It’s virtually impossible to read this blog without the aid of plastics. Our phones, our computers, our printers, all use the material made popular by a 20th century revolution in manufacturing. And yet, plastic seems to have become a bad word. Starbucks recently …
Read moreContemporary painter and photographer Chuck Close has displayed artwork at famed galleries around the world. He has published several books of his paintings and was an acting member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. Some of his works have even …
Read moreWhat do cows, landfills, and petroleum extraction all have in common? Each produces methane, one of the greenhouse gases trapping heat in our atmosphere and warming the planet. This gas is potent: it has over twenty times the heat-trapping capacity of the most familiar …
Read moreTent, sleeping bags, raingear: check. Flashlight, S’mores, clean water: check. Sunscreen, toothpaste: check. Finally loaded up for the last camping trip of the summer, you hit the road confidently, knowing that you’re prepared for whatever surprises Mother Nature …
Read moreWhen an oven bakes you can feel the heat, and on a stovetop you can see the flames emanating from the surface. A microwave oven, on the other hand, can cook food quickly, without any visible source of heat. They work because of the type of radiation …
Read moreAs of now, I’m two-thirds of the way toward one of my life goals: making (and eating) an entirely homegrown Caprese. Popular in Italian-American eateries, Caprese (cuh-pray-say) salad – affectionately known as “tomato-mozz” in my family – is actually devoid of any true …
Read moreThe Rio 2016 Olympiad opened with a bang Friday night. Over opening weekend, though, the gymnasts and swimmers of Team USA brought more than just game faces to the arena. Athletes, including swimming superstar Michael Phelps, have been …
Read moreI recently helped polish silver for a fancy dinner party. While I rubbed purple-gray paste over the tines of the forks, feeling a little like a maid in Downton Abbey, I pondered silver’s chemistry. After all, I research the chemistry of silver released into the …
Read moreSpring is here. In the forests of the Midwest, frogs are waking from their hibernation. Many of these frogs, including the spring peeper (Pseudaris crucifer) and the wood frog (Rana sylvatica), hibernate below the bark of trees or beneath leaf litter on the forest …
Read moreHow much time do you spend thinking about bees? I’m guessing any attention they do get is relegated to those occasions when a buzz, and the associated threat of pain, disrupts a summer picnic or a tranquil lounge by the pool. Would you be surprised …
Read more