The Mixed Environmental Legacy of Missionaries
The recent murder of Christian missionary John Chau has drawn attention to the effects outsiders have on native tribes and ecology.
Meeting Earth’s First Animals at the Burgess Shale
The Burgess Shale is a huge deposit of unique fossils that reveals records of the middle Cambrian, a vital period in evolutionary history.
When a Cultivated Tree Goes Rogue
The Callery pear was meant to help prevent fire blight from destroying the commercial pear industry. Then it became invasive.
What’s Inside Mars?
Everything scientists think they know about the interior of Mars is based on indirect observations. NASA's new InSight Lander aims to change that.
The Accidental Invention of Terrariums
Victorian London became obsessed with Ward’s cases, which protected plants from the city’s toxic pollution—and piqued peoples’ imaginations.
The Environmental Cost of Cigarettes
Cigarette butts account for a huge amount of human-generated plastic pollution.
Civil Rights and New Deal America, Bruno Latour, and Bad Environmentalism
New books and scholarship from University of North Carolina, Harvard University Press, and University of Minnesota Press.
How Forest Fires Work in Finland
Finland's forest fires aren't as destructive as California's. That has more to do with climate and population than with forest management.
DNA Forensics Can End Ivory Trafficking. Will Countries Play Along?
Scientists pinpoint poaching hotspots, but authorities aren’t always eager to join the fight.
Questions for the Age of Automation
Back in the 1960s, scholars were making predictions about what the Age of Automation would look like. Where they right?