By Jonathan Runstadler, Tufts University and Kaitlin Sawatzki, Tufts University Cover image: Peter Trimming via Wikipedia, CC BY-SA Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have found coronavirus infections in pet cats and dogs and in multiple zoo animals, including big cats and gorillas. These infections have even happened when staff were using personal […]
How our reflexive mistrust of authority hurts America By E.E. Robakis Defiance is a deeply American trait, rendered, for better or worse, into a national pastime. Americans are chronically, debilitatingly anti-authority; this has deep roots in the colonization of North America by Europeans and the establishment of this country as a “safe haven” from tyrannical […]
“The science is clear that if we keep exploiting wildlife and destroying our ecosystems, then we can expect to see a steady stream of these diseases jumping from animals to humans in the years ahead.” By Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams “Climate change is a force of growing importance that influences the future geographic distribution and […]
By Mrinalini Watsa Disease testing sounds complicated. Reading about it in the news in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is even worse. If you are pretty sure that you’ve read contradictory news articles — you are not wrong! Most of them don’t slow down to explain that there are actually multiple ‘coronavirus tests’ […]
By Efstathia Robakis As the COVID-19* pandemic continues to unfold, scientists are scrambling to answer old questions as new ones continue to arise. Though it doesn’t seem pressing now, given the urgency of so many other real and immediate issues related to the virus’ stranglehold on the world, the question of the virus’ origins is […]
As habitat and biodiversity loss increase globally, the novel coronavirus outbreak may be just the beginning of mass pandemics Author: John Vidal Top photo: Illicit Endangered Wildlife Trade in Möng La, Shan, Myanmar, courtesy of Dan Bennett from Wikimedia (CC BY 2.0). This article originally appeared at Ensia.com and is reproduced here under Creative Commons […]
The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been characterized by the World Health Organization as a pandemic. As the virus spreads, so too does misinformation about its origins. Rumors that COVID-19 was manufactured in a lab or that we know with full certainty which animal host passed the disease to humans are unfounded. Given the clear […]
Microalgae (shown here, Haematococcus) convert water and carbon dioxide to oxygen and nutritious biomass in the presence of light. Algaennovation, CC BY William Moomaw, Tufts University and Asaf Tzachor, UCL Our planet faces a growing food crisis. According to the United Nations, more than 800 million people are regularly undernourished. By 2050, an additional […]
Top image: Pollution is a global problem. Pexels Coal is costly Pexels Pollution is a global problem. Air Pollution kills. A study released yesterday in the journal Nature found that in 2007, air pollution lead to the premature deaths of 3.45 million people worldwide—a number equivalent to the population of the state of Connecticut. And […]
