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Healthy Planet Stewardship

Contraceptive vaccine under study for elephants and horses

The first lesson the elephants taught Ursula Bechert was that they had a sense of humor.

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Healthy People Innovation

Chemistry for Life

In 2011, the first Baby Boomer turned 65 — the leading edge of a wave that is going to change the country. By 2030 one in every five Americans will be older than that. People are already living longer, taking time to travel and to enjoy their families. Think gourmet cooking classes, fishing trips and art museums.

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Earth Healthy Planet

Bug Zoo

The other day, I found myself sharing a room with 3 million dead bugs.

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Healthy Planet Innovation

Thinking Like a Physicist

Walk into an upper-level college physics classroom almost anywhere in the country, and you’ll see students sitting down, listening to the professor and taking notes. Despite years of education research showing that students learn better by being active, the common curriculum for juniors and seniors in physics still emphasizes passivity. At Oregon State University, advanced physics instruction has already made the transition.

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Earth Healthy Planet

Surprise in the Sargasso

In some of Earth’s most extreme environments — Antarc- tica’s frigid ice fields, Yellowstone’s sulfuric hot springs, Crater Lake’s lightless depths, the oceans’ deep-sea basalts — Stephen Giovannoni has discovered thriving communities of bacteria. As the holder of the Emile F. Pernot Distinguished Professorship in Microbiology, he has discovered some of the most abundant life forms on the planet.

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Earth Healthy Planet

Lionfish Outcompete the Natives on Coral Reefs

Lionfish memo to coral reefs in the Bahamas: There’s a new predator in town.