Science and the Environment

Nature Illuminated

Deep in the woods on a warm summer evening, a species of beetle signals its mate with a flash pattern unique to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Synchronous fireflies ...Read More

Digitizing Lichens & Bryophytes

Across the planet’s terrestrial surface lives a layer of organisms that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Lichens and bryophytes are hosts to these cryptobiotic ...Read More

Singing in a Silent Spring

Birds respond to a half-century soundscape reversion during the COVID-19 shutdown When the novel coronavirus swept across the country, forcing most businesses to close their ...Read More

Uncovering Microbial Mysteries

Karen Lloyd spends most of her waking hours thinking about mud. Specifically, the mud at the bottom of the ocean and trying to determine how deep into the earth she can dig ...Read More

Forest Gliders

Nestled in hollow tree crevices at the highest elevations of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of the park’s more elusive mammals—the Carolina flying ...Read More

Here Be Dragons

When people visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park, they are usually expecting to see charismatic flora and fauna such as pink lady slippers or black bears. Insects rarely ...Read More

Of all dangers, man is raptors’ biggest threat

Raptors are often thought of as strong, fierce birds of prey, but the reality is they face more threats than most people realize. Many birds of prey species are highly ...Read More

Looking for Action

Love Canal became a national crisis in 1978 when rusting metal drums poked through the surface of an elementary school playground built on a former industrial dump site. The ...Read More

Vanishing bees pose big threat to economy

Dave Hackenberg, a beekeeper in Florida, discovered 400 of his over 2,000 beehives had been abandoned during the winter. It wasn’t that the bees were dead and their bodies ...Read More

Century of Cities

In his landmark 1984 book Biophilia, acclaimed biologist Edward O. Wilson defined the term biophilia as “the urge humans have to affiliate with other forms of life.” ...Read More

Amanda Womac

Freelance Science Writer