Watching the scarlet ibises roost and the leatherbacks lay, it’s easy to forget you’re on the Caribbean’s most industrialized island. Originally published in US Airways Magazine. OUR GREEN WOODEN PIROGUE pulls up to the bank of Caroni Swamp, just a few miles south of Port of Spain. The boatman cuts the motor. It is nearing sunset, and […]
Can We Trust Research Done with Lab Mice?
New studies show that animals used in critical experiments may be out of their minds. Originally published in Discover. https://youtube.com/watch?v=iI6ftGuSth0 Paired twirling by lab mice, a stereotypic behavior. Video courtesy of Hanno Würbel. IN THE EARLY 1990s A SOFT-SPOKEN doctoral candidate at Switzerland’s leading university asked a deceptively simple question: What do all those laboratory mice do after the researchers […]
Can Turtles Live Forever?
A quiet backwoods study opens a huge window on aging. Originally published in Discover. WHEN JUSTIN CONGDON WAS A TEENAGER, he spent his days in the woods of northeastern Pennsylvania, shooting pheasants and trapping muskrats so he could sell their pelts for $4 apiece. He would have laughed had anyone told him he might spend the rest […]
Wild Cats in Carolina
Is the Carnivore Preservation Trust creating a genetic future for threatened species—or genetic junk? Originally published in Discover. LORI WIDENER OPENS THE GATE of the 12-foot-high fence that surrounds the Carnivore Preservation Trust outside Pittsboro, North Carolina, and walks toward the home of her favorite resident, Scooter. “Where’s my boy?” she coos, peering into an enormous walk-in […]
Don’t Count Your Chickens
Click here for “Don’t Count Your Chickens,” Southern Exposure, Summer 1989
