Science
Archive3rd Place: Meandering Mississippi Landsat 7 Acquired 5/28/2003, Small, blocky shapes of towns, fields, and pastures surround the graceful swirls and whorls of the Mississippi River, the largest river system in North America. Countless oxbow lakes and cutoffs accompany the meandering river south of Memphis, Tennessee,…
World-renowned scientist E.O. Wilson did not take up calculus until he was 32 years old. When he did finally tackle the subject, he sat next to undergraduate students taking his introductory biology class. He uses this anecdote as a way into his five…
A mockup of the Green Wheel. Photo: Nadim Inaty Okay, you won't save the earth. But you will help it along a tiny bit. Nadim Inaty, an industrial designer from Beirut, Lebanon, is developing a public treadmill that would essentially crowdsource electricity from runners. The concept,…
In this weekly roundup, we scour the Web for our favorite long-form magazine and newspaper articles, collecting them here and on Longreads.com and Twitter. This installment focuses on the animals—and languages—we're eradicating, the dopers we're catching and the fight su
Surveying the beaches in his home state of North Carolina with a world-renowned erosion expert, David Gessner considers the folly of trying to deny what all the sandbags and misguided legislation in the world can never stop: the rising sea
If you’ve seen Red Gold, about efforts to stop the proposed Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska, you know the documentary-making prowess behind Felt Soul Media. The trailer for the team’s next film, DamNation, has just been released. Conceived by…
Cougar. Photo: Shutterstock Cougars are on the rise in the Midwest. From 1990 to 2008, the number of sightings confirmed by wildlife professionals increased. That's good news for fans of big cats, which were extirpated from most of that area around…
Thirty-five years ago, a national recession and high fuel prices led to the opening of the massive, controversial Trans-Alaska Pipeline System—and a host of problems and pollution that came with it. Sound familiar?
Photo: Mara/Flickr One of our top 10 environmental news stories of 2011 was the troubling violence that environmental activists face in many parts of the world, particularly in Brazil, where three high-profile activists were slain last May. While researching that…
Simulated wetland used in silver nanoparticle research at Duke University. Photo: Benjamin Espinasse In recent years, many outdoor apparel manufacturers have embraced a new range of anti-microbial textile coatings that are designed to inhibit the growth of bacterial and fungus that cause odors. Less stinky…
Photo: Kesu/Shutterstock I know, it's Friday and in your head you're probably half-way down the nearest trail or river already. But next week, world leaders are meeting in Rio, 20 years after their last meeting there (thus, “Rio+20”) to try to hammer out some…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Go3vsLnjEDc%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_embedded Sure, summer reading lists are usually filled with the latest mysteries or epic dramas to hit paperback. But for your list, consider adding a series of reports by the Salt Lake Tribune, “Our Dying Forests.” The series recently claimed the The Grantham Prize…
AquaBounty salmon, the unreported disaster at a Panama grow-out facility, and the Georgian libertarian who took control of the fish farm and may soon move it outside the watch of the Food & Drug Administration. Meet what could soon be the first GE animal allowed for human consumption.
Bob Evans' GasPod devices. Photo: GasPods Armed with an engineering degree that he earned not from a university but from “watching nature,” and with years of experimenting and designing better scuba fins, a Santa Barbara-based entrepreneur has created a small airfoil…
The Environmental Protection Agency just released its long-awaited study of the potential effects of the proposed—and highly controversial—Pebble Mine on Alaska's watershed and famed salmon, but the conclusions, tepid as they are, probably won't please either side
The Potomac River Photo: MV Jantzen/American Rivers River conservancy American Rivers just released its 27th annual America’s Most Endangered Rivers report, naming the Potomac the most threatened river. This waterway earned the top spot not so much…
Courtesy of planet–earth.ca On May 10, Gizmodo posted this 122-megapixel picture they call the single highest resolution photo of earth. Not long ago, NASA made…
I'm looking for ways to gauge improvement. If I can soak through my wicking base layers, I call that a good day. Do better athletes sweat more?
