I am a plant microbiologist interested in how plants and microbes interact with each other. Although our research in the past has centered on molecular details of pathogenic infections, this work led my lab into the fascinating world of plant microbiome.
A growing number of people are redefining what “home” looks like. For many of them, it looks like a van.
Tourism in the South Pacific has been hit hard by COVID-19 border closures with thousands of people out of work.
That animals touch us in a deep, central place is not a modern-day phenomenon, but one that pervades the history of the human-animal relationship. We sense that we can benefit spiritually in our relationship with animals, and we are right. They offer us something fundamental: a direct and immediate sense of both the joy and wonder of creation.
Mask-wearing has divided the country, but hand-washing – one might think – is something virtually everyone would agree on.
- By Wyatt Webb
If you want to deal with your demons, it's appropriate to make a pit stop at a place as hot as hell -- Tucson, Arizona, in the summertime. It's 100-plus degrees right now -- with dark, ominous clouds erasing the Santa Catalina mountaintops in the distance...
I have discovered one positive amid the pandemic: I love working with two dogs at my feet. As someone who studies dog cognition, I often wonder: What is Cleo thinking when she stares at me while I write? Are my dogs happy?
They’re not the first generation to keep house plants, but millennials seem to have earned a reputation for gratuitous indoor foliage.
During the first pandemic lockdowns at the start of 2020, social media was flooded with pictures of homemade banana bread as people turned to baking in lieu of socialising.
The holiday season is already a booming time for online shopping. The COVID-19 pandemic increases the likelihood that when people shop this holiday season, they will choose online shopping over brick-and-mortar stores.
- By Bob Jacobs
Hanako, a female Asian elephant, lived in a tiny concrete enclosure at Japan’s Inokashira Park Zoo for more than 60 years, often in chains, with no stimulation.
The vast majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs indoors, most of it from the inhalation of airborne particles that contain the coronavirus.
Can anything be as joyous as a dog? Bounding ahead, crashing into the bushes while out on a walk, happy, happy, happy. Conversely, can anything be as disappointed as a dog when you say, "No, we are not going for a walk"? Pure joy, pure disappointment.
The internet is filled with blogs and articles offering advice for parents who are trying to coax children into eating greens.
The sausages are sizzling, the burgers browned, and the beer is cold. You’re all set for the perfect end-of-summer BBQ. Alfresco dining, drinks in a garden of a country pub, ice-creams... And then an unwanted visitor arrives.
Since lockdown, public interest in growing fruit and vegetables at home has soared. Seed packets are flying off shelves and allotment waiting lists are swelling, with one council receiving a 300% increase in applications.
SARS-CoV-2 almost certainly originated in an animal. But ever since the virus infected humans the outbreak has been driven by efficient human-to-human transmission, resulting in the current pandemic.
As many states and cities across the U.S. struggle to control COVID-19 transmission, one challenge is curbing the spread among people living in close quarters.
As the coronavirus pandemic spreads around the world, it’s a good time to understand how cleaning can help prevent the spread of disease and what you can do to cut the risk of infection in your home.
- By Susan Roaf
Over 200 scientists, including myself, signed a letter that was published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases on July 6 2020 saying that COVID is not only spread by touch and droplets sprayed from the mouth and nose but, importantly, via a third route too.
A number of conservationists claim cats are a zombie apocalypse for biodiversity that need to be removed from the outdoors by “any means necessary” – coded language for shooting, trapping and poisoning.
- By Diane Budd
Domestication, for an animal, means not being completely free to roam or to even eat as they please. Pets therefore align with their humans for only one of two reasons: either by their own choice or from a place of surrender. When they do, they have a powerful impact on our lives.