
An invisible enemy: The battle to save the black-
footed ferret from the plague
in The Guardian
Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes plague, killed millions of people across Europe in the Middle Ages. Today it remains a deadly threat to one of the most endangered species in the United States, and taking an unknown toll on America’s prairie ecosystems.

Scouring the desert for a seabird
in Hakai Magazine
After seven years of searching, researchers found two nesting colonies of the mysterious white-vented storm-petrel hidden deep in the driest non-polar desert in the world.

The Interior Least Tern’s comeback is a model conservation success
in Audubon
The inland population of America’s tiniest tern recently left the endangered species list. Here’s how conservationists and the Army Corps of Engineers teamed up to rebuild habitat and bring the birds back.

- Scientist cheered by bowhead whale recovery despite Arctic warming
- US plans to protect thousands of miles of coral reefs in Pacific and Caribbean
- Trump officials rush plans to drill in Arctic refuge
- Conservationists condemn US failure to protect wolverines
- The battle to save black-footed ferrets from the plague

- Ducks are moving north as winters warm
- When it gets too hot, Phoenix’s lovebirds turn to air conditioning
- False scents can trick predators into ignoring nesting seabirds
- Capturing the whole history of conservation—for better and worse
- Lost birds rely on Earth’s magnetic field to get back on track
- The interior least tern’s comeback is a model conservation success

- The world wasted nearly 1 billion metric tons of food in 2019
- “Green” burials are slowly gaining ground among environmentalists
- *Ancient people may have survived desert droughts by melting ice in lava tubes (“Best Shortform Science” Honorable mention)
- Power lines may mess with honeybees’ behavior and ability to learn

- Scouring the Desert for a Seabird
- A 450-Year Record of North Sea Herring, Pried from Clams
- The Mystery of the 19th Century Maine Marine Monster

- To make better hurricane models, consider air pollution
- Jellies transfer a significant amount of carbon to the deep ocean
- The Resurrection plate is dead, long live the Resurrection plate
- Fibers pick up Silicon Valley traffic during quarantine
- Jupiter’s ocean moons raise tidal waves on one another
- Megaripple migration offers insight into Martian atmosphere
- To save low-lying atolls, adaptive measures need to start now
- Most of the Arctic’s microscopic algae are chilling under ice
- To Protect the World’s Sand, We Need to Know How to Measure It
- Space Weather Lessons from a 1928 Dirigible Debacle
- Edmond Dewan, citizen science, and the mystery of ball lightning
- New England forests were historically shaped by climate, not people
- Poor water management implicated in failure of ancient Khmer capital
- *Pre-Inca Canal System Uses Hillsides as Sponges to Store Water (“Best Shortform Science” Honorable Mention)

- Smallholder agriculture cuts into key Sumatran tiger habitat
- *Agriculture, mining, hunting push critically endangered gorilla to the brink (One of Mongabay’s 15 most popular stories in 2019)
- Huge rubber plantation in Cameroon halts deforestation following rebuke
- Super-spreaders: How the curious life of a newt could ignite a pandemic
- As biomass energy gains traction, southern US forests feel the burn
- Estonia’s trees: valued resource or squandered second chance?
- Mothers vs. loggers: the destruction of Bialowieza Forest splits Poland
- A new highway could jeopardize tigers in India
- Sand mining ban lifted on beach in Suriname


- How Maryland’s preference for burning trash galvanized activists in Baltimore
- For the Sunrise Movement’s DC Hub, a call to support Black lives

- Forgotten trove of fossil feathers belonged to tiny polar dinosaurs
- Hurricanes, climate change, and the decline of the Maya
- A new pesticide is all the buzz

- Drawing lessons from deep history, Annalee Newitz puts a pandemic in perspective
- A profile of science writer Anil Ananthaswamy
- A profile of podcaster Molly Segal