Beavers Build Dams to Battle Drought
By Bryce Gray ELKO, NEVADA – Carol Evans parked the Bureau of Land Management pickup truck and stepped out onto dusty earth cracked with the scars of drought. Although it’s April – typically one of the wettest times of year, even in Nevada – a prolonged dry spell stretches into its fourth year, causing more […]
PETRO PERIL: The cross-country odyssey of Bakken crude
By Bryce Gray RELATED STORIES Three months after derailment, Bakken crude still fuels concerns in town VIDEO: Concerns over safety of fuel-carrying trains in wake of Galena Oil by rail: a changing landscape From its Late Devonian and Early Mississippian resting place of some 300 million years, the light, sweet crude of “Bakken gold” is […]
Carbon capture: Deep six the CO2
By Bryce Gray 325 parts per million in 1970… 350 ppm in 1988… 400 ppm in 2015… At 400 ppm, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are now nearly 40 percent higher than in pre-industrial times and are higher than they have been in more than 800,000 years. As the global concentration of CO2 climbs ever higher […]
Sound of science: DePaul phonographers tune in to city noise
By Bryce Gray With car horns, truck traffic, and the buzz of jackhammers and construction blaring through every city neighborhood, local decibel levels make Chicago one of the noisiest places in the country. That’s according to data released recently by the National Park Service’s Division of Natural Sounds and Night Skies.
Food waste in the crosshairs of NUvention entrepreneurs
By Bryce Gray That tomato on your salad and other produce items across the U.S. endure an odyssey of more than 1,300 miles from the field to your local grocery store. That journey not only costs energy, but also time that cuts into shelf life and contributes to $7 billion worth of domestic food waste annually. When it comes […]
In Nicaragua, improving respiratory health starts at the hearth
By Bryce Gray Inside Felipa Del Carmen’s tin-roof, dirt-floor home in Nicaragua, piles of wood stand at the ready to keep an indoor fire burning. The mother of six says that a number of her children have battled pneumonia that required treatment at Clínica Verde, a nearby non-profit clinic.
Working on the railroad: Chicago copes with worst rail congestion in years
By Bryce Gray Chicago railroads are teeming with activity, routing 1,300 trains daily. Travelers fill 800 passenger trains, while another 500 haul freight cars filled with corn from Iowa, coal from Wyoming, wheat from the Great Plains, oil from North Dakota and so many other commodities. Currently the nation’s railways are the busiest they’ve been in years, causing logjams […]
