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Stories from REPRINT AUTHOR PLACEHOLDER

Scientists are beginning to understand when and why minds start to wander.

Why Do Our Minds Wander?

A scientist says mind-wandering or daydreaming help prepare us for the future

Burls are bark-covered growths that can protrude from a tree’s trunk. They contain unsprouted bud tissue, and produce a wood that’s valued for its unique grain and smooth workability.

What Is the Financial Value of an Old-Growth Tree?

In setting fines for timber poaching, experts are looking at different ways to calculate the worth of trees

Dehydrated carrageen looks nothing like the beautiful red fronds easily identified in coastal rocky pools.

A Brief History of Ireland’s Carrageen Moss Pudding

The curious dessert—combining a seaweed found on the Emerald Isle’s coast with dairy—lies in the hands of regular folks who enjoy a challenge

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty (1970). Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA. Mud, precipitated salt crystals, rocks, water. 1,500 ft. (457.2 m) long and 15 ft. (4.6 m) wide. Collection Dia Art Foundation. Photograph: William T. Carson, 2020

How Utah’s ‘Spiral Jetty’ Is Drawing Attention to the Climate Crisis

Years of drought have exposed Robert Smithson’s massive earthwork in the Great Salt Lake

A vendor displays chili peppers at a local market in India. 

Why Do Some Humans Love Chili Peppers?

An anthropologist traces the origins and paths of one of his favorite kinds of plants

Mikhail Gorbachev died on August 30, 2022, at age 91.

The Contradictory Legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev

The Soviet leader, who died on August 30 at age 91, attempted to enact “revolution from above”

Few arguments showcase the fraught politics of state foods than the debate over red and green chiles in New Mexico.

The Contentious History of Official State Foods

How a bill about muffins, chili, or plums becomes law—or doesn’t

Cotton fields

It’s Time for the Fashion Industry to Launch a Farm-to-Closet Movement

For fiber and textile producers, the path to growing sustainable cotton, hemp and flax is complicated

Birds that wander out of their home ranges can be an unexpected source of revenue. Stella, a Steller’s sea eagle, recently turned up in Maine and Massachusetts, drawing tourists who spent nearly US $500,000.

Birds Wandering Far From Home Can Be a Boon for Local Tourism

When an internet-famous Steller’s sea eagle turned up roughly 11,000 kilometers off course in late 2021, birders flocked to catch a glimpse

Research indicates that those of us in the West should eat less meat to live more sustainably.

How Much Meat Should We Eat?

To be sustainable, scientists say we should consume fewer animals products

A fresco in Pompeii possibly depicting Lanassa and Demetrius, circa 50 to 40 B.C.E.

Why Demetrius the Besieger Was One of History’s Most Outrageous Kings

The ancient Macedonian monarch specialized in siege warfare, polygamy and sacrilege

Long Covid is a morass to figure out, but the answers are important for the multitudes still suffering from an infection that happened to them months or even years ago.

How Long Will It Take to Understand Long Covid?

Covid long-haulers experience a litany of symptoms, and researchers have proposed a variety of theories to explain them

In the Mediterranean Sea, ship strikes are the leading cause of death for sperm whales.

A New Detection System Could Save Sperm Whales From Ship Strikes

Scientists have developed a computational technique that can track whales in real time—and potentially prevent collisions

As the North Carolina farmed oyster industry grows, advocates hope to fuel consumer demand and build the industry’s profile with a tourism “trail.”

North Carolina’s Oyster Trail Aims to Give the Farmed Shellfish Industry a Boost

In the tradition of wine and ale trails, the state’s new tourism offering highlights restaurants, farms, festivals and markets

Eelgrass grows in the waters off Birch Island, Maine. The plant supports a bountiful and diverse ecosystem.

Why Eelgrass in the Atlantic Ocean Faces an Uphill Battle

The Ice Age left the plant off our East Coast with less genetic diversity than its relative in the Pacific

A wave carrying plastic washes up in Thailand. For microbes in the ocean, floating plastic is a new potential ecosystem. And those microbes include pathogens that can make people sick. 

Human Pathogens Are Hitching a Ride on Floating Plastic

Studies show that various harmful bacteria cling to microplastics in seawater

Quebec’s Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence are at the mercy of rising sea levels and increasing storm surges. The fragile dunes, lagoons, marshes, and sandstone cliffs are all at risk of being lost.

The Sea Is Slowly Consuming Quebec’s Magdalen Islands

Those living in the doomed paradise face a stark choice: resist, adapt, or give in to the ravenous ocean

A meeting of the Soviet Republics’ Esperanto Union, held in Moscow in 1931

Why Hitler and Stalin Hated Esperanto, the 135-Year-Old Language of Peace

Jewish doctor L.L. Zamenhof created Esperanto as a way for diverse groups to easily communicate

On Calvert Island, British Columbia, the subtle rock line of an extant clam garden is a reminder of how Indigenous peoples turned the sea into a shellfish garden.

How Indigenous Sea Gardens Produced Massive Amounts of Food for Millennia

Communities created bountiful food without putting populations at risk of collapse

Many workers today feel frazzled, overwhelmed and ready for a vacation.

How to Deal With Work Stress and Recover From Burnout

These evidence-based strategies can help you achieve healthy work-life balance

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