Louisiana, one of the country’s top oil producers and refiners, became the first Deep South state to join an interstate climate compact to meet the Paris Climate Agreement’s goals earlier this month. The action is the latest in a series of actions taken by Democratic governor John Bel Edwards to establish a climate strategy for…
Thomas Turner, a marine researcher, dives through the kelp forests in Southern California regularly. His goal was to photograph and collect over 300 sea sponge specimens to learn more about the many sponge populations that dwell off the golden coast. Turner had been spotting odd beige spots on kelp forest rocks for a few years.…
Humans and hyenas are arguably the two species that spring to mind when we think of animals that laugh. However, scientists have discovered that at least 65 different kinds of animals generate vocalizations similar to a human giggle after scouring the literature. There aren’t any hyenas among them. According to anthropologists and cognitive scientists in…
At the University of Washington, Neel Bhatt is an assistant professor of otolaryngology. This article first appeared on The Conversation.I frequently record my patients speaking as a surgeon who specializes in treating people with vocal difficulties. These recordings are helpful to me. They allow me to follow minor changes in their voices from a visit…
Jumping spiders, a spider family found worldwide, have four pairs of eyes and, as the name implies, a penchant for acrobatic jumping. These spiders don’t usually create webs to entrap their prey; instead, they utilize their silk as a “dragline” to help them improve their leaps or develop silken houses for mating, producing eggs sleeping…
The gadget you’re using to view this article very definitely works by storing zeroes and ones in bits of semiconductor, specifically silicon powered by electricity.That kind of energy utilization won’t cut it in the future where net-zero carbon emissions are the goal. Fortunately, researchers aim to fundamentally alter the way computers operate, leading to more…
As states began to expand COVID-19 vaccination eligibility to persons with pre-existing medical issues in March, a considerable number of people discovered that they were eligible for the vaccination just based on their height and weight. Anyone with a body mass index (BMI) more than 25 (what the CDC calls “overweight”) is officially at risk…
Summer is just a few months away, but the heat has already begun. Feeling heated (and cooling down) is now a part of the everyday grind, thanks to unyielding sunshine and sizzling barbecues. Welcome to August. Wildfires have made headlines worldwide in recent years, from California to Australia—but they are a threat to far more…
Justin Schmidt, a researcher from the Southwestern Biological Institute, was in a tree in Costa Rica in 1987. He was trying to climb closer to a black wasp nest hanging in the limbs of the tree to gather a few specimens for research, and he was shimmying over a branch that hung perilously over a…
Rod McCullom is a scientific writer based in Chicago who writes for Undark’s “Convictions” section. Undark, Scientific American, Nature, The Atlantic, and The Nation, among other journals, have published his work. This piece first appeared in Undark.The images are graphic and upsetting: Jahmel Leach, 16, lies on a hospital bed with a swollen face and…