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Sunday, February 12, 2012   |  Miller-McCune Homepage

David Richardson

David Richardson began his journalism career operating a video news service in Washington, D.C., that covered federal agencies and Congress. His film production work has since ranged from postings at the White House to rural villages of Botswana, documenting community-centered HIV prevention programs. He holds a B.A. degree in government from Dartmouth College. He now writes on science, the environment and policy from Baltimore, Md., where he's had some success growing organic produce in a small backyard garden.

Among Antibiotics, Resistance Knows No Bounds

A microbiologist on the front lines of antibiotic resistance sees a lot of ways to improve the search and development of new antimicrobials.

Building Cities With Sustainability in Mind

Municipal waste — from poop to heat — can be a valuable resource that could run our cities more cheaply and sustainably, says a hands-on Canadian ecologist.

Pollinating Local Is the New Buzz

An annual Woodstock for honeybees highlights one of the factors leading to the pollinators’ decline in North America. Perhaps keeping bees at home is the solution.

Teaming with Technology to Fight TB and HIV

Tuberculosis and HIV are both high-profile global health scourges, but surprisingly little focus has been paid on treating them when they team up.

Balancing the Power of Offshore Wind

Fears that wind only provides power when it’s blowing outside could be neutralized by drawing from a wide area — like the U.S. Atlantic coast.

Shining Light on Clean Energy Superbugs

Overcoming some of the obstacles that have hindered petri-dish-to-gas-pump schemes in the past, scientists are finding ways to produce high-octane fuel and even pure hydrogen from co-opted algae.

New Agency Puts Clean Energy on Front Burner

While Arunava Majumdar says America urgently needs to come up with clean-energy “game changers,” until now there hasn’t been a systematic approach to develop them.

The Empowering Power of Ice

Blocks of ice are joining molten salt and compressed air as ways to deliver yesterday’s energy when it’s wanted today.

White Nose Swings at European Bats

A fungus linked to widespread destruction of U.S. bat colonies has been found on a thriving French bat.

Little Stores and Fatter Kids

Lots of urban kids are flocking to eat crappy food peddled by corner stores, but both kids and vendors can be shown a more nutritious way.

A Second Life For Orbiting Carbon Observatory?

As the need to measure carbon absorption takes on global political and environmental import, researchers are rushing to resurrect a project that literally crashed and sank.

The Good, The Bad and … Well, You Decide

In sizing up a possible opponent’s intentions, men make snap judgments based on the shape of the guy’s head.

Vulcan Logic and the Missing Sink

Researchers studying a mashup of existing data are tracking exactly where carbon is entering — and exiting — the atmosphere.

Emotional Vérité: If You Can See It You Can Feel It

In a sequel to an experiment from the days of silent film, a multinational team of psychology researchers has shown that we perceive emotions based on what we bring to the table.

Virus Swarm May Lie Behind Honey Bee Catastrophe

Researchers examining the recently unveiled genome of the honey bee think they’ve uncovered a big clue in dealing with the colony collapse disorder ravaging U.S. hives.

Ladies and Gentlemen — Meet the Beetles

A persistent pest from China chomping on American trees spotlights the economic and aesthetic damage that foreign species may cause in new environments.

School Lunch Brings Home the Bacon

An experiment in subsidizing school lunches to use locally raised commodities pays off both in the cafeteria and in the regional economy, one study finds.

Spacefarers Need A Wiki

Merely identifying all the stuff orbiting Earth isn’t enough to prevent mishaps. We need to know where it’s going in data everyone can interpret.

Nanotechnology: New Risks But No Rules

While some experts say mum’s the word when it comes to nanoproducts’ environmental safety, others believe that cannot be good for the future of the technology.

Riddles of an Acerbic Sea

Aside from global climate change, carbon dioxide emissions are contributing to another equally disturbing global problem: Ocean acidification — and its potential effects on marine ecosystems, especially coral reefs — has biologists very concerned.

New Therapies Break Sickle Cell’s Painful Grip

A brace of therapies ranging from improved bone marrow transplantation to stem cell research may finally put sickle cell anemia on the run.

