Every day, people protect what matters. These are their stories.
1390 stories
'Incredibly serious and unbelievably funny' Philip Roth biographer, in Harvard talk, digs into novelist's contradictions, 'true loves,' and recurring themes from lust to Jewish life. Steven J. Zipperstein, the Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jew...
Turning Fishing Waste into Biodegradable Plastic Jacqueline Prawira, an MIT senior in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), has developed biodegradable, plastic-like materials from fish offal, as featured on the CBS show "Th...
This Newly Discovered 'Lucifer' Bee From Australia Was Named After Its Devil-Like Horns Researchers hope the discovery shines a light on bee conservation Down Under A few years ago, wild bee ecologist Kit Prendergast was searching for pollin...
Ulrich Eichelmann has seen many rivers over his lifetime as the head of RiverWatch, an organization dedicated to protecting the world's waterways. He's spent time on the Tigris floating through Turkey and Iraq, on the Tagliamento in Italy, and travel...
Humans have poured more than 150 million metric tons of plastic garbage into the ocean since 1950. Plastic bits have turned up in even the most remote places, like the bottom of the Mariana Trench, where scientists recently found an intact plastic ba...
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Iguanas on Mexico's Clarion Island Likely Native, Not Introduced by People: Study Researchers have long speculated that humans introduced spiny-tailed iguanas to Mexico's remote Clarion Island about 50 years ago. However, a recent study suggests ...
Around the world, new patents and inventions are emerging daily, but a select few regions are ahead of others. The 2025 Global Innovation Index (GII), released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), ranks the top countries and metro ...
Transforming Homes with DIY Passion Our homes are our sanctuaries, the places where we spend much of our time and unwind from the outside world. It's only natural to want to love what we're surrounded by and create the kind of atmosphere that fee...
Earth scientists have uncovered a slow and surprising process beneath our planet's surface that helps fuel volcanic activity in the oceans. Researchers from the University of Southampton found that fragments of continents are gradually stripped away ...
Some revolutions begin not with technology, but with a feeling. For Gregg Treinish, that feeling was guilt. He was spending years on long wilderness expeditions—crossing ranges, sleeping rough, watching the world's edges—and began to wonder what any ...
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The name "Naruto" is now famous worldwide, forever associated with the popular manga/anime series of the same name. Those better versed in Japanese culture may also recognize the name as that of a delicious delicacy - narutomaki is a type of fish cak...
Man Builds Small Pond in Brazilian Forest, Attracting Incredible Wildlife Animals, much like people, need the basics of survival to thrive: food, water, shelter, and companionship. While we may not always consider the similar needs of wild creatu...
Why 'Mob Grazing' May Help Protect Drought-Hit Senegal's Vast Grasslands Ibrahima Ka, the village chief of Thignol, is spearheading the first pilot of "mob grazing" in Senegal. This approach involves tightly packing a herd of 350 zebu cows and 2,...
Trash that would otherwise rot in landfills could be converted into 62.5 billion liters of jet fuel per year, with a carbon footprint 80-90% smaller than that of fossil-based aviation fuel, according to a new study (1). Aviation represents 2-3% of g...
Hundreds of communities in Sierra Leone's Bonthe district have signed a benefit-sharing carbon agreement with the Africa Conservation Initiative (ACI) to protect mangroves in the Sherbro River Estuary. The agreement is based on "carbon justice princi...
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Government Sets Out Plan to Phase Out Animal Experiments The UK government has detailed its plans to fulfill its manifesto pledge to work towards phasing out animal testing. The new proposals include: Replacing Animal Testing by 2025 - By t...
Extinction Rates Are Slowing, and Conservation Efforts May Be Paying Off For years, headlines have warned that Earth is entering a sixth mass extinction. However, new research suggests this dire picture may be more nuanced and even somewhat hopef...
The Oldest Whales in the Ocean You're probably familiar with the literary classic Moby-Dick by the great Herman Melville. Published in 1851, the novel follows an enraged sea captain, Ahab, in his quest to hunt and kill a huge, ancient albino sp...
African Artist Collective Calls on Museums to Rectify Their Debt to Plantation Workers In recent years, museums have expressed a desire to reckon with their pasts - returning looted objects, acknowledging indigenous land rights, and diversifying ...
The winners of the 2025 Epson International Pano Awards have been announced, showcasing photographs of our great, big, beautiful world in ultra-wide glory. Italy's Alex Wides (Alessandro Cantarelli) won the Open Photographer of the Year and the Natur...
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Thousands of mollusks and worms have been discovered by a Chinese submersible in the Mariana Trench, almost six miles below sea level. The new study revealed it is the deepest colony of animals ever observed. "Hadal trenches, some of the Earth's lea...
Fiber optic cables crisscross the world's oceans, transmitting vast amounts of data as pulses of light. But what if these cables could also be used to listen in on life below the waves? An experiment launched in coastal waters on the northwestern ed...
A new roof paint could allow you to stay cool while providing water to drink. Australian researchers have developed a nanoengineered polymer coating that reduces surface temperature by up to 6°C even on hot days, and that harvests moisture from air. ...
Shifting humanity to more plant-based diets would cut global farm labor needs by up to 28%, freeing up almost USD$100 billion each year—but at the cost of over 100 million jobs. These striking figures from a new Lancet Planetary Health study reveal ...
Three Tracks to Rescue 1.5°C: Fossil Exit, Forest Protection, and Nature's Carbon The planet has crossed a grim milestone, with last year's global temperature averaging more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. This shatters the margin for err...
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New York has become the first state in the U.S. to require new buildings to be built entirely electric, without hookups to fossil fuels including gas. The rule, known as the All-Electric Buildings Act, was initially passed in 2023 and was finalized w...
Inflation Reduction Act Boosts Truck Electrification The Inflation Reduction Act - the most consequential U.S. climate law ever - will provide a historic jolt to the electric car market. But the incentives of the law will reach beyond passenger v...
Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide (CO2) and is responsible for around one-third of current global heating. Atmospheric methane concentrations have increased by 256 percent since pre-industrial times. What I...
New research finds that Hektoria, a grounded glacier in Antarctica, shrank with astounding speed in 2022 and 2023 By Mary Randolph - Staff Contributor November 7, 2025 /https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/61...
After five years of dedicated conservation work, the Emerald Forest Restoration Project has achieved remarkable success in bringing back biodiversity to a once-degraded ecosystem. The project has reintroduced 15 endangered species and planted over 50...