What life is actually like at NYC’s hotels-turned-temporary shelters
With the coronavirus pandemic leaving hotels without guests, a few hotels in New York City’s Upper West Side have welcomed homeless residents temporarily. It is a great initiative, but it recently attracted negative press after the New York Post reported that “crime and chaos” had overtaken Read More...
Phew! California’s 2,000-year-old redwoods survived the wildfires
With over 1 million acres torched and 12,000 buildings burnt down, the California wildfires have already been the worst in history. But just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, the wildfires started sweeping through California’s oldest state park: Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Park Read More...
Africa to be officially declared free of wild polio
Just twenty-five years ago, thousands of children in Africa were left paralyzed due to the poliovirus. Now, Africa is to be declared free from wild polio by the independent body, the Africa Regional Certification Commission. Polio is a virus that spreads from person to person, usually through Read More...
First Canadian to legally consume psilocybin shares his experience
Earlier this month, we wrote about a landmark approval from the Canadian government to allow four terminally ill cancer patients to use psilocybin to treat end-of-life distress. In a follow up to that story, one of those four patients, Thomas Hartle, received his first psilocybin-assisted Read More...
How the world’s biggest battery could help solve blackouts in California
California aims to run its grid entirely on fossil-fuel-free energy by 2045 and has been closing down dirty power plants and ramping up renewables at a steady clip. But while fuels can supply a steady stream of energy, the sun and wind are intermittent. That’s where the Gateway Energy storage Read More...
Major hedge fund dumps oil companies for lobbying against climate action
That oil, gas, and mining companies extract resources while damaging the environment is already bad enough, but what is absolutely unacceptable is that some of these companies lobby against climate action. That’s why a Nordic hedge fund worth more than $90bn (£68.6bn) has dumped its stocks in Read More...
This tiny space rock holds clues about the planet’s evolution
Back in 2012, a team of Japanese and Belgian researchers in Antarctica found a golf ball-sized space rock resting in the snow. Now, NASA astronauts have had a chance to study a piece of that meteorite, Asuka 12236, and they say it may hold new clues about the development of life. Inside the Read More...
California fires: How you can help fire victims and firefighters
Wildfire season has descended on Northern California with a vengeance, sparked by lightning, heat, and high winds. With more than half a million acres burned and evacuations in full progress across the Bay Area, many people have begun wondering how they can help. Here are a few options. American Read More...
Seafood shells and coffee grounds make up this versatile leather alternative
Vietnamese designer Uyen Tran has developed a flexible bio-material called Tômtex, a leather alternative made from food waste, that can be embossed with a variety of patterns to replicate animal leathers. The name tôm, meaning shrimp, references the discarded seafood shells that are mixed Read More...
Brewdog: Why this Scottish brewery just bought a forest
At its brewery in Scotland, the craft brewer BrewDog runs on wind power and gas made from malted barley, part of a strategy to reduce carbon emissions as much as possible. But the company, which also owns a chain of pubs, wanted to go further. That’s why it now owns a forest. On 1,500 acres Read More...