Warren Cornwall

Bellingham

Contributing Correspondent, Science Magazine at Freelance

Contributing correspondent, Science magazine. Freelance science and environment journalist.

Articles

This paint sweats to cool off buildings. No energy required.

1 week ago | anthropocenemagazine.org | Emma Bryce |Warren Cornwall

Ultra-bright white paints are the go-to when it comes to cooling buildings. Those paints work by reflecting as much of the sun as they can. An international team of researchers have now made a cement-based cooling paint that bests those white cooling paints. The new paint reflects sunrays and emits heat as infrared radiation, which passes through the atmosphere straight into space in a phenomenon called passive radiative cooling.
The rise of the Anthropocene can be tracked in hummingbirds' beaks

2 weeks ago | anthropocenemagazine.org | Warren Cornwall

Discoveries about evolution have long been intertwined with bird beaks. The huge variety of beak shapes among finches in the Galapagos Islands became emblematic of Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. The beaks had evolved over time to better suit the food available on particular islands. In the same way, the beak of Anna’s hummingbird – Calypte anna – might become a symbol of evolution during the Anthropocene.
AI just found the best ingredients for green concrete

3 weeks ago | anthropocenemagazine.org | Sarah DeWeerdt |Emma Bryce |Warren Cornwall

We use around 30 billion tonnes of concrete every year. That gigantic number bears an equally gigantic carbon footprint. Producing cement, the glue that holds concrete together, is responsible for more than 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions. So a team of engineers at MIT put artificial intelligence to the task of finding cement alternatives in order to reduce the cost and emissions of concrete.
Small underpasses offer amphibians an extraordinary escape from death

3 weeks ago | anthropocenemagazine.org | Warren Cornwall

The question isn’t “Why did the salamander cross the road?” It’s “Why did the salamander cross UNDER the road?”The answer: To get to the other side without being squished by a car. For salamanders and other amphibians, like so much wildlife, roads are no joke – not even a bad one. For creatures who migrate between the water and the surrounding forest, the effects can be particularly lethal.
DNA captured from the air could track wildlife, invasive species-and humans

3 weeks ago | science.org | Warren Cornwall

During a single week in April 2023, the area around Florida’s Washington Oaks Gardens State Park was abuzz. A bobcat passed by, perhaps stalking the eastern gray squirrels. An eastern diamondback rattlesnake slithered through the undergrowth. The spaces among the grand oaks hummed with wildlife—a big brown bat, mosquitoes, and an osprey—and people with African, European, and Asian ancestors. Scientists didn’t directly see any of these creatures.
To protect rainforests, do people need to be kept out?

1 month ago | anthropocenemagazine.org | Warren Cornwall

In Panama, the best protection for keeping rainforests from disappearing hasn’t been putting them inside protected refuges. It’s been putting them in the hands of the region’s Indigenous tribes. In the two decades starting in 2000, just 3% of the roughly 19,000 square kilometers of Indigenous forestland was deforested.
Algae "perfume" fused with high-tech materials holds promise for growing coral

1 month ago | anthropocenemagazine.org | Warren Cornwall

These days, coral reefs need all the help they can get. Underwater heatwaves and pollution have taken a toll on coral, whose carbonate exoskeletons are the foundation of some of the richest ocean ecosystems. More than 80% of the world’s reefs are currently in the middle of the largest mass bleaching event ever recorded. Global warming is expected to make the problem worse in the coming decades, threatening the existence of most of the world’s reefs.
To coax a replanted rainforest to be more like old growth, consider a termite transplant.

1 month ago | anthropocenemagazine.org | Warren Cornwall

A forest, as anyone who spends time in one will know, is a lot more than just trees. These ecosystems support a massive number of different organisms living together in complex webs of interdependence. But when people try to regrow a forest, they often just plant trees. That single-minded focus might be slowing a return to the rhythms of growth and decay that shape natural forests.
Trump’s ‘fear factor’: Scientists go silent as funding cuts escalate

1 month ago | science.org | Warren Cornwall

In February, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump was inaugurated, Rebekah Tromble launched a program to advise scientists and journalists targeted for intimidation and harassment. But she announced it quietly, fearing the very kind of attacks the initiative was meant to counter. “We were truly concerned that trying to draw too much attention to our work would jeopardize our funding,” says the George Washington University social scientist.
Trump’s ‘fear factor’: Scientists go silent as funding cuts escalate

1 month ago | science.org | Warren Cornwall

In February, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump was inaugurated, Rebekah Tromble launched a program to advise scientists and journalists targeted for intimidation and harassment. But she announced it quietly, fearing the very kind of attacks the initiative was meant to counter. “We were truly concerned that trying to draw too much attention to our work would jeopardize our funding,” says the George Washington University social scientist.