Gabriel Popkin
Science and Environmental Writer at Freelance
DC-area writer, mostly science and environment, specialties include climate, ecology, conservation, physics, forests, trees & soil.
Articles
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1 week ago |
quantamagazine.org | Gabriel Popkin
The approach has been fruitful. In 2022, Gore and colleagues discovered that ecological communities undergo phase transitions — a core organizing principle in physics that describes, for example, water’s change from solid ice to liquid to gas. As the researchers increased either the number of species in their experimental ecosystems or the strength of the interactions between species, the ecosystems might progress through three phases. In phase one, all bacterial populations remained stable.
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3 weeks ago |
buff.ly | Conor Feehly |Gabriel Popkin |Molly Herring |Janna Levin
Introduction You’ve just gotten home from an exhausting day. All you want to do is put your feet up and zone out to whatever is on television. Though the inactivity may feel like a well-earned rest, your brain is not just chilling. In fact, it is using nearly as much energy as it did during your stressful activity, according to recent research.
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2 months ago |
nist.gov | Gabriel Popkin
Clocks on Earth are ticking a bit more regularly thanks to NIST-F4, a new atomic clock at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) campus in Boulder, Colorado. This month, NIST researchers published a journal article establishing NIST-F4 as one of the world’s most accurate timekeepers. NIST has also submitted the clock for acceptance as a primary frequency standard by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), the body that oversees the world’s time.
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Nov 3, 2024 |
nist.gov | Gabriel Popkin
The house would hardly stand out if plopped into one of the neighborhoods that surround NIST’s sprawling Gaithersburg, Maryland, campus. Its sloped driveway leads to an attached garage. Pleasant eco-friendly landscaping, unassuming green-grey siding and classic-looking windows and doors all contribute to a sense of stately suburban normalcy. Only the unusually dense array of rooftop solar panels and the scientific equipment scattered around the perimeter hint that this house might be special.
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May 28, 2024 |
quantamagazine.org | Gabriel Popkin
IntroductionA visit to a peat bog will make you rethink everything you know about the surface of our planet. A bog is land, sort of, but not in the solid-ground sense you’re used to. If you try walking across one’s surface, you may feel the soft organic muck known as peat undulate beneath you — or you may sink into it yourself. From the surface, it’s hard to know whether the waterlogged peat extends 3 feet deep or 30.
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My latest story
Four computerized residents. Thirty-two solar panels. Walls packed with insulation and a basement full of efficient appliances. This is what it takes to go net-zero. Learn how the NIST net-zero house has advanced building science: https://t.co/J5eq8Y1Mwh https://t.co/s5nAdmEqp3
Honored to receive my second honorable mention from @sejorg. Thanks to all the editors, photographers, designers and others who contributed to these stories, and congratulations to all the other winners!
@MoiraDonovan @hakaimagazine @lee_hedgepeth @CoolJerk @insideclimate @TexasTribune @erinmdouglas23 @alex_andra_ford @alereports @highcountrynews @erbenson1 @peterbohler @emilyharwitz @thatsMohrlikeit @GlaciogenicArt @mckennastayner 2nd Honorable Mention — Outstanding Beat Reporting, Small — #SEJAwards "Nature As Solution to Our Climate and Biodiversity Woes" @gabrielpopkin and @evanmbarrientos for @AudubonMag, @AnthropoceneMag, @ScienceMagazine and @YaleE360 https://t.co/lTW1mhPA7S https://t.co/7gGUckf6m1
Have you ever wondered how time works? Like, how does your phone always know the time? And how do our phones all tell the same time? To answer these questions, my @NIST colleagues and I created an animation on the secrets of atomic clocks. Check it out! https://t.co/Q5TCSdrB0h
