Joshua Rapp Learn

Joshua Rapp Learn

 

Joshua Rapp Learn is a D.C.-based journalist who writes about science, culture and the environment. He has crossed the Sahara Desert, floated down the Amazon River and explored in more than 50 countries.

Smallmouth salamanders reproduce sexually, which may give them certain advantages.

When Is Sex Worth Going the Distance? When You’re a Salamander, Apparently

Asexual amphibians may be less equipped to handle modern threats than their sexual counterparts

An Inca skull from the Cuzco region of Peru, showing four healed trepanations. The new review focuses on the practice in ancient China.

Drilling Deep: How Ancient Chinese Surgeons Opened Skulls and Minds

A new review finds evidence that the Chinese performed trepanation more than 3,500 years ago

A black and white ruffed lemur in Madagascar's Vakona Forest Reserve. Worldwide, primates are particularly prone to overhunting, according to the first global assessment of bush meat hunting trends.

A New Report Says We're Hunting the World's Mammals to Death. What Can Be Done?

Solutions are multifaceted and region-specific, but conservation researchers have some ideas

Anthropologists have long debated the origins of human violence.

Can Resource Scarcity Really Explain a History of Human Violence?

Data from thousands of California burial sites suggests that a lack of resources causes violence. But that conclusion may be too simplistic

Just try and infect me.

No, I Don’t Need a Flu Shot: I’m an Alpha Female

For spotted hyenas, like humans, social wealth equals better health

A hammerhead caught on a longline.

Is It Too Late to Save Red Sea Sharks?

With anti-fishing laws virtually unenforced, sharks off the coast of Saudi Arabia are being fished to death

West acropolis at the Maya site of Yaxchilan, in Southern Mexico.

Ancient Maya Bloodletting Tools or Common Kitchen Knives? How Archaeologists Tell the Difference

New techniques for identifying the tools of sacrifice sharpen our understanding of the ritual

A male zebra finch.

Birds Sing to Their Eggs, and This Song Might Help Their Babies Survive Climate Change

Embryonic learning—things birds pick up from their parents while still in the egg—may play a bigger role than imagined.

Captive Bactrian deer at The Wilds, a conservation center in Cumberland, Ohio. Until recently, the deer was feared locally extinct in Afghanistan.

Rare Afghan Deer Endures Two Major Wars, Is Ultimate Survivor

Researchers feared the endangered ungulate had gone locally extinct. The Bactrian deer proved them wrong

A condor, tagged with a transmitter for tracking, perches on California's coast.

Mercury-Laden Sea Lion Carcasses Threaten California's Coastal Condors

The new findings put a wrench in conservation of one of the world's rarest birds

Leopard territory in Southeast Asia has been reduced by 94 percent.

The Indochinese Leopard Is Down to Just a Few Lives

These threatened cats now occupy just 8 percent of their historic range in Cambodia, new population estimate finds

Sperm whales, giant squid and humans all have a mitochondrial "Eve."

No, a Mitochondrial 'Eve' Is Not the First Female in a Species

The latest story about a sperm whale “Eve” shows how people misunderstand the evolutionary term. Fear not: We can clarify

A captive Eurasian brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos) in Denmark.

Mama Bears Use Humans To Keep Their Cubs Safe

During mating season, humans might stress female bears out, but male bears stress them out more

A male Bombay night frog getting his call on.

The Frog Kamasutra Gains a Chapter, Thanks to Camera-Wielding Biologists

One newly described sexual position for frogs could mean one giant leap for frog conservationists

Science Proves Electric Eels Can Leap From Water to Attack

Biologists confirm the curious case of eels striking animals above the water's surface

Cubicles: Not just mind-numbing, but unhealthy too?

How Climate Change Could Make Office Work Even Unhealthier

"Sick building syndrome" and other indoor concerns could be exacerbated by climate change

The tule elk has been reintroduced to its native range at Point Reyes National Seashore in California, but sometimes "rewilding" landscapes brings unintended effects.

It Might Be Impossible to Turn Back the Clock on Altered Ecosystems

"Rewilding" landscapes to return them to a natural state might sometimes be ineffective and even harmful

New Mapping Technology Helps Arctic Communities “Keep on Top” of Sea Ice Changes

Buoys are being deployed in the bays of Labrador, Canada, with sensors that track ice thickness, to stop Inuit from breaking through

Thick-billed murres gathering on Coats Island in the Canadian Arctic. New research is finding that these and other birds are bringing ocean pollution back onto land; the birds eat contaminated fish and poop out the chemicals.

Seabirds Are Dumping Pollution-Laden Poop Back on Land

Chemicals we've poured into the ocean are coming back to sting us thanks to seabirds defecating in their onshore colonies

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