Environmental Science

In Spring, Timing is Everything

Apr 16, 2020

By Lane Scher If you’ve been spending time outside lately, you’ve probably noticed a lot more green over the last few weeks. Maybe you’ve also noticed more birds singing, and if you’re really paying attention, you’ll see different types of birds every couple of days. These are changes that happen every year in the Spring, […]

Tis the season for…Pollen

Apr 07, 2020

By Alan Curtis Ah, Spring- a season of renewal, growth and beautiful colors! Flowering plants and trees use pollen to reproduce. Pollen is produced by male parts of the flower and spread through the air and peaks in the spring months.  For some North Carolinians, pollen makes spring a time of intense allergies. Puffy eyes, […]

The Amazing Horseshoe Crab

Mar 31, 2020

By Eva Vitucci The horseshoe crab, an animal that’s actually more closely related to sea spiders than sea crabs, has swum through our coastal waters for the past 445 million years – dating them beyond the existence of dinosaurs! While these animals are ancient, they are relatively well-equipped to handle today’s world. In fact, the […]

The magical minds of sunflowers

Mar 12, 2020

By Lane Scher Sunflowers are one of my favorite plants. I like them not just because they grow tall and make beautiful flowers but also because of their amazing tricks to get sunlight and attract pollinators. When I was in college, I got to work in a research lab that studied these behaviors in sunflowers, […]

The Once and Future Chestnut Tree

Jan 16, 2020

By Lane Scher The American chestnut tree used to be the most common tree throughout the entire eastern United States, from Alabama to Massachusetts. The trunk could grow to be 10 feet across with branches that stretched 100 feet tall. The trees were fast-growing and the wood was strong. It had so many uses in […]

Are you stronger than a Shrimp?

Oct 24, 2019

By Rachel Cherney Earth is filled with some incredible sights and unbelievable creatures. You may have heard of the great white shark, the giant squid, the anglerfish, or even the tardigrade, that can survive in space, or decades without water! Now, you’re going to learn about the mantis shrimp, a class of about 450 sea […]

Making the world of plastics a bit more transparent

May 02, 2019

By Candice Crilly Derived from the Greek word plastikos meaning “capable of being shaped or molded”, plastic is an umbrella term used worldwide to describe synthetic or semi-synthetic polymers (i.e. long chains of repeating chemical units) that can be molded into everlasting shapes. The world’s first exposure to the promise of plastics occurred at the […]

Forest Fire Flames and Smoke: Double the Trouble

Feb 07, 2019

By Eva Vitucci As of Friday November 16, 2018, California was home to the three most polluted cities in the world. These three cities – San Francisco, Stockton, and Sacramento – topped the world’s chart of polluted cities as a result of the infiltrating smoke produced from the nearby, devastating Camp Fire. To date, the […]

The Bionic Mushroom – A New Superhero?

Nov 29, 2018 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mushroom_-_unidentified.jpg

By Rachel Cherney   A fungus among us can now produce electricity with the help of cyanobacteria – a certain species of microbe. You read that right, scientists in New Jersey have harnessed nature’s diversity to generate bionic, electricity producing, mushrooms. Microbes, microscopic single-celled organisms, can produce a variety of materials and functions that are […]

Nature’s Methods for Surviving Winter

Nov 15, 2018 https://pixabay.com/en/fall-foliage-moss-tree-autumn-1913485/

By Allyson Roberts Fall is finally upon us, bringing colder temperatures and the holiday season. Fall also brings beautiful scenery—the rainbow of colors seen as leaves begin to transform and fall from their branches. Not surprisingly, this phenomenon—and the reasoning behind why only some leaves change color—is easily described by cool, natural science! You may […]

The Toxicologist

Apr 26, 2018 Altered by Eva Vitucci from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paracelsus.jpg

By Eva Vitucci Over 500 years ago, a man named Paracelsus stirred up the world of medicine. At that time the main belief was when an individual became sick it was because fluids in their body, such as their blood or bile, became imbalanced. Paracelsus was one of the first people to propose and support […]

Getting into a cycle of recycling

Nov 16, 2017 https://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/9090732482

By Kelsey Gray In elementary school, I always looked forward to enjoying some Sunny Delight orange juice when my mom picked me up from school. One day, rather than tossing the empty bottle into the trash, I told my mom we needed to save it. When she seemed a little confused, I explained that we […]