Latest Articles
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This rogue bicycle pony express delivered mail in 1894
The Pullman rail strike in Illinois cut off all rail service west of Detroit, leaving California train-less and mail-less.
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Weed-sniffing dogs join the fight against invasive species
They're not just for scaring hippies at airports anymore.
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Scientist: Save Earth by shrinking humans — and making them hate hamburgers
Bioethics professor Matthew Liao says we could solve climate change by shrinking people down and making them averse to eating meat. The rest of us wonder why the word "ethics" is in his title.
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Australia repeals carbon tax, scientists freak out
Australia is now the first country in the world to undo a price on greenhouse gas pollution, thanks to its climate-denying prime minister.
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Goodbye, everyone! A massive hole has opened at the End of the World
If a giant abyss appears near a fracking site, it COULD BE a sign that there’s something going on there that is not entirely advisable.
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Ask Umbra: Are organic cherries worth the extra expense?
A reader wonders if there's really pesticide residue on her fresh fruit. Umbra says it's time to break with conventional.
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Four things you should know about Detroit’s water crisis
Detroit's financial woes have put it on the front lines of a decaying-infrastructure crisis that belongs to all of us.
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Now Google Street View is mapping gas pipeline leaks
Experiments by Google, Environmental Defense Fund, and university scientists reveal the huge amounts of methane that leak from pipelines beneath some cities.
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Mother jailed for letting her daughter run free — at the playground
Debra Harrell let her 9-year-old daughter play unsupervised in an North Augusta, S.C., park. Harrell was arrested and her daughter is in the custody of the state.
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Good riddance, ocean, you were terrifying and gross anyway
Parasitic isopods? Blobfish? Deep-sea vampire squid? Don't let the Great Pacific Garbage Patch hit you on the way out, ocean.
