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Lina Zeldovich

Lina Zeldovich

Lina Zeldovich grew up watching her grandfather fertilize the family’s organic orchard with composted sewage and thought that the whole world did the same. Thirty years later, she had won four awards for covering the science of poo and focused her book on the novel solutions to the world’s oldest problem—keeping humans free from their own excrement. In writing The Other Dark Matter, she toured a slew of smelly sewage plants, hopped over many stinky street gutters, stuck her nose into a stool bank—and lived to tell the story. When she isn’t digging into humanure in India, Madagascar or North America, she lives in New York City and tends to a compost pile in her backyard.

Manhattan glacier

Should Manhattanites Worry About the New Manhattanish-Size Iceberg?

Probably. If all Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets melt, the sea level will rise over 200 feet.
A pod of orcas swimming in the ocean

Do Dolphins and Orcas Really Kill Their Young?

Stunned marine biologists watched a young mother orca desperately trying to save her baby.
gene edited pigs

You May Soon Be Eating These Gene-Edited Pigs

Scientists have produced pigs that can resist a billion dollar animal virus.
Dead European Beech

What’s Killing European Trees?

Soil fungi supply nutrients to trees, but as they wither from pollution, trees suffer too.
A bloat of hippos in a watering hole

Hippo Poop Kills Fish, but There’s an Upside

A robot disguised as a crocodile is helping scientists understand that mass fish die-offs serve a purpose.
Girl and dog relaxing on a healthy green lawn

Fixing the Grassroots of the American Lawn

A citizen scientist bred low-mow, slow-grow grass that needs little water and fertilizer.
Cuckoo chick

Russian Cuckoos are Invading Alaska. Songbirds, Beware!

Songbirds may loose their entire broods to cuckoos’ parasitic tricks.
Gator eating crab

Alligators on Beaches May Become the Norm

As conservation efforts succeed, wolves, leopards, alligators, and other predators colonize new lands.
Early Spider Orchid (Ophrys sphegodes)

Bees’ and Orchids’ Pseudo-Romance Broken by Climate Change

Rising temperatures are upsetting the bee-orchid pollinating schedule, threatening to snuff out the flower.
Two ichtyosauruses swimming in the ocean

These Lizard-Dolphin Creatures Ruled the Seas for 150 Million Years

Ichthyosaurs gave birth to live offspring, had huge eyes and lived all over the world.

An Astro-Ecology Team Brings Stellar Software Down to Earth

This new AI will protect endangered species from poachers, says a team of conservationists and astrophysicists.
fast food phthalates

Would You Like Phthalates with That?

People who like dining out have 40 to 55 percent higher phthalate levels than those who eat at home.
Molten lava erupts from Eyjafjallajokull, Fimmvorduhals, Iceland

Volcanoes, Climate Change, and The Birth of Christianity

The massive, deadly eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eldgjá in 10th century brought climate change and Christianity to the island colony.
Husk Power Systems

Running On Rice Husks—How One Entrepreneur Brought Electricity to His Village

In the rural Indian province of Bihar, Husk Power Systems is converting leftover rice husks into biofuel. Now they're building mini-power plants around the country, and expanding into Tanzania.
The English Lake District, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

British National Parks Plug Into the Internet of Things

Researchers in England think connecting British National Parks to the “Internet of Things” could help better protect the national treasures at lower costs with improved experience for nature-lovers.
Joshua Pearce positioning a solar panel

Converting Tobacco Fields into Solar Farms Can Save Half a Million Lives a Year

The cost of generating solar power has dropped so dramatically, it is now economically advantageous for tobacco farmers to replace tobacco with solar farms in many places.
A scientist places a specimen in a container while in a lab

These (Aggressive) Newfound Ocean Viruses May Also Live in the Human Gut

Is the newly discovered, tailless Autolykiviridae virus shaping your microbiome?
Atacama Desert Solar Panels

China Denounces Coal, Chile Goes Solar, and Guinea Tackles Sleeping Sickness

Chile turned the Atacama Desert into a giant solar farm, China denounced coal power, and Guinea has been plagued by sleeping sickness.
Female chemist at work in laboratory.

Supermalaria, Disaster Testing, and a Drop in Antibiotics Use

A new drug-resistant malaria strain is spreading in South-East Asia. Farmers may be using fewer anti-biotics. Engineers are studying national disasters.
Sad tiger

Homeless Tigers, Suicidal Farmers, and Fish that Feed on Booze Waste

Meet fish that eat booze waste, learn about the homelessness crisis among Sumatra's tigers, and find out why American farmers are committing suicide.
Red London Double Decker Bus

Coffee-Powered Buses, Cannabis Megafarms, and a Fashionable Facelift

Britiain's red double-deckers will run on spent coffee grounds. California cannabis farms may now mushroom in size. Fashion is due for an ecological shift.
Rats are killing kiwis and other birds in New Zealand

Rat Wars, Radiation Leaks, and Other Dirty Secrets

This week in sustainability news: rats v. kiwis, radiation links in midcentury Soviet Union, and an American town with no running water.
Red Sea Coral Reef

Ecolabels, Plastic-Eating Corals, and Vanishing Cars

Are corals digesting plastic? Are gasoline cars about to disappear from our roads? Does the ecolabel on your frozen salmon mean your dinner is sustainable?
A Loowatt worker replaces the biodegradable waste-collection bag in a waterless toilet in Madagascar

A Toast to Toilets!

Waterless toilets battle the global sanitation crisis.
Sad lovers couple after pregnancy test result

Are Our Environmental Policies Making Us Broke, Hungry, and Infertile?

Forestry wages fall, hunger is increases, and infertility may be growing because pesticide residue clings to food. Time to overhaul environmental policy?