Some of the MacArthur Foundation “genius award” winners are doing work related to climate change. And they now they each have $500 grand, no strings attached. Neat-o:

  • Climate scientist Peter Huybers mines “a wealth of often-conflicting experimental observations to develop compelling theories that explain global climate change over time.”
  • Biogeochemist Daniel Sigman unravels “the interrelated physical, chemical, geological, and biological forces that have shaped the oceans’ fertility and the Earth’s climate over the past two million years.”

Also sorta related:

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  • Bridge engineer Theodore Zoli makes “major technological advances to protect transportation infrastructure in the event of natural and man-made disasters.”
  • Evolutionary Biologist Beth Shapiro uses “molecular phylogenetics and biostatistics to reconstruct the influences on population dynamics of extinct or severely challenged species.”
  • Mark Bradford makes art. It “incorporates ephemera from urban environments into mixed-media works on canvas that are rich in texture and visual complexity … his signature and best-known work takes the form of massively scaled, abstract collages that he assembles out of signage and other materials collected, most frequently, from his own neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles.”

Much, much more info on the foundation’s site.

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