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Science / Our Planet

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

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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”

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Chestnutty

Wielding cutting-edge science and lots of patience. James Hill Craddock hopes to restore the ravaged American chestnut tree to its former glory

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Will Tuvalu Disappear Beneath the Sea?

Global warming threatens to swamp a small island nation

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Fault Lines

Weighing threats on land and from the sea

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Yellowstone Grumbles

Pent-up water and steam threaten to burst through the park’s surface. (And we’re not talking Old Faithful here)

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Can Great Coffee Save the Jungle?

Persuaded that guilt alone won’t get Americans to pay more for environmentally friendly coffee, importers give farmers the tools to grow better beans

Tide pools with sea stars and sea anemone

Discoveries

Finding pharmaceuticals in the sea, unsettling images and nuggets of Americana

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