Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. Two years after the coronavirus became the focus of all of my coverage as a science reporter for The Times (and all of my thoughts every waking hour), it happened: I tested positive for the … Read more
Nations are not doing nearly enough to prevent global warming from increasing to dangerous levels within the lifetimes of most people on Earth today, according to a new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of researchers convened by the United Nations. Limiting the devastation will not be easy, but it also … Read more
It was a late February evening in 2020, and I was standing in the marshlands of Friesland, a northern province in the Netherlands. Above my head, hundreds of thousands of starlings were swirling, swooping and diving in a dramatic fashion, blackening the sky. The sound of their wings reverberated through the air, creating wind patterns … Read more
As long as there has been marine life, there has been marine snow – a ceaseless drizzle of death and waste sinking from the surface into the depths of the sea. The snow begins as motes, which aggregate into dense, flocculent flakes that gradually sink and drift past the mouths (and mouth-like apparatuses) of scavengers … Read more
From Wyoming to Maine, an outbreak of the highly contagious bird flu has swept across farms and backyard flocks in the United States this year, prompting millions of chickens and turkeys to be culled. Iowa has been particularly hard hit, with disasters being declared in some counties and the state canceling live bird exhibits in … Read more
Global warming is greatly increasing the risk that extreme wildfires in the American West are followed by heavy rainfall, a new study has found, highlighting the need for better preparations for hazards, like mudslides and flash floods, that can cause devastation long after the flames from severe blazes are out. Fires ravage forests, wreck homes … Read more
The US Fish and Wildlife Service informed some hunters last month that it would allow the import of six elephant trophies into the United States from Zimbabwe. The African elephant carcasses will be the first allowed into the country in five years. The decision reverses an agencywide hold on processing elephant trophy import permits that … Read more
WASHINGTON – The Biden administration on Thursday said it would uphold a Trump-era decision and not impose limits on drinking water of perchlorate, a contaminant that has been linked to brain damage in infants. The announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency shocked public health advocates who had denounced the Trump administration in 2020 for opting … Read more
Adriana Hoffmann, a botanist who roamed Chile deciphering its flora and who as a scientist, activist, author and policymaker tirelessly sought to protect her country vast forests from big-business exploitation, died on March 20 at her home in Santiago, the capital. She was 82. She had been struggling with health problems for the last several … Read more
New research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on adolescents’ mental health during the coronavirus pandemic suggests that for many teenagers who were ordered to stay at home, home was not always a safe place. A nationwide survey of 7,705 high school students conducted in the first half of 2021 built on earlier … Read more