How to save giant Sequoias: Burn the forest around it first
New research quantifies, for the first time, how much prescribed fire reduces mortality in the world’s largest trees.
Jul 2026 29
Warren Cornwall
Warren Cornwall is a freelance journalist based in Bellingham, Washington His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe Magazine, and the Seattle Times. He is a contributing correspondent for Science.
Jul 2026 15
This tiny bottle cap traveled 1,500 kilometers. It had 307 hitchhikers aboard.
Scientists cracked the case of a single plastic cap using isotope chemistry and ocean current models, revealing how trash is turning into rafts for invasive species.
Jul 2026 8
Recycling that rescues dolphins
Tying plastic bottles to gillnets cut dolphin deaths by nearly 90% in a new study, without reducing the fish catch.
Jul 2026 1
When war came to Chornobyl, the animals didn’t all run away.
A new study offers rare evidence of how armed conflict reshapes wildlife behavior, with a few species moving toward human settlements rather than fleeing them—upending assumptions about animals in war zones.
Jun 2026 24
Pumas are quietly tracking your hiking and biking habits better than you think
GPS collars and fitness-app traffic reveal that the Santa Cruz Mountains’ pumas track human recreation patterns with surprising precision and adjust their lives accordingly—complicating old assumptions about “habituated” wildlife.
Jun 2026 17
Gorillas scarred by poaching learn to trust again. And it might help save them.
A 12-year study in Cameroon found that habituating gorillas to researchers might help reduce poaching activity and offer a model for protecting endangered apes.
Jun 2026 10
Mangroves are making a comeback. It’s a rare climate success story.
For decades, we’ve catalogued what we’re losing to climate change. A sweeping new study offers something harder to find—evidence that one of the planet’s most vital coastal ecosystems is actually winning.
Jun 2026 3
What if DEET could become mosquito perfume rather than repellent?
Scientists tap into Pavlov’s experiment to show they can train mosquitoes to love the smell of DEET.
May 2026 28
What happens to the small things when the big things disappear?
A 15-year field experiment in Kenya reveals that dung beetles—and the ecosystem services they provide—collapse when elephants disappear, offering evidence of coextinction in the wild.
May 2026 20
How a cave fungus became a municipal-finance problem…and a conservation solution.
New research links the spread of white-nose syndrome to higher municipal bond yields—and points to a novel way for investors to make money by saving wildlife.
