Jun 16 Your next happy hour buzz, brought to you by bees By Nsikan Akpan, Matt Ehrichs Only two species of yeast --- ale yeast and lager yeast -- have been used for traditional beer brewing over the last 600 years. A lab in North Carolina may have found a third in the strangest place: On bees… Continue reading
Jun 02 The lionfish zapper hits the open seas By Nsikan Akpan Last year, we broke the story of a robot being being developed to fight invasive lionfish. This spring, the prototype landed in the open ocean for the first time. Here’s how they took the idea from paper to practice. Continue reading
Mar 07 Want to cut carbon emissions? Try growing cement bricks with bacteria By Nsikan Akpan, Matt Ehrichs A North Carolina startup grows "biocement" bricks to circumvent the hefty load of fossil fuels needed for normal cement. Continue reading
Feb 06 Watch 6:12 Diving into the deep ocean to find hope for threatened coral reefs By PBS News Hour A third of the planet’s coral reef ecosystems are at risk of being damaged by warming sea temperatures and subsequent coral bleaching. Is it possible for these sea creatures to survive and adapt? NewsHour’s science producer Nsikan Akpan and producer… Continue watching
Jan 12 Coral bleaching is killing reefs. Is the answer a great migration? By Nsikan Akpan, Matt Ehrichs Coral bleaching threatens a third of the planet's reef ecosystems, but can these creatures adapt? Take a voyage deep into the Atlantic Ocean, as the Nekton Mission searches for an answer. Continue reading
Aug 26 Watch 4:55 How scientists aim to combat ‘Darwin’s nightmare’ — the invasive lionfish By PBS News Hour The lionfish has always been a relentless predator. When it lived only in the Indo-Pacific, its ferocity and aggression were contained. But since the species has expanded to the Atlantