Improbable Replications

Replaying evolution, often but not inevitably, yields similar outcomes. 

Geoengineering

Doing something about the weather is no longer just talk.

Rio Tinto and the Mines

The long-dormant site of Spain’s first environmental protest in 1888, revisited.

Condors and Carcasses

Barely pulled back from the brink of extinction, California condors are still being poisoned by lead-based ammunition.

The Big Ivory Apple

An illegal market has not, as advertised, gone out of business.

Spit and Image

The wonderful world of mucus

Remembering Stephen Jay Gould

Human evolution was not a special case of anything.

Great Adaptations

Research on a versatile bacterium provides insight into multicellular microbial life and tackling infections as deadly as those associated with cystic fibrosis.

Restoration of the Alewife

A fish that links marine and freshwater environments is finding allies in Maine.

Snake Oil Redux

Tourists are only encouraging  a dubious Vietnamese tradition.

Recent Stories

The way they live, the food they eat, and the effect on us

A true but unlikely tale

Story and Photographs by William Rowan

Increasing day length on the early Earth boosted oxygen released by photosynthetic cyanobacteria.

Genomic evidence shows that Denisovans and modern humans may have overlapped in Wallacea.