Looking for a Traffic Cop in Space

The collision of two satellites over Siberia highlights long-standing calls for a traffic management system and a no-littering policy in space.

Much Ado About Nanotech

A growing chorus of observers believes that nanotechnology needs better oversight, especially as it works its way into household staples like cosmetics and sunscreen.

Domestic Spying: A Mission in Search of a Cause

Civil rights advocates fear that anti-terrorism fusion centers are overstepping their bounds.

Billions Haven’t a Pot to You-Know-What In

For World Toilet Day (Nov. 19), we offer a chat with the author of the new book “The Big Necessity.”

Unhappy Halloween: Bats In Grave Danger

Bees do it. Frogs do it. And now scientists fear bats may be the next die-off victims.

Toning the Brain With an Internet Workout

Age-related dementia currently affects about 10 percent of the U.S. population — you could look it up on the Internet.

NYC Says ‘Cool It’ to Air-Conditioning the Sidewalk

The lure of a cool blast costs 22,000 barrels of oil and pumps out tons of carbon dioxide.

The Grass Floodwall: Gustav Highlights Need for Wetlands

Mother Nature needs to be allowed to protect New Orleans from … Mother Nature.

Working Around Salty Residue in Nation’s Breadbasket

Salt buildup in America’s most productive farming area could idle thousands of acres. But there are, ahem, solutions …

If You Can’t Raise the River, Modernize the Canal

Caught between a rock and dry place, California tries automating farm water delivery.

The Ticking Compass Inside a Butterfly

Humankind can learn a lot from the power of circadian clocks and sunlight observation that are child’s play to monarch butterflies.

Butterfly Diplomacy: An Immigration Policy for Monarchs

North America’s monarch ‘is one of the largest of our butterflies and rules a vast domain.’ But it’s in trouble on both ends of its massive migration.

Climate Change Leaves Wildflowers in the Cold

In the wildflower meadows of the West, we may be hearing the whisperings of a post-climate-change world.

Seeing the Forest and the Trees

The United States has built one of the most advanced technological societies the world has ever seen, but we still don’t really know when spring starts.

Finding Health, and Opportunity, in the Latrine

Ecological sanitation, or ‘ecosan,’ can provide both improved hygiene and an income for the majority of the world, where just getting a sip of clean water can be a challenge.

Facing the Sanitation Challenge

The U.N. sees a dire need for even simple actions. Western businesses find it in their own interest to take heed of the need.


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Gender Wage Gap Skewed By Survey Flaws

The wage gap between the sexes in America has been closing much faster than anyone realized, but that’s tempered by learning it’s been much wider than measurements had shown.

‘Orcas as Slaves’ Argument Sinks

An effort to identify five performing orcas as slaves failed in part, argues one scholar, because there’s no legal precedent establishing them as persons.

The Perceived Delicacy of the Female Conductor

New research finds listeners judge symphonic music differently when they’re told the conductor is a woman.

House Puts Transportation in Partisan Crossfire

Transportation used to be one of the few guaranteed areas of agreement when ideology trumped pragmatism in D.C. But that’s no longer the case.

Pressure to Conform Can Inspire Creativity

New research suggests less-creative people do more innovative thinking when they are told individualism is the norm, and instructed to conform.

Better Super Bowl Makes for Better Ads

A lot of people say they watch the Super Bowl mostly for the ads. But it turns out a good game surrounding those ads makes them seem better.

Overseas Troops Finally Get Fair Shot at Voting

After decades of obstacles hindering the voting process, new laws will allow overseas and military voters to submit their votes in time for the 2012 election.

Neglected Tropical Diseases Neglected No More?

World health leaders announce coordinated push to eradicate or control neglected tropical diseases.

Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World

A survey of award-winning children’s picture books from 1938 to 2008 suggests our increasing estrangement from the natural environment.

Traffic Solution: Make Drivers Less Lonely

Rather than moaning about too many cars on the road, the Ridesharing Institute says the real key to battling traffic congestion and pollution is filling empty passenger seats.