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 month 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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Mar 28, 2024 |
nist.gov | Gabriel Popkin
They’re called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, a group of thousands of compounds that contain a chemical bond between fluorine and carbon. That bond has proved to be one of the most stable and unbreakable known to chemistry — a fact baked into the common nickname “forever chemicals,” because once PFAS are created, they last a very long time. First manufactured in the 1940s, PFAS have seeped into our daily lives, and our bodies.
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Mar 27, 2024 |
science.org | Phie Jacobs |Ula Chrobak |Derek Lowe |Gabriel Popkin
In the mountains of southeastern Spain, a tiny wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) sniffs out its dinner. The shrubs and pine trees of the Sierra Nevada give off several intriguing smells, including the nutty aroma of acorns from the Holm oak (Quercus ilex). But these particular acorns have another, more pungent odor—as though they just emerged from an ammonia bath. As it turns out, they have—thanks to a peculiar experiment in forestry management.
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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
