A journal of science, thought, and action.

Sep

2017

A Giraffe Boosts Conservation

A white giraffe becomes a wildlife icon.

Sep

2017

Cassini's Last Bow

The spacecraft's exploration of Saturn has ended.

Archive Highlights

Rescue Beetles

It's easy to miss a plague of green while being amazed by canyon walls and class 5 rapids on the Colorado River.

15 Jul 2014

Video Highlights

Recent Archive Highlights

A Monumental President

26 August 2017

A Monumental President

Two new national monuments were designated.

9 August 2017

Fishing for Plastic

It takes garbage to make a boat.

8 August 2017

Intelligence of Plants

Amazing new understandings of intelligence in plants.

2 June 2017

The Colours of Australia are Fading

Major changes have occurred recently to Australian forests.

26 May 2017

Super Coral...a Super Hero?

Heat-tolerant corals may help reef restoration.

17 May 2017

Replanting Corals

Some people are taking positive action today to reverse the damage caused by climate change and building resilience for tomorrow.

You Must Have at Least One Good Eye

To get shots like these, you have to have patience and a good lens. But, mostly, you must have at least one eye -- preferably a good one. Photos from National Geographic's Travelers Photo Contest.

2600

The Last Ocean

The Ross Sea in Antarctica is one of the last untouched bits of ocean anywhere. Its designation as a marine protected area is pending.

5578

What America's Ballsiest Eco-Activist Says About Prison Will Surprise You

By Reilly Capps
Tim DeChristopher's worst moment in prison: sick, hungry, beginning to feel like he was on his own. He worried that, by sending him to prison, the government had "scared people into obedience." He began to feel sorry for his sad, sick self.

3091

Living Tiny

Some people are exploring small spaces and learning to 'live large' in the process.

3723

What Made This Gentle Giant Kill?

By Reilly Capps
What made an apparently gentle giant kill? After a Sea World trainer was killed by an orca, filmmakers set out to answer that question. Was the whale a bad apple? Was he mistreated? Or is there something fundamentally wrong about keeping giant animals cooped up in chlorinated swimming pools?

3844

The Magic Artificial Leaf

By Reilly Capps
Daniel Nocera is one of the most exciting scientists in the world. He's working on doing nothing less than building an artificial leaf. What's more: he seems to have done it. When he explains the artificial leaf to you, there's no other possible reaction than what I blurted out to him:
"It's like magic!"
"It is like magic," he agreed

3800

How to Glow: the Very Simple Way of Energy Making

By Reilly Capps
If you break down the essence of energy like you're talking to a kindergartner, it really comes down to one thing: the sun. We get our energy from the sun. Wendy's, jet skis, disco balls. All powered, one way or another, by the sun. For real.

4150

Tim DeChristopher Says We're in Trouble

By Reilly Capps
If there are rockstars of environmentalism -- isn't that a contradiction in terms? -- Tim DeChristopher is one of them. He's punk rock, he's death metal. Ever the doomsayer / realist, activist Tim DeChristopher prophesied that it's already too late to stop climate change, that it's already too late to prevent terrible consequences, destruction. It was a sense that he had nothing to lose that prompted him to take such a bold step. A certain kind of hopelessness drove him.

2101

Solutions On Offer

By Reilly Capps
Engineers and business people and journalists and philosophers are smart enough to find a way through this climate crisis. We're going to scrub the carbon out of the air and keep it in the ground and shoot silicates up in the air to cool the planet and everything's going to be just fine. Harvard has taken care of the bulk of the work. Stanford will clean up the rest. Tim DeChristopher will go to prison for us. Does that sound right?

1841

Docu-Power, or, Reality, Let's Face It, Kind of Sucks

By Reilly Capps
When you see something beautiful, whether it's a mountain or a handsome man or woman or a flower, I believe there are many natural and normal responses. Some want to possess it, to buy it all up and fence it all off so that only they can see it; some want to defile it, to feel like they've conquered it; some want to protect it, to achieve a measure of immortality by helping something beautiful survive down through the generations. Good photos, though, force you into some response or another. You cannot be indifferent.

2290

I Will Be A Hummingbird

The late African ecologist Wangari Maathai reminds us that everyone can contribute something to sustaining their environment.

4614

Connecting Renewables to the Grid

Is electric power from renewable sources like solar, wind, and geothermal close to a tipping point economically? The eLab hopes to make it so.

2999

Mine's Faster than Yours

In the global rover driving competition, the Russians have won the distance contest so far.

4018

THe Art of Mars

Over centuries, freezing and thawing in the Arctic sorts stones into polygons. The process also exists on Mars. It can be very distinct and very beautiful.

5170

The Most Amazing Natural Things on Earth

2329

Geology Mystery of the Day

A strange geologic structure in Africa so far defies explanation.

10067

The Countries that Will Run the World (Hint: It's Not Us)

More than any person alive who ever donned a lab coat, Neil deGrasse Tyson can make complex things simple. Here, he demonstrates, with three simple pictures, why America ought to be worried about our future.

2005

Russians: not as cold, unfeeling as the Bond villains they portray

By Reilly Capps

This video is viral-ing. The vodka-soaked, bride-selling, frozen-solid, track-suit-wearing Russians are not as cold and unfeeling as the Bond villains they portray. Every morning, they arrive at their cars, pull out their ice scrapers, and chip away one square of their hearts -- just big enough to see out of.

3941

The Waterfall and the World at Night

A composite photograph of the Milky Way, shimmering auroras, and Iceland's Waterfall of the Gods won the 2013 International Earth & Sky photo contest.

8617

The 97 Percent

In a survey of papers on climate change, 97 percent of them accept man-made global warming. Only 2 percent explicitly reject it.

1924

America's First Climate Refugees

By Reilly Capps
"America's First Climate Refugees" may be the people called Yup'ik, who live in an Alaskan town called Newtok. Alaska is warming twice as fast as the rest of America; erosion is eating away at their land, and it's just a matter of time before they're forced to move. Along with nearly anyone who spends substantial time outdoors, they've seen their weather change.

2107

Reality Comes Back to Bite You

By Reilly Capps
Pictures are changing minds. Photographers are changing minds. Certain demographic trends mean that the Republicans will virtually have to accept climate change if they don't want to risk becoming the irrelevant "stupid party." Young people, even Republicans, believe in climate change. As old folks die off, that view will become mainstream, even in their party.

1392

When Galaxies Collide

In three billion years or so, the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies will collide producing a mega-galaxy.

6804

The Center of the Earth is About to Disappear

By Reilly Capps

Residents of the small island nation of Kiribati believe they're at the center of the world, when really they're at the end of it. Eventually, the end of the world (or maybe it's the center of it) will disappear into the ocean. Some thoughts on perspective.

2257

Algal Blooms 101

Like every other plant, algae require nitrogen and phosphorus for growth. Receive too much fertilizer and an algal bloom occurs. They can happen to lakes and in the oceans with negative consequences to both aquatic environments.

3783

Ask a Roboticist with Lucas Gardner

Lucas Gardner answers all your questions about robotics!

2987

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