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Viewing Illegal Immigration Through Desert Debris
In the litter scattered across the desert floor, professor Jason De León finds truths about the miserable business of illegal immigration.
Profile: Reddy Stayed Steady During Gulf Oil Spill
Marine chemist Christopher Reddy offered dispassionate and scientific analyses of the Gulf oil spill last year when others were losing their heads.
CSI: Wildlife — Solving Mysterious Animal Deaths
Carol Meteyer solves cases of mysterious wildlife death using advanced forensic skills to help prosecute people who kill animals in violation of federal law.
ARCHIVE Says Home Is Where the Health Is
Peter Williams, an architect turned advocate, touts an unacknowledged connection between design and well-being.
Cybercop Fights Organized Internet Crime
Steve Santorelli gets computing experts and law enforcers to cooperate in a global fight against organized Internet crime.
Cohen’s Nonprofit Helps Hospitals Go Green
Gary Cohen and his nonprofit, Health Care Without Harm, have persuaded hospitals around the world to close their medical-waste incinerators, dramatically cutting emissions of dioxin and other toxins.
Kisaalita Engineers Solutions for Africa’s Rural Poor
University of Georgia professor William Kisaalita engineers simple, practical solutions — a milk chiller, a nutcracker and an egg incubator — for Africa’s rural poor.
Charles Harvey: Water Detective
Charles Harvey traces the source of widespread arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh, setting the stage for programs that could benefit 20 million people.
The Value of Dead Bird Watching
University of Washington researcher Julia Parrish founded COASST, a nonprofit that allows hundreds of citizens to serve science by cataloging dead birds on West Coast beaches.
archive
The U.N.’s Death Squad Watchdog
With few resources but the force of his title — U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions — Philip Alston holds governments accountable for the politically motivated killings they commit, or ignore.
John Gwynne: Bronx Zoo Designer, Conservationist
A Wonking Class Hero profile of a global environmental innovator.
The Exonerator
Self-taught private investigator Jim McCloskey has helped free more than three dozen people who were imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit.
A Home Remedy For Day Care
Jessica Sager and Janna Wagner train home-based child care providers for the poor neighborhoods that need them most.
An Iodine Chaser
In the capricious world of nuclear waste, a scientist focuses on promising technologies for the capture and storage of the maddeningly elusive iodine-129.
Solar System
Francisco DeVries invents a financing mechanism that makes rooftop solar affordable in Berkeley and other cities across California.
A History in the Making
Julie Cajune leads a groundbreaking Montana initiative to compile American-Indian history and include it in public education.
The Ecologist and the Prisoners
Professor Nalini Nadkarni enlists a Washington state prison in sustainability research that has turned the prison green — and may help convicts turn their lives around.
The Man Who Bridges Troubled Waters
Aaron Wolf mediates disputes, helping enemies realize that no one deserves to have the water shut off.
Inventing for Peanuts
Jock Brandis invented a low-cost, people-powered peanut sheller that could raise millions out of poverty around the world. Now, if someone would just come up with the money to distribute it.
related to Profile
politics
- House Puts Transportation in Partisan Crossfire
- Overseas Troops Finally Get Fair Shot at Voting
- Pirate Party Docks at Berlin’s Parliament
- Conservatives’ Politics of Fear a Biological Response
- Who Owns Government-Funded Research Papers?
business
- ‘Orcas as Slaves’ Argument Sinks
- The Perceived Delicacy of the Female Conductor
- Prop Planes: The Future of Eco-Friendly Aviation?
- House Puts Transportation in Partisan Crossfire
- A Perennial Epicenter, Now for Same-Sex Marriage
science
- EarthScope: A Seismic Shift in Data Gathering
- Why Robot Maids Won’t Do the Dishes
- 20,000 Robots Under the Sea
- San Francisco Bay Model Is Flush With Life
- Teens Weigh Ethical Animal Research Dilemmas
culture
media
- Bitter About Your Life? Blame Facebook
- Miller-McCune’s Top Stories of 2011
- Pop Charts Still Dominated by Men
- Searing Look at Rio’s Homicidal Police
- PBS to Show ‘Where Soldiers Come From’
legal affairs
- ‘Orcas as Slaves’ Argument Sinks
- A Perennial Epicenter, Now for Same-Sex Marriage
- Prop 8 May Be Same-Sex Couples’ Least Worry
- Five Orcas, Five Slaves or Five Persons?
- California’s Medical Marijuana Morass
environment
- Quake Rescues Reserve, Shakes Baja Fishing Town
- Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World
- Conservation’s Earnest Message Could Use Levity
- Traffic Solution: Make Drivers Less Lonely
- Street Makeovers Put New Spin on the Block
health
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Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World
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Prop Planes: The Future of Eco-Friendly Aviation?
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from the source
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.
Hall of fame
Slugging — The People’s Transit
In Washington, D.C., commuters have taken thousands of cars off highways via a homegrown rideshare system known as “slugging.” Can the government create more slugs — without stepping on any?
Bacteria ‘R’ Us
Emerging research shows that bacteria have powers to engineer the environment, to communicate and to affect human well-being. They may even think.
A New Take on Political Ideology
An evolutionary psychologist proposes a new framework for understanding the root causes of our political beliefs.
The Real Science Gap
It’s not insufficient schooling or a shortage of scientists. It’s a lack of job opportunities. Americans need the reasonable hope that spending their youth preparing to do science will provide a satisfactory career.
Triumph of the Cyborg Composer
David Cope’s software creates beautiful, original music. Why are people so angry about that?
