Articles by Jess Zimmerman

Jess Zimmerman was the editor of Grist List.

All Articles

  • Pepper spray is not messing around

    If this weekend's attack on students had you wondering how bad pepper spray really is, science writer Deborah Blum has you covered. Answer: It's five times more intense than the hottest natural pepper in the world. (Commercial pepper spray is twice as intense, but the police-grade stuff is supercharged.) That's because it's made of capsaicin, […]

    Jess Zimmerman Culture

  • Here’s a house made of newspaper and lottery tickets

    Texas Tech engineering students are testing out Building Blox, cinderblock-style construction materials that are basically bulletproof papier mache. The blocks are made from a slurry of recycled newspapers, phone books, and lottery tickets, but they're twice as strong as cinderblocks despite weighing a third as much. They also improve a home's energy efficiency by insulating […]

    Jess Zimmerman Culture

  • Watch Jamie Oliver say something unprintable to McDonald’s on TV

    One of the greatest things among the many great things about British accents is how classy they generally make swearing sound. This works best if you're, say, Stephen Fry; it's a little less effective for Jamie Oliver and his mockney pronunciation, but it's still pretty funny to watch him cuss at McDonald's on Jimmy Kimmel […]

    Jess Zimmerman Food

  • Americans are smarter than they look about extreme weather

    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has officially stated that climate change will lead to more extreme weather events — we all sorta knew that, but it's nice to have confirmation. It turns out, though, that we weren't the only ones who knew. A survey by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication found that […]

    Jess Zimmerman Science