(Image: Jarrad Prangell from Symbio Wildlife Park holds a Bellinger River Snapping Turtle) Four summers ago, death swept through the small population of Bellinger River Snapping Turtles. Thankfully, the species wasn’t wiped out completely. But the virus that wrought devastation was aided and abetted by drought and diminishing food supply — the hallmarks of climate … Continue reading
From Cosmos Magazine, Issue 77, Summer 2018 (Image by Max Sparber via Flickr) Psychedelic drugs have long been outlawed. Now psychiatrists want them back. ON A SWELTERING NEW YORK EVENING in August 2016, Jesse Noakes finally found relief from years of mind-numbing depression. As he sat on the sofa facing the therapist his gloom melted … Continue reading
A version of this article appeared in Issue 76 of Cosmos Magazine, October 2017 An acoustic trek into the connected lives of trees The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature’s Great Connectors By DAVID GEORGE HASKELL Black Inc. (2017) There is virtue, we are told, in stopping to smell the roses. David George Haskell, in … Continue reading
A version of this review appeared in Issue 75 of Cosmos Magazine, July 2017 The runaway evolution that drove human brilliance Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind by KEVIN N. LALAND Princeton University Press (2017) Evolutionary biologists are often loath to admit the vast gap that exists between our own brilliance and … Continue reading
From Cosmos Magazine, June 30, 2017 (Image: naturalismus via Flickr) At his North Adelaide practice, Peter-John Wormald has the unenviable job of unblocking the noses of people with chronic sinusitis. Many of his patients have spent years on antibiotics that have failed to budge their infection, providing the perfect breeding ground for resistant superbugs. For … Continue reading
From Nature Medicine, June 2017 (Image: Nick Page via Flickr) In September 2012, a small biotech startup named Trevena unveiled preclinical trial results for its front-running compound, TRV027. The fledgling Philadelphia-based company had been going strong since its founding five years earlier, raising $24 million from investors in 2008 and securing a position in BusinessWeek’s … Continue reading
From The Guardian, May 10, 2017 (Image: Sergio Niebla via Flickr) Biofuels have long been touted as a carbon-neutral alternative to fossil fuels, doing for the world’s planes, ships and automobiles what windfarms and solar panels are doing for its electricity grids. With the transport sector accounting for almost one fifth of Australia’s total carbon … Continue reading
