UNDARK In “The Devil’s Element,” journalist Dan Egan shows how an essential component of life has become a global menace. One day about 10 years ago, a German beachcomber picked up a small orange rock and pocketed it without much thought. Minutes later, he looked down to see that his left leg was on fire. … More Book Review: For a Centuries-Long Phosphorous Binge, a Reckoning
THE ATLANTIC Preserving the world’s great expanses of grass could be essential to combatting climate change. ***Winner of the 2023 Science Writing Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors*** Once upon a time, not a blade of grass could be found on this planet we call home. There were no verdant meadows, no … More Trees Are Overrated
THE OPEN NOTEBOOK Sometimes, as a reader, you can feel when you’re in good hands and headed somewhere interesting. But how can writers bring this kind of authority to their own work? It requires taking charge of a story to prioritize selectiveness over comprehensiveness, momentum over excessive citation, and rigorous thinking over “balanced” circumspection. It … More Synthesizing Ideas to Write with Authority
HAKAI When oceans are starved of oxygen, it can be devastating to crabs and the fishers who rely on them. New tools could help crabbers sidestep dead zones. ***Winner of the 2022 NW Excellence in Journalism award for magazine writing on environment and natural disasters*** The crab pots are piled high at the fishing docks … More Catching Crabs in a Suffocating Sea
KNOWABLE A growing body of research shows that people have been shaping the planet for millennia — muddying the very idea of wilderness and prompting calls for a revolution in ecology and conservation The Brazil nut is a wondrous thing. The tree can grow more than 150 feet tall — a titan even by Amazonian … More Why there’s no such thing as pristine nature
HIGH COUNTRY NEWS ***Winner of the 2022 Science in Society Award for science reporting from the National Association of Science Writers*** After the Northwest ‘heat dome’ this summer, scientists look for signs of ecological ruin — or resilience. During this summer’s stifling heat wave, Robin Fales patrolled the same sweep of shore on Washington’s San … More How heat waves warp ecosystems
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN The planet’s spin may have mediated critical atmospheric oxygen When Judith Klatt began studying the colorful mats of primitive microbes living in a sinkhole at the bottom of Lake Huron, she thought she might learn something about Earth’s early ecosystems. Instead Klatt, a biogeochemist at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in … More Early Earth’s Slowing Rotation Helped Oxygen Build Up
NATURE The disruption that the coronavirus has caused to daily life has created unique research opportunities for scientists. Soon after COVID-19 lockdowns began in March 2020, physicians in certain nations noticed something unexpected: the number of premature births seemed to plummet. Preliminary research in one region of Ireland documented a 73% decrease in very-low-birth-weight babies1. … More Pandemic upheaval offers a huge natural experiment
OUTSIDE As a college student, writer Julia Rosen spent a summer on Alaska’s Taku Glacier, which kept growing for decades in spite of warming temperatures. Now, she reckons with its uncertain fate. Read the essay in Outside.
THE LAST WORD ON NOTHING When I was sixteen, my voice teacher predicted I would become a Jack of all trades. It wasn’t a compliment: We were in the midst of a fight, squaring off across the shiny black battlefield of her baby grand piano. She wanted me to concentrate only on singing. But I … More In Praise of Phases
Julia Rosen 