New glacier records show westerly winds accelerate ice melt, massive sea level rise
By Poonam Narotam Medill Reports Veteran climate scientist George Denton calls Pine Island Bay the “weak underbelly” of the western Antarctic ice sheet. Increased melting at the bases of Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers into this bay makes them susceptible to collapse in coming decades, which would raise global sea levels by 11.5 feet (3.5 […]
Into the unknown: Exploring caves to uncover climate change records
By Christian Elliott and Brittany Edelmann Medill Reports Nearly 20 years ago, then Ph.D. student Gina Moseley walked into a bar in Bristol to meet fellow members of the University of Bristol Spelæological Society caving club. An older caver talked with her over drinks about some small caves in northeastern Greenland he’d always dreamed of […]
COLDEX: The search for Earth’s oldest ice and new climate solutions
By Christian Elliott Medill Reports Even summer days are cold in the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area, a meteorite-strewn expanse of glacier flanked by mountains at the eastern edge of the Antarctic ice sheet near the McMurdo Station research center. Jeff Severinghaus, a paleoclimatologist at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and his colleagues at Princeton […]
Enhanced weathering: When climate research takes unexpected turns
By Brittany Edelmann and Carly Menker Medill Reports Oxford University Ph.D. student Frankie Buckingham collected the 30, 1-meter-long cylindrical tubes of soil she needed for climate research in August 2018 on a British farm in North Oxfordshire. The farm had previously cultivated oats and barley in the soil. A variety of crushed rocks and minerals, such […]
Melting tropical glaciers threaten freshwater sources while sea ice melt accelerates rising oceans
By Sarah Anderson Medill Reports “Tropical glacier” — the term sounds like an oxymoron and, due to climate change, it might become one. These bodies of ice nestle in the mountain ranges of tropical regions, providing a major source of freshwater and tourism revenue. However, studies predict most tropical glaciers will disappear within the next […]
Fermilab following clues to unravel the latest mysteries of the universe
By Hana Ahmed, Brittany Edelmann and Daphne Yao Medill Reports Near light-speed collisions of streams of subatomic particles at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Batavia have helped identify several of the 17 known building blocks of matter, leading to continuing and newfound discoveries about the universe. New Neutrino? One experiment focuses on neutrino physics. […]
Vital initiatives confront COVID crisis for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities
By Brittany Edelmann Medill Reports “It has been a struggle,” Bonnie Schmidt said. Schmidt is the guardian to Kim Winger, a 35-year-old with autism, and the parent to Jessica Schmidt, a 38-year-old who also has a developmental disability and a seizure disorder. Many people experienced an increase in isolation during the pandemic. But, Bonnie Schmidt […]
Neurologist revels in the personal touch to treat multiple sclerosis and autoimmune conditions
By Anokhi Saklecha Medill Reports At the age of nine, Dr. Elena Grebenciucova got into trouble for taking one of her aunt’s textbooks on clinical medicine as she pursued her fascination with the human body. Now, she serves as an assistant professor of neurology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, with a specialization in […]
On a scale of 1 to 10, how helpful are self-monitoring tools for mental health?
By Sarah Anderson Medill Reports You settle into your seat on the bus and open the app with the virus icon. “Are you experiencing any of the following symptoms of COVID-19?” You scan the list, click “no” and screenshot the green pass that appears to flash at your office front desk. Next, you open the […]
Fermilab on the trail for a new building block of matter and quantum computing power
By Sarah Anderson and Yuliya Klochan Medill Reports Researchers transported a gigantic electromagnetic ring from Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island to Fermilab near Chicago eight years ago in the search for a new building block of matter. While it wasn’t the secret spaceship bystanders thought it was, it did allow scientists to explore fundamental questions […]