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The surprisingly tricky art of seed banking

3 days ago | knowablemagazine.org | Katarina Zimmer

On a frosty day in early January, as Berlin’s trees and shrubs lie in deep dormancy, it’s hard to imagine it being much colder. But then I reach the Dahlem Seed Bank at the German city’s botanical gardens and botanist Elke Zippel guides me to a freezing chamber in the cellar, at a cool minus 11.2 degrees Fahrenheit, and the warmth rushes out of my body. Around us are shelves of glass jars, jam-packed with vials of seeds.
Ghost forests are growing as sea levels rise

1 week ago | knowablemagazine.org | Jude Coleman

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In the evolution of life, did metabolism come first?

2 weeks ago | knowablemagazine.org | Viviane Callier

Four billion years ago, our planet was water and barren rock. Out of this, some mighty complicated chemistry bubbled up, perhaps in a pond or a deep ocean vent. Eventually, that chemistry got wrapped in membranes, a primitive cell developed and life emerged from the ooze. But how? Among the many mysteries is a chicken-and-egg problem to solve. The proteins called enzymes that get chemical reactions going inside cells are created from instructions carried in genetic material: DNA or RNA.
How stress shapes cancer’s course

2 weeks ago | knowablemagazine.org | Diana Kwon

About two millennia ago, the Greek physicians Hippocrates and Galen suggested that melancholia — depression brought on by an excess of “black bile” in the body — contributed to cancer. Since then, scores of researchers have investigated the association between cancer and the mind, with some going as far as to suggest that some people have a cancer-prone or “Type C” personality. Most researchers now reject the idea of a cancer-prone personality.
Everything you need to know about bird flu

3 weeks ago | knowablemagazine.org | Amber Dance

In early 2024, the bird influenza that had been spreading across the globe for nearly three decades did something wholly unexpected: It showed up in dairy cows in the Texas Panhandle. A dangerous bird flu, in other words, was suddenly circulating in mammals — mammals with which people have ongoing, extensive contact. “Holy cow,” says Thomas Friedrich, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
The long search for water on Mars: Interview with Bruce Jakosky

1 month ago | knowablemagazine.org | Nicola Jones

The quest to send humans to Mars is on: US President Donald Trump talked about it in his inauguration speech this year. Such an epic endeavor could help to answer fundamental questions about the Red Planet, including the biggest question of all: Did Mars once host life — and does it still? Central to those questions is the status of liquid water — the stuff of life — on the planet. It is now indisputable that there was once water flowing on Mars, but how much, and even why, is a matter of debate.
For climate and livelihoods, Africa bets big on solar mini-grids

1 month ago | knowablemagazine.org | Victoria Uwemedimo |Katarina Zimmer

To the people of Mbiabet Esieyere and Mbiabet Udouba in Nigeria’s deep south, sundown would mean children doing their homework by the glow of kerosene lamps, and the faint thrum of generators emanating from homes that could afford to run them. Like many rural communities, these two villages of fishermen and farmers in the community of Mbiabet, tucked away in clearings within a dense palm forest, had never been connected to the country’s national electricity grid.
Why sizzling cities are mapping hot spots street by street

1 month ago | knowablemagazine.org | Ula Chrobak

The city of Reno, Nevada, is breaking records in ways it doesn’t like: A 2024 analysis of 241 cities showed that Reno has heated up faster than any other city in the United States. While the country as a whole warmed by 2.6 degrees Fahrenheit on average between 1970 and 2023, Reno saw an increase of 7.6 degrees. A heat wave that hit Reno in July 2024 made for the hottest month in the Biggest Little City’s documented history. Reno’s heat is not evenly spread.
Pig organs in people: The future of cross-species transplants

1 month ago | knowablemagazine.org | Amber Dance

More than 100,000 people in the United States are waiting for a new heart, kidney or some other organ. Many will die waiting. Some scientists see new hope for these people in organs from pigs that have been engineered to work within the human body. Such species-to-species transplants, called xenotransplantation, offer a technical solution to a basic problem: There are more people in need than there are organs, be they from living or brain-dead donors, to go around.
Here’s how rotting logs are mini ecosystems

2 months ago | knowablemagazine.org | Katarina Zimmer

Though no one may be around to hear when a tree falls in the forest, countless critters take note. Dormant fungi within the tree awaken to feast on it, joined by others that creep up from the soil. Bacteria pitch in, some sliding along strands of fungi to get deeper into the log. Termites alert their colony mates, which gather en masse to gobble up wood. Bit by bit, deadwood is decomposed, feeding new life along the way.