Articles by Grist staff

Tender Loving Caribou

Judge sides with caribou, bans snowmobiles from some Idaho national forests Mountain caribou celebrated last week as a judge banned snowmobiles from a nearly 470-square-mile caribou recovery zone in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests. The ban will hold unless the U.S. Forest Service can develop a winter recreation strategy that would enable noisy, polluting vehicles […]

The Quality of Commerce Is Strain’d

Nature charges that Commerce Department blocked climate-change report The Commerce Department blocked a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report indicating that climate change contributes to stronger hurricanes, the journal Nature reported yesterday. In February, a seven-member NOAA panel was directed to prepare a report on agency views regarding climate change and hurricanes, and a draft […]

So That’s Why We Can Never Find a Parking Space

U.S. population to hit 300 million in October As the U.S. population ticks ever closer to the 300 million mark — 299,800,000-plus and counting! — many enviros worry that the rising numbers will amplify existing environmental problems. “The U.S. is the only industrialized nation in the world experiencing significant population growth,” says Vicky Markham of […]

PopSci announces this year’s top young scientists

PopSci has this month announced its fifth annual Brilliant 10 awardees. These are young scientists (average age: 34) just beginning to be noticed outside their respective fields and "changing not just what we know but the limits of what we think it's possible to know." PopSci explains the meaning of the Brilliant 10 honor:

By "brilliant," we don't mean smart. Or at least not just smart. Brilliance is marked by insight, creativity and tenacity. It's the confidence to eschew established wisdom in order to develop your own. It's the foolishness needed to set out for the edge of understanding and sail right past it, ignoring the signs reading "Thar be monsters" (not to mention "Turn back lest ye never be awarded a decent research grant again").

The work of the 10 winners ranges from the biomechanics of worm movement to birdsong "language" translation. And two of the 10 are working on eco-related projects.