring them could slow climate change – and revive a forgotten world

The UK's marshes, bogs and fens provided the bare necessities of daily life for many centuries.

Ian D. Rotherham, Professor of Environmental Geography and Reader in Tourism and Environmental Change, Sheffield Hallam University • conversation
Jan. 11, 2021 ~8 min


After a record 22 billion-dollar disasters in 2020, it's time to overhaul US disaster policy – here's how

NOAA released its list of climate and weather disasters that cost the nation more than $1 billion each. Like many climate and weather events this past year, it shattered the record.

Deb Niemeier, Clark Distinguished Chair and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland • conversation
Jan. 8, 2021 ~11 min

After a record 22 billion-dollar disasters in 2020, it's time to make US disaster policy more effective and equitable – here's how

NOAA released its list of climate and weather disasters that cost the nation more than $1 billion each. Like many climate and weather events this past year, it shattered the record.

Deb Niemeier, Clark Distinguished Chair and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland • conversation
Jan. 8, 2021 ~11 min

Why David Attenborough cannot be replaced

Wildlife television as we know it was constructed around Attenborough. Take him away and the whole thing needs to be reinvented.

Jean-Baptiste Gouyon, Associate professor in Science Communication, UCL • conversation
Jan. 5, 2021 ~7 min

Magnetic induction cooking can cut your kitchen's carbon footprint

Shifting from fossil fuels to electricity is climate-friendly, but serious cooks don't think much of electric stoves. Will induction cooking finally catch on as an alternative?

Kenneth McLeod, Professor of Systems Science, and Director, Clinical Science and Engineering Research Laboratory, Binghamton University, State University of New York • conversation
Dec. 23, 2020 ~9 min

Museum specimens could help fight the next pandemic – why preserving collections is crucial to future scientific discoveries

Specimen preservation means researchers don't need to reinvent the wheel each time they ask a new question, making it critical for the advancement of science. But many specimens are discarded or lost.

Bryan McLean, Assistant Professor of Biology, University of North Carolina – Greensboro • conversation
Dec. 16, 2020 ~11 min

Plastic pipes are polluting drinking water systems after wildfires - it's a risk in urban fires, too

A new study shows how toxic chemicals like benzene are leaching into water systems after nearby fires. The pipes don't have to burn – they just have to heat up.

Kristofer P. Isaacson, Ph.D. Student, Purdue University • conversation
Dec. 14, 2020 ~9 min


W.E.B. Du Bois embraced science to fight racism as editor of NAACP's magazine The Crisis

As editor of the magazine for 24 years, Du Bois featured articles about biology, evolution, archaeology in Africa and more to refute the rampant scientific racism of the early 20th century.

Jordan Besek, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University at Buffalo • conversation
Dec. 14, 2020 ~8 min

Paris Agreement: five years on, it's time to fix carbon trading

Done right, offsetting projects can benefit local people and make a measurable difference to carbon emissions.

Imi Melissa Dencer-Brown, Lecturer in Blue Carbon, Edinburgh Napier University • conversation
Dec. 11, 2020 ~7 min

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