Deadly, fat-sucking mites and wing-wrecking viruses, take note. Specially engineered gut microbes can defend honeybees by tricking their enemies into self-destruction. Rod-shaped Snodgrassella bacteria, common in bee guts, were engineered…
Category: Earth
Can forensics help keep endangered rosewood off the black market?
Jian Zhong Wang’s home in the southern Chinese city of Nanning is an inviting place. Light spills in through large bay windows, which offer a stunning view of the garden…
Too much groundwater pumping is draining many of the world’s rivers
Humankind’s collective thirst is slowly desiccating landscapes worldwide, a study of groundwater finds. Water stored in aquifers underground makes up the vast majority of accessible freshwater on Earth. Its abundance…
Many cosmetics contain hidden, potentially dangerous ‘forever chemicals’
A new chemical analysis has revealed an ugly truth about beauty products: Many may contain highly persistent, potentially harmful “forever chemicals” called PFAS. PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances,…
A new technique could make some plastic trash compostable at home
A pinch of polymer-munching enzymes could make biodegradable plastic packaging and forks truly compostable. With moderate heat, enzyme-laced films of the plastic disintegrated in standard compost or plain tap water…
The U.S.’s first open-air genetically modified mosquitoes have taken flight
The first genetically modified mosquitoes that will be allowed to fly free outdoors in the United States have started reaching the age for mating in the Florida Keys. In a…
Wildfires launch microbes into the air. How big of a health risk is that?
As climate change brings more wildfires to the western United States, a rare fungal infection has also been on the rise. Valley fever is up more than sixfold in Arizona…
Discarded COVID-19 PPE such as masks can be deadly to wildlife
A Magellanic penguin in Brazil ingested a face mask. A hedgehog in England got itself entangled in a glove. An octopus off the coast of France was found seeking refuge…
‘Fathom’ seeks to unravel humpback whales’ soulful songs
In an opening scene of the new film Fathom, Michelle Fournet sits at her computer in the dark, headphones on. The marine ecologist at Cornell University is listening to a…
A new book uses stories from tsunami survivors to decode deadly waves
TsunamiJames Goff and Walter DudleyOxford Univ., $34.95 On March 27, 1964, Ted Pederson was helping load oil onto a tanker in Seward, Alaska, when a magnitude 9.2 quake struck. Within…
