Our Planet

None

The Strawberry with "Wicked Wiles"

David Chelf, a former physicist who shifted gears into horticulture, launched a venture in 2003 to grow large quantities of Mara des Bois strawberries

Swartz (holding some of his experimental hybrid moschata strawberries) says his "holy grail" is a hybrid with the breed's exotic musky flavor and aroma that is also hardy enough for U.S. markets. He predicts it's no more than a few years away.

Berried Treasure

Why is horticulturalist Harry Jan Swartz so determined to grow an exotic strawberry beloved by Jane Austen?

Panther Key

Everglades

The nation's storied wetland is the focus of the world's largest environmental restoration project. But will that be enough?

A Return to the Reefs

With the world's coral reefs in crisis, the author's childhood memories guide a far-reaching study of the problem in the Bahamas

None

Letters

Readers respond to the October issue

35 Who Made a Difference: Jane Mt. Pleasant

Iroquois tradition plus Western science equals a more sustainable future

35 Who Made a Difference: Wes Jackson

In Kansas, a plant geneticist sows the seeds of sustainable agriculture

35 Who Made a Difference: Mark Plotkin

An ethnobotanist takes up the cause of rain forest conservation

None

Oh Deer!

Contraception shows promise, but other measures may be needed to lessen the toll that the deer boom is having on forests and suburbs

Building A Better Banana

It is the world's No. 1 fruit, now diseases threaten many varieties, prompting a search for new hybrids of the "smile of nature"

None

The Dying of the Dead Sea

The ancient salt sea is the site of a looming environmental catastrophe

Raymond Tritt, 52, dresses a fallen bull on the spring caribou hunt. Like virtually every Gwich'in man, he still remembers every detail of his first successful hunt, four decades later. The 100,000-plus caribou of the Porcupine River herd are a focal point for the Gwich'in people: they are a main source of sustenance as well as the key element in the group's rituals, dances and stories. "If we lose the caribou," says a tribal elder, "we lose our way of life."

ANWR: The Great Divide

The renewed debate over drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge hits home for the two Native groups nearest the nature preserve

None

Give Weeds a Chance

How a cultivated dislike of gardening can lead to more time on the porch

A growing number of U.S. firms dismantle used computers and send valuable parts (Circuit Boards #2, New Orleans, 2005) to companies that glean the semiprecious metals.

E-Gad!

Americans discard more than 100 million electronic devices each year. As "e-waste" piles up, so does concern about this growing threat to the environment

None

Hazy Days In Our Parks

The air in many national wilderness wonderlands is getting worse. As officials debate new rules to curb pollution, scientists find sources are far-flung

None

Fire in the Hole

Raging in mines from Pennsylvania to China, coal fires threaten towns, poison air and water, and add to global warming

San Francisco in 1906.

Future Shocks

Modern science, ancient catastrophes and the endless quest to predict earthquakes

None

Invasion of the Snakeheads

The voracious "Frankenfish" has turned up in the Potomac River, Lake Michigan and a California lake, sparking fears of an ecological Armageddon

In his greenhouse, Ragan Callaway pits spotted knapweed plantings (left) against native Montana grasses (right), trying to outwit the weed's chemical weaponry.

Wicked Weed of the West

Spotted knapweed is driving out native plants and destroying rangeland, costing ranchers millions. Can anybody stop this outlaw?

Deep Science

From the Chesapeake Bay to Panama, scores of Smithsonian divers probe underwater mysteries

Page 90 of 97