Cultivating the Wild is a video that focuses on six Southerners committed to reclaiming the nature of the South through art, science, and culture. Their inspiration is William Bartram, 18th century naturalist and America's first environmentalist. From 1773 to 1777, a plant-collecting trip took Bartram from the Carolina coast west to the Mississippi. Far more than a botanical catalog, Bartram's 1791 book Travels provides a captivating window into the past and continues to fire the imagination of readers over 200 years later. Despite the passage of time, Bartram's words speak to current issues of critical importance. The film responds to an America hungry to re-connect with the natural world around us, an America increasingly focused on sustaining this planet we call home. Often called "the South's Thoreau," Bartram's reverence for all aspects of nature lies at the heart of these modern environmental movements and in the people we meet in "Cultivating the Wild."
Study Shows Minks Can Transmit SARS-CoV-2 to Humans.
The Booming Call of De-extinction: Scientists seek to combine genome editing with a technique used in chicken breeding to try to bring back lost birds.
Australian researchers find native grasses could be grown for mass consumption. Native millet found to be easy to grow, harvest and turn into flour and is 'significantly more nutritious' than wheat.
How do you make a vaccine? A podcast from The Guardian takes you through the process.
The tremendous tree ferns of New Guinea.
How Ecologists Study the World's Apex Predators A global decline of large carnivores has motivated scientists to understand the animals' ecological roles, and consider whether reintroducing them can help restore ecosystems.
Early fossils with guts, segmented bodies and other sophisticated features reveal a revolution in animal life - before the Cambrian explosion. These bizarre ancient species are rewriting animal evolution.
Losing Augstralia's native gardeners. A prize-winning essay in the category of ecology and evolution in the Essays On Science and Society competition.
Engineering near-infrared vision. Another winning essay in the competition, above, this one in the molecular evolution category.
The full article is pretty technical, but the abstract is worth reading to get an idea of what may be possible in the future to improve vision for those who suffer from age-related eye diseases.
First Evidence of Parasites in Dinosaur Bones Found
A team of paleontologists used CT scans and tissue samples to uncover blood pathogens in an infected titanosaur
Seabird guano is worth over $1B US dollars/year.
Killer whales engage in frightening interactions with boats in Europe.
Trapped Between Pavement and the Pacific - A surprisingly dense and isolated population of Humboldt martens is challenging our assumptions about the species. (Available as podcast or well-illustrated text.)
Tardigrades' latest superpower: a fluorescent protective shield.
A Chinese flower, used in traditional medicine, has evolved to be less visible to pickers. It's becoming gray to blend into the rocks where it grows.