A resort lights up. Photo: S. Borisov/Shutterstock The Golden Eagle Award is not, as it sounds, an accolade for Boy Scouts. It's an accolade for ski areas that give a hoot, so to speak, and are actively reducing their environmental impacts. The…
Photo: Walter Siegmund/Wikimedia Commons On Saturday, flash flooding on the Seti River destroyed a number of villages in Nepal's Kaski district (near Annapurna), claiming at least 26 lives, according to recent news reports. Around 40 others, however, are still…
Wildfire via Shutterstock Photo by Jon Beard This summer's wildfire season is already well underway, with tragic repercussions. The Lower North Fork Fire in Colorado last month claimed three lives and many homes. It prompted Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper to put a moratorium…
Jason Mecier artwork, on auction for Keep America Beautiful. Brought to you by Glad Bags. “If I get one more email on the subject, I'm going to celebrate Earth Day by kicking Gaia in the nuts,” declared journalist…
Fluorescent colors and reflective stripes certainly make you more visible to drivers when you're running at dusk or in the dark. But a new study by Brooks Running shows that low light perception is more scientific than just throwing some glare at oncoming traffic. Brooks Running product…
Veronika Scott's initial coat design, with Tyvec shell. Photo: Brittany Thomasson In 2010, while pursuing her degree in product design at Detroit's College for Creative Studies, a single idea changed the course of Veronika Scott's life. She decided to make a coat. Not just any…
Some might say this is the perfect telescope for the star-searching newbie. If you can't hone in on the galaxy you're looking for on your own power, Celestron's Prodigy 6 robotic self-aligning telescope will find it for you. Using electronic motors, an intelligent on-board computer, a…
Shivling Peak via Shutterstock Photograper: Galyna Andrushko As mountaineers from around the world converge in Nepal and prepare for the 2012 Everest climbing season, Apa Sherpa, the porter-turned-professional-climber who has summited the mountain 21 times, is in the midst of…
A Q&A with former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed on his incredibly shrinking country
Photo: Young Hoon Oh Young Hoon Oh, South Korean PhD candidate in anthropology at UC Riverside, is headed to Nepal at the end of the month to attempt his second Everest summit. But his itinerary extends well beyond the days he'll try to reach the top…
Photo: Flickr/gailf548 A study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows how ecotourists, researchers, and others who are lucky enough to step foot on Antarctica might be leaving more than footprints. Seeds and other plant material hitch-hikes there by way of…
Researchers wield the collection trawl Photo: Stiv Wilson Despite what you might have heard, there are no huge, visually striking debris fields of plastic shopping bags and PET bottles swirling around the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. But if that's the good news, the bad news is much worse:…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=YGGUfYFdFrc%C2%A0 The Telluride MountainFilm Festival came through Santa Fe recently, and I had the opportunity to catch up with half a dozen terrific adventure flicks that I'd missed over Memorial Day weekend in Colorado. Going to see Mountainfilm always takes ten years off my life—in a good…
A U.S. Army sergeant launches a UAV. Photo: The U.S. Army Ecologists and conservationists have long and frustrating lists of hurdles that keep them from doing field work. Aside from the wild, dangerous miles between them and the remote regions of the world they need to…
Badenoch, training. Photo: Joe Bell This spring, Andrew Badenoch plans to launch a 7,000-mile trip from Bellingham, Wash., up to the southern coast of the Arctic Ocean, before looping back. His locomotion will…
Nancy Black, a 49-year-old marine biologist and the co-owner of a whale watching operation in Monterey, California, has pleaded not guilty to charges that she was feeding killer whales during two filming expeditions. According to the Monterey County Herald, the government has also been investigating the Jean-Michel…
Scouring the country’s premier film festival for the best environmental and adventure documentaries
It’s late January. The days are getting longer, the sun is getting just a teensy bit stronger. Who doesn't have beach days or bluebird powder days on the brain? Which brings to mind one of parenthood’s more onerous tasks: applying sunscreen. It’s sticky, the kids are wriggly, and if…
On the afternoon of December 26, 2011, surf forecasting guru and media mogul Sean Collins died of a heart attack. What will the loss of the sport’s oracle mean for the surfing industry and for the sport?
New workouts, a marathon birth, and revolutionary new studies: Here are the headlines that defined health and fitness news in 2011
From bureaucratic wrangling to the death of the sport's most exciting star, the sport of running was in flux a year before the Olympic Games
Harold Camping was wrong—twice—about 2011 ushering in the end of days, but the year certainly had its share of environmental catastrophes. Thankfully, there were a few glimmers of hope, as well.
A collection of the web's best running blogs, from journalists, fans, and runners
The best sites for health advice and commentary, so you can get online and go outside
Tomorrow, November 30, is the last day of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season. To mark the occasion, NOAA released a video that condenses the entire six-month, seven-hurricane season into a 4 minute and 42 second video. A few notes on the…
The best environmental blogs, from one-sided political commentators to prolific aggregators and reporters breaking news.
In late September, a surveyor found a small dead bat lying on the ground at a 6,500-acre wind farm in Pennsylvania, prompting an indefinite shutdown of night operations. With demand for green energy on the rise, is pulling the plug on a wind farm over one dead bat the right call?
The Solyndra solar debacle has some in Congress arguing that government needs to get out of the renewable-power business. Don’t tell that to the Marine Corps, the bravest new recruit in the clean-energy revolution.
How does a visionary marine biologist convince brain researchers to help him revolutionize ocean conservation? With lots of hugs, a million blue marbles, and one very unorthodox conference.
Before the Tar Sands protests and before Occupy Wall Street, a young activist named Tim DeChristopher disrupted a federal oil- and gas-lease auction. The act made him a martyr for a newly radicalized environmental movement—and landed him in prison. This is his story.
Recording engineer Jeff Rice is on a mission to preserve the sounds of nature. Why? Listening to them might actually make us healthier.
They control the lands you play on, the athletes you worship, the gear you buy, even the food you eat. Meet the 25* most influential people in the world outside. *Ranked in order of influence
Located in California's Sequoia National Park, The General Sherman is the largest living single stem tree on Earth. Or at least the largest living single stem tree that we know about. No, it's not the tallest. (That award goes to the Hyperion…
The Cadence, Courtesy of the James Dyson Award If you think Oscar Pistorius's Cheetah legs are cool, wait until you get a load of the slick new cycling prostheses that may soon be available for lower leg amputees.
From erosion-resistant reefs to recycled toilet water (gulp), five city strategies freshening up the 21st century
Jason McLennan’s supergreen designs could rewrite the rules of sustainability, but critics wonder if they’re practical enough to make a difference.
If a megaquake like the one that hit Japan last March were to strike the U.S., the Pacific Northwest coast would be the likeliest spot. Geologists have their eyes on the Cascadia subduction zone, a 740-mile seam where the Juan de Fuca and North American plates meet. The CSZ has been building up tension for more than 300 years, say some seismologists. If that te
Photo by Ashala Tylor (See more pictures and get more updates on her blog and Flickr) When photographer Ashala Tylor heard a loud knock at her door early one morning in late June,…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=6smGf875jck Double-amputee Oscar Pistorius will realize his dream to compete against the fastest athletes in the world in next month's World Championsips. Recently, South Africa picked the 24-year-old sprinter for their team after he shaved a half second off his 400-meter time last month at a…
Futuristic new submersibles are poised to take crews to earth’s greatest depths. It may get crowded down there.
Science be damned, a band of surfers and celebrities fight to save an iconic break
Chemistry Lab: Gummy Bear Experiment from GOi2P on Vimeo. On day five of Expedition Bolivia, the i2P team ran another 38km and continued taking time to demonstrate some basic science in recognition of the UN's International…
Expedition Bolivia Day 3 – 37km from GOi2P on Vimeo. The Expedition Bolivia i2P team pushed through altitude sickness and 12,000-foot-plus elevations Monday to tackle a 41km run. Yesterday they were right back it, logging another 37km. The team dealt with high…
i2P Expedition Bolivia – Day 1: 30 KM from GOi2P on Vimeo. Ultrarunner Ray Zahab is in South America this week, running nearly 200 miles through Bolivia for the fourth stage of the impossible2Possible (i2P) World Expedition Series.
Serving as his own lab rat, an amateur bike racer spent a year taking supplemental testosterone—rumored to be a peloton favorite—to find out if it could transform an average Joe. His conclusion? No doubt about it.
This is a big month for wild salmon advocates. On Sunday, May 1 at 8 PM Eastern, PBS will air a Nature special, Salmon: Running the Gauntlet, that offers a terrific broad-strokes history of the collapse of the fish in the once-prolific Columbia…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=wiw-7-zY9iQ%C2%A0 Sitting down may be shortening your life and adding inches to your waistline, according to an article in the New York Times. The study, performed by Mayo Clinic researcher James Levine,…
Sometime around World War II, synthetics exploded into our everyday lives. By some estimates, these materials—plasticizers, dyes, pesticides—have increased by a shocking 8,200 percent in the last quarter century. The upshot of that, of course, has been improved agriculture, economic wealth, and an abundance of…
Sometime around World War II, synthetics exploded into our everyday lives. By some estimates, these materials—plasticizers, dyes, pesticides—have increased by a shocking 8,200 percent in the last quarter century. The upshot of that, of course, has been improved agriculture, economic wealth, and an abundance of…
An exclusive look inside the cutting-edge Army lab that's pinching, prodding, dunking, bruising, and building the soldiers of tomorrow—and revolutionizing adventure fitness along the way.
Geoelectric image showing electrical conductivity of magma plume beneath Yellowstone Caldera. Courtesy of the University of Utah. Geophysicists at the University of Utah have…
Geoelectric image showing electrical conductivity of magma plume beneath Yellowstone Caldera. Courtesy of the University of Utah. Geophysicists at the University of Utah have…
The Grand Canyon. Courtesy of Wikimedia The paddling community is rallying behind a federal effort to issue a moratorium on new uranium mining claims in Northern Arizona, according to Playak.com. Among other organizations involved,…