“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...The Magic Mirror: Legends, Limnology, and Nuclear Power on Lake Stechlin
by Jessica Lee
15 minutes
On the horizon of the small German village of Neuglobsow, the chimney of the Rheinsberg nuclear power plant rises above the surrounding beech and pine...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...
Seeing with a Forager’s Eye: A Conversation with Martin Saxer
by Martin Saxer and Christof Mauch
17 minutes
Martin Saxer leads the research project “Foraging at the Edge of Capitalism,” based at the Rachel Carson Center (RCC). When this project began, he rem...The Value of Fragments: Making a Hotspot in Mount Nimba, Liberia
by Emmanuelle Roth and Gregg Mitman
28 minutes
Faint high-pitched sounds echo up from the cavernous pit into which we peer. At twilight’s edge, the dry season’s intense midday sun has mellowed into...The World as a Wardian Case
by Kate Brown
21 minutes
In 1829, Nathanial Bagshaw Ward, a London doctor, placed the pupa of a sphinx moth, some dirt, and a few leaves in a glass bottle and clamped on a lid...Beavering
11 minutes
Spring is approaching. The beavers have left a single stick about a meter long across the pond outlet, marking their intentions. “No mud yet, but we a...The Poetics of Dunes
11 minutes
I grew up by the sea, in the warm south of Portugal, swimming in the ocean and playing in the sand. I didn’t know then that my childhood playground wa...Ecological Constitutionalism: A Necessity
by Jens Kersten
14 minutes
It is no longer a new idea to state that we are living in the Anthropocene—an era in which humanity has become a force of nature. But when we look mor...A World Parliament of Rivers
by Rita Brara and María Valeria Berros
13 minutes
How do we rescue rivers from the ravages of the Anthropocene epoch? Legal systems in the Global South are merging law with local customs to forge new ...Not Every Kid Is WEIRD: A Conversation with Francesca Mezzenzana
by Francesca Mezzenzana and Brady Fauth
16 minutes
Francesca Mezzenzana received a PhD in anthropology from the London School of Economics. Her current research project, LearningNatures, investigates c...