The Tiniest Terror: The unknown threats behind microplastics, and how researchers are trying to stop them
By Karyn Simpson Medill Reports Two summers ago, Lisa Erdle cast a net from a research vessel on Lake Ontario, dissected the unlucky fish in the boat’s laboratory, and placed each of their guts carefully in jars to be frozen and sent back to her lab in Toronto. “You need a little bit of a […]
Through the ‘Woof’ – Education could help curb Siem Reap’s sky-high dog population
By Karyn Simpson Medill Reports SIEM REAP, Cambodia – “There’s a dog!” We moved closer to the house and waited patiently for the dog’s barks to bring its owner out to the street – a routine we’d perfected over 10 days of interviews. We learned quickly that, when trying to talk to dog owners in […]
You people are driving me batty: Humans and the noise that comes with them are stressing out Cambodia’s vulnerable bat population
By Karyn Simpson Medill Reports SIEM REAP, Cambodia — Passersby usually look at the camera first. Propped lens-up on an upside-down, red laundry basket in the middle of the street, the setup understandably draws attention. Inevitably, their eyes follow the camera’s angle upward, tilting their heads back to squint at the leaves – or what […]
Students apply science to make an environmental difference in Cambodia
By Karyn Simpson Medill Reports SIEM REAP, Cambodia – From looking at religious merit release practices in and around Siem Reap, to exploring “pet culture” and animal welfare in households, to investigating the effects of noise pollution on a vulnerable bat population, students at The School for Field Studies in Cambodia are doing more than […]
Cambodia meshes traditional and modern worlds in Khmer New Year celebration
By Karyn Simpson Medill Reports SIEM REAP, Cambodia – Click. I duck. Click click. I take two steps back, one to the left. Click click. I lift my camera. Focus. Click the shutter once, twice more, and spin around, clutching my camera to my chest and catching a stream of cold water on my back. […]
Conservation, Culture, Community: The School for Field Studies in Cambodia
By Karyn Simpson Medill Reports SIEM REAP, Cambodia – If you turn left off the main road going west out of Siem Reap, Cambodia, you’ll find yourself on a sandy path not quite wide enough for two tuk-tuks. You’ll bounce along the uneven road as the rush of city traffic abruptly gives way to the […]
Dinosaurs, Bones and Art, Oh My!
By Karyn Simpson Medill Reports When Paul Sereno and his team at the Fossil Lab at the University of Chicago find dinosaurs, they typically just look like bits of crushed bone and rock. How do these paleontologists, fossil preparators and paleo artists transform these fragmented fossils into life-size, flesh-and-bone dinosaurs? It takes hundreds of hours, […]
Putting the “giving” back in Thanksgiving
By Karyn Simpson Medill Reports The In Her Shoes Foundation put the “giving” back in Thanksgiving this year. The organization, accompanied by more than 70 volunteers, spent Thanksgiving Day at Grasmere Residential Home, a specialized mental health rehabilitation facility. There, the volunteers helped serve Thanksgiving lunch to the residents, played board games and made gratitude […]
Scientists investigate how the “ocean pump” is slowing global warming
By Karyn Simpson Medill Reports Scientists are taking a serious look at ocean biological systems that temper carbon levels in the atmosphere and trap them in the ocean depths, a way to slow global warming and put off the 2° C temperature rise that would trigger disastrous levels of sea level rise, extreme temperatures, rainfall […]
What can we do to slow climate change?
By Karyn Simpson Medill Reports Columbia University geochemist Wallace Broecker, one of the founding fathers of climate science, laid it on the line. The two ways we know of to bring down civilization are nuclear bombs or carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, the driving force of climate change, he said this fall during an […]
