Stories by David Biello

The solutions are simple but not easy to adopt, as the Nepal example shows

Scientists have introduced genes into the American chestnut from wheat that help disarm the fungus that killed almost all three billion of the trees in the eastern U.S. David Biello reports

The microscopic organisms bloomed in the wake of the Macondo well disaster

A swim with sewage aims to call attention to cleaning the Gowanus Canal, and other polluted waters in the U.S.

Scientific American's David Biello hosts a new episode of the TV series Beyond the Light Switch, focusing on the means to and effects of a more electricity-powered country. Steve Mirsky reports

 

Mass deaths likely stemmed from the BP spill in 2010, researchers say

New homes wired with the latest smart gadgets cluster together around shared park spaces. Blue-black panels that transform sunshine into electricity grace a majority of roofs.

BP's Macondo well disaster was bad but U.S. oil addiction is worse

It's on the beach, in the marshes, on the continental shelf and under the deep sea—and still not all of the oil has been found

Scientists debate whether hunting, farming, smallpox or the nuclear bomb define the start of irreversible human impacts on our planet

A progress report on ARPA-E’s efforts to clean up energy production

Global warming may transform these places beyond recognition

A new proposal pegs the start of the Anthropocene to the little ice age and the Columbian Exchange

Advanced aircraft flies around the world on a wing and a sunbeam

An illuminating new documentary reveals deliberate efforts to obfuscate global warming

Global warming is headed back to the future as the CO2 level reaches a new high

A Q&A with the new head of Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy chemist Ellen Williams

A falloff in construction of new nuclear power plants will make climate change requirements harder to meet

Pres. Barack Obama vetoed a bill to approve construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline on February 24— not because of climate change, not because of low oil prices and not because of the risks from leaking diluted bitumen from the tar sands.

National Park Service researchers recorded ambient sound from all over the country to find out where there’s still stillness. David Biello reports

Life thrives even deep inside Earth and scientists are beginning to suspect extensive connections among those underground environments. David Biello reports

Modified jets spewing sulfuric acid could haze the skies over the Arctic in a few years “for the price of a Hollywood blockbuster,” as physicist David Keith of Harvard University likes to say.

When did the Anthropocene begin?

Biology paired with machines turns carbon dioxide back into fuel or other useful molecules