Volume 11, Number 2
Features
The New Normal
As though working through the five stages of grief, more and more ecologists are reluctantly accepting that we live in a human-dominated world. And some are discovering that patchwork ecosystems might even rival their pristine counterparts.
By Emma Marris
Building on the Fly
Could the bizarre, decentralized logic of insect architecture provide a blueprint for revolutionary and sustainable human habitat?
By Philip Ball
Up Up And Away
As pikas and other alpine species are pressured by global warming, many observers warn they will be pushed higher and higher until they vanish like deserving souls into the ether. But new science suggests the “rapture hypothesis” doesn’t tell the whole story.
By J. Madeleine Nash
Solutions
Beetle Mania A scientist, a pool hustler, and an avant-garde composer fight a fearsome insect invasion
Dandelion Tires Your next set of wheels could be made of weeds
A Healthy Glow Light-emitting walls could be twice as efficient as fluorescent bulbs
The iCat Is on Your Tail Robotic feline keeps tabs on your home energy consumption
Breathalyzer Test for Whales Remote-control helicopters sample bacteria from moving giants
Rain Maker New windmill wrings drinking water straight from the air
Bullet-proof Snails Tiny gastropod inspires a new generation of armor
Lighten Up
Cartoons by Pete Mueller. Print Only
Essay
The Known World Print Only
by Rob Dunn
Journal Watch
Wind turbines harness cyclones
Dams trigger extreme weather
Climate-change home economics
Buying green is only skin deep
Warm waters alter fish personality
Prescribed fires cut carbon emissions
Antibiotic resistance in polar bears
Dolphins rebound after Katrina
No thirst for “green” wine
Lifting fog threatens redwoods
Lobster fishermen reject ecolabels
Medicinal benefits of carbon cuts
Book Marks
God of Small Things Jeffrey Lockwood reviews E.O. Wilson’s foray into fiction
Think Again
Forgive Me, Planet, for I Have Flown—Frequently by Anthony B. Robinson
