The evolution of whales from land to sea
By Amber Dance The genomes of cetaceans help tell the story of mammals who returned to the life aquatic Read more
Handing the surgeon’s scalpel to a robot
By James Gaines After decades of merely assisting doctors, are sophisticated machines ready to take charge? Read more
From the archives
Air-conditioning units have us trapped in a problematic loop: Though we need them to tolerate increasingly warmer temperatures, the devices demand energy and chemicals that exacerbate global warming. Start-ups and research teams are trying to break this cycle by developing more efficient and environmentally friendly AC units, writes Shannon Osaka for the Washington Post. For more on ways to address the cooling quandary, read our interview with environmental engineer Shelie Miller.
Rethinking air conditioning amid climate change
By Saugat Bolakhe ACs and refrigerators help keep people safe — but they also further warm the planet. Scientists are working on eco-friendlier solutions as global demand for cooling grows. Read more
Brain fog — a mysterious, misunderstood and often-dismissed condition — affects many patients who experience long Covid. For the Atlantic, Ed Yong documents the condition’s potentially devastating impact on people’s lives, and the physical and chemical changes in the brain that may cause it. Learn more from Stanford neurologist Michelle Monje with our video.
Covid and the brain: A neurological health crisis
By Hunni Media for Knowable Magazine VIDEO: Even a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection can cause inflammation that disrupts neural communication, says Stanford neurologist Michelle Monje. Her concern is that Covid-19 may leave millions dealing with cognitive problems, from a loss of mental sharpness to lapses in memory, that prevent them from returning to their previous level of function. Watch now
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Event: Insuring our uncertain future
Tuesday, September 27, 2022: 9AM Pacific / 12PM Eastern / 4pm GMT Is the disaster insurance industry hurtling toward a climate crisis? Learn how we can shore up disaster insurance programs and use them to help individuals and communities strengthen their climate resilience.
What we’re reading
Fishy reproduction
“How do eels reproduce?”— that may sound like the first half of a Dad joke, but the real answer is bizarre: We don’t know. Scientists think the famed slithering fish spawn in the Atlantic’s Sargasso Sea, but the act has never been documented outside of the lab, Christina Couch reports for Hakai Magazine. Couch details the eels’ changing relationship with people through the ages and talks with a biologist who regularly visits the Sargasso in hopes of finding answers that will help to protect the endangered, enigmatic species.
An eye for music
The James Webb Space Telescope’s images have been better than expected and, it turns out, they can captivate our ears as well as our eyes. For Inverse, Jennifer Walter walks us through NASA-released soundscapes, also called sonifications, that came from a collaborative effort between scientists, musicians, and a member of the blind and visually impaired community. A scream like a falling bomb shrieks through one soundtrack: It represents a distant planetary atmosphere, water droplets included. In others, star-flecked nebulae warble with eerie cosmic chatter, or resound with blasting winds. Don’t miss the vivid YouTube animations showing how the arresting sounds connect to colors, brightness and other features of the telescope’s targets.
Growing pains
Ever since some states began legalizing cannabis, legal grow operations have blossomed. But today, many growers are getting smoked not for what they’re growing, but for their water and energy use — which, it turns out, make for a hefty environmental footprint. The federal ban on cannabis can make it difficult to do research into ways to save energy and to retrofit, but some in the industry are exploring options, Britt E. Erickson writes for Chemical & Engineering News. LED grow lights, drip irrigation and skunky-smell-scrubbing air filters are among the fixes that may ensure that the grass is always getting greener.
Art & science
CREDIT: THE LOOKOUT / YOUTUBE
Putting out fires
In the western US, wildfire season is in full swing. Historically, more than half of California’s most destructive fires have taken place in September or October and the Mosquito Fire, which has been tearing through the foothills of Northern California since last week, is now the state’s largest this year. More than 11,000 residents have been displaced — including, for a short time, Knowable Magazine’s own Emily Underwood. Underwood was luckier than many and back in her home this week, but she remains glued to updates — in particular, those from Zeke Lunder, a fire analyst, mapping expert and former wildland firefighter.
Lunder gleans data from agencies such as the USDA Forest Service National Infrared Operations Unit and uses Google Earth to create textured narratives about what’s happening with a particular fire — the way the wind might spur it farther up a canyon, or how humidity plays into the success of prescribed burns. His deep-dive, science-rich analyses, which can be seen via the Lookout, a website and YouTube channel (screenshot above), are a go-to resource for anyone near a fire and for people interested in fire science. Read more about Lunder (an “OG pyrogeographer”) in this interview and check out the Lookout. Underwood said it well in one of her notes updating our small team: “I am so grateful to live in a time when fire science is flourishing, and we were actually able to make an informed decision about coming home. Thank you, science!!!”
On September 27, Emily Underwood will be hosting “Insuring our uncertain future,” a conversation with two experts on disaster insurance, in a free online event from Annual Reviews, Knowable Magazine and Future Tense. If you haven’t already, sign up now!
