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by Katherine J. Wu The pets in our households are all descendants of wild animals, many of which still run free today. But dogs, cats, and rodents are all domesticated to varying degrees, with a wide range of consequences for their behavior and…

by Trevor Haynes figures by Rebecca Clements “I feel tremendous guilt,” admitted Chamath Palihapitiya, former Vice President of User Growth at Facebook, to an audience of Stanford students. He was responding to a question about his involvement in…

Amidst talk about the Paris climate accord and other multinational efforts to combat climate change, it’s easy to lose sight of the extensive efforts occurring at the city and state levels to plan for and preempt the effects of environmental…

Time: 7-9 p.m., Wednesday, May 2nd Location: Pfizer Hall, Mallinckrodt Chemistry Labs, 12 Oxford St, Cambridge (link to directions) Speakers: Cody McCoy Incredibly dark, velvety, super-black surfaces have evolved many times in nature. What makes them so…

by Xindi (Cindy) Hu figures by Lillian Horin In March 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided not to ban Chlorpyrifos, a widely used pesticide. One year later, in February 2018, a bill was introduced in Hawaii to ban the…

by Jordan Wilkerson figures by Daniel Utter Ever since the Industrial Revolution around 150 years ago, most of the electricity used in the United States has come from burning fossil fuels. These fuels, such as coal and oil, are all made of carbon.…

by Hannah Schulze figures by Sean Wilson If you’ve ever felt lonely, know that you’re not alone. According to a study from the British Red Cross, over nine million adults in the U.K. feel the same way—that’s about 1/5 of the country’s population!…

by Katherine J. Wu As an aging and increasingly cynical graduate student, I’ve found that my ability to keep up with the hip lingo has been waning in recent years. But even I know that “gluten” has become the dirty culinary word of the decade. One in…

The oceans cover 70% of our planet, but did you know that less than 5% of the ocean floor has been explored? In the face of rapid climate change, ocean scientists are racing to understand what makes a healthy ocean and how rapid changes in ocean…

by Catherine Weiner figures by Rebecca Senft Every winter, as we avoid the sneezing stranger on the sidewalk and the coughing coworker in the coffee room, the same thought races through our heads: “I hope it’s not the flu.” This year, the United States…