Nature Archives

Environment

‘You Must Have the Courage of Your Convictions’: A Conversation With Jane Goodall

As Jane Goodall turns 80, Henry Nicholls talks to her about her remarkable career studying chimpanzee behavior, her animal welfare activism, and accusations of plagiarism in her latest book.

Henry Nicholls

Social Justice

The Mystery of Human Touch

Scientists are learning more about how we process feelings of gentle touch. New discoveries published Sunday could help restore fading sensations—and ease painful hypersensitivity.

John Upton

Education

Natural History Isn’t Dead–It Just Crawled Into a Microscope

Natural history collections are consolidating. Lessons are being dropped from biology courses. But amid the apparent carnage, microbiology is rising.

John Upton

Environment

Opting Out: Papa Pilgrim and the Lure of Off-Grid Wilderness Living

As part of our week-long series on people who opt out of society, Eva Holland spoke with Tom Kizzia about his new book on the 17-person family that settled down in the ghost town of McCarthy, Alaska.

Eva Holland

Social Justice

The Social Construction of Sex

Many of us probably get our core gender identities as much from our biological origins as we do from our gender educations.

Alice Dreger

Environment

What’s Wild? The Battle for Nature in the 21st Century

It's conservationist against conservationist as those that care most about biodiversity and wilderness argue over the best way to manage and protect what little we have left.

Amy Mathews Amos

News in Brief

Why So Many Flood Maps Are Still Out of Date

An interview with professor David Maidment on what makes today’s maps 10 times more accurate than the ones much of the country is still stuck with.

Theodoric Meyer

Environment

Is Our Disconnect From Nature a Disorder?

It's not in the DSM, but Richard Louv argues that being divorced from nature is a sort of disorder. More and more research backs him up.

Michael Todd

Environment

Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World

A survey of award-winning children’s picture books from 1938 to 2008 suggests our increasing estrangement from the natural environment.

Tom Jacobs

Environment

Long Slog for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

Efforts to create a suitable habitat for a striking bird that may or may not be extinct continue a half decade after its reported but uncorroborated resurrection.

Bruce Dorminey