Portrait of an Arctic Research Station
11 minutes
Tarfala Research Station is nestled in the Tarfala Valley in the Arctic north of Sweden. It is accessed by helicopter or on foot. The hike is challeng...Eagles, Marmots, Humans: Knowing Wildlife Through Fieldwork
27 minutes
Katya Karabanina climbed steadily, clinging to a long, straight pine trunk, her safety ropes tight around her waist. Near the top, the nest came ...Snakey Waters, or: How Marine Biology Structured Global Environmental Sciences
18 minutes
In the year 1902 an encounter of the monstrous kind aroused the attention of the German Kaiser. The Daily Chronicle announced the sighting of a giant ...The Unbearable Weight of Displaced Weather
by Mike Hulme
11 minutes
Through apps, webcams, and other forms of digital mediation, the weather is always with us. Yet, more significantly, it is not just “our” weather that...Walking a Sicilian River
by Paolo Gruppuso and Erika Garozzo
13 minutes
On the sandy shoreline of eastern Sicily, the Simeto River meets the Ionian Sea against the dramatic backdrop of the volcano Etna. Groves of reeds sur...
Killing a Baboon: Applied History and the Anthropocene Ape
by Sandra Swart
36 minutes
#JusticeForRaygun is trending in South Africa. He was a young male baboon who had left his mother’s troop and set off, on a journey to adulthood. This...Cultures of Tarhana: A Tale of Humans and Microbes
18 minutes
The cultures of tarhana—a fermented instant soup base—come with a long-practiced culinary tradition in the Middle East and the Balkans. Although often...“Everybody Talks About the Weather”
16 minutes
One summer day in 1966, the 23-year-old secretary Margot Müller was serving coffee at the McCann advertising agency’s Frankfurt office. In the confere...Avian Escapees and Budgie Snugglers
28 minutes
Late one evening soon after I had arrived in Australia for a sabbatical, I was out strolling with my daughter through a Sydney park, seeking relief fr...
“We Have Always Known”: On the Trails of People, Plants, and Humboldt
by Paula Ungar
12 minutes
I am trying to focus on my writing, I really am. But my phone buzzes again. This time, the message is difficult to ignore. I see a photograph of my be...In the Teeth of History: Dental Decay in the Longue Durée
by Frank Zelko
27 minutes
In recent years, I have been writing a book on the history of water fluoridation, a practice that is dental dogma in a handful of countries, particula...Talking Fungus: Finding Language for a Troubled Kingdom
10 minutes
Language greatly colours the way we perceive life. Words and concepts shape our perception of nature, and not all organisms receive equal consideratio...