Featured Articles | Amanda Womac

Percussion to Pluto: A UT student’s unusual journey

Chad Melton has always loved astronomy, but he never really mastered mathematics in high school. Since math is essential to astronomy, majoring in it in his first round of ...Read More

Short history of studying Pluto

In 1930, astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered the first dwarf planet we now refer to as Pluto. For decades, our solar system contained nine planets. Teachers taught ...Read More

Private sector takes larger role in space exploration

In April of 2010, President Barack Obama promised NASA $6 billion over the next five years to help lay the foundation for private space companies. The U.S. commercial space ...Read More

Getting Under Your Skin

Warm summer evenings are often accented with the seemingly magical illumination of fireflies. While not the only species that glows, fireflies are perhaps the best-known ...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

Homeowners can do their part for bee health

Honeybee decline is on the rise, but there’s something Tennesseans can do about it, right in their own back (or front) yards. According to the USDA, roughly 42 percent of ...Read More

Queens, workers, drones: Types of bees and what they do

For honeybees, it’s all about the queen, and long may she reign. Honeybee colonies have three types of bees: queens, workers and drones. All the bees in the colony are ...Read More

Keeper continues lifelong fascination with all things bees

Joel White’s fascination with bees began in 1975 when one of his college coaches took him out to some apiaries to show him around. He was hooked, and kept his own bees for ...Read More

Bear, tourist interactions change over years

Perhaps the most iconic symbol of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the black bear, or Ursus americanus. A chance to see a bear is one of the primary reasons people ...Read More