Tag Environment

Got a Window? Charge Your Phone with this Tiny Solar Panel

If you feel like baby steps just aren’t enough, this story of creative design and community will leave you feeling as powerful as the sun! All you need is an open mind, a sunny window, and a purpose to realize your true potential.

Renee Laroche-Rheaume
January 17, 2022

Image: Golden Retriever laying on her back and smiling up at the camera.

Can You Compost Dog Poop? Reducing Your Dog’s Environmental Paw-Print

Every day, millions of little bags filled with dog waste make their way into landfills, releasing methane into the atmosphere and potentially harming our waterways. But a new program in NYC is turning this problem into a solution with the power of compost!

Sam Burns
November 29, 2021

Secrets to Surviving: Lessons from Carnivorous Plants

If you think the Venus Flytrap is cool, wait until you meet some if its fellow carnivorous plant friends. From rodent toilets to bat bedrooms, these plants have found some fascinating ways to stay alive! Check out their stories to learn how we can succeed in our own lives—if only we decide to do something a little unexpected!

Sam Burns
May 17, 2021

Mysterious Orchids of the Everglades: Saving a Flowering Swamp Ghost

Deep in the swamps of Florida, real ghosts float in the air with their tendrils wrapped around the trees. These mysterious flowers have been stumping biologists for centuries, but this team of scientists and photographers has braved the alligators, snakes, and endless mosquitos to solve this puzzle once and for all! Let's join them.

Sam Burns
May 5, 2021

Image: ants caring for ant cows (a.k.a. aphids)!

Relationship Advice from… Ants?

How do we nurture our best relationships? Today's teachers may be tiny, but they've been pulling off beautifully mutually beneficial relationships for millions of years! And yes, they've even befriended their own cows.

Sam Burns
December 14, 2020

Proof That You Don’t Need a Brain to Be a Genius!

What can something called "slime mold" have to teach us about our own special kind of genius? Well, this otherworldly organism is changing the way we think about what intelligence looks like!

Sam Burns
December 10, 2020

Image: close up of the underside of a starfish, where you can see the suckers

The Strangest Legs in the Sea: Could Your Toes Out-Sniff a Starfish?

Have you ever learned something new and then started seeing that thing everywhere? Well, you're about to experience this awe of discovery over and over again after this—with a creature you probably think you have all summed up!

Sam Burns
December 2, 2020

Image: Horses from Mustangs to the Rescue packing

These Rescued Horses Could Save Your Life One Day!

This organization is helping rehabilitate abandoned, abused, and neglected horses into some of the most highly valued animals on the frontlines of search and rescue and firefighting! And their recipe for success could be a beacon for progress far beyond the world of animal rescue.

Liesl Ulrich-Verderber
November 22, 2020

Image: woman walking outside of a SHRI bathroom facility

Discover the Problem-Solving Power of Poo

Could a toilet help us solve some of our biggest problems? This organization is bringing lasting health to India's poorest communities with clean water and sanitation, all powered by poo! It's an ingenious approach to problem-solving that we can all adopt. Just take a look!

Sam Burns
October 15, 2020

Image: a variety of wild-foraged mushrooms in a woven basket

Meet the Ancient Superheroes Fighting Cancer, PTSD, Pollution, and Saving the Bees!

What if everything we need to solve many of our most vexing problems is growing, silently, all around us? Mushrooms are an unexplored powerhouse that could very well save the world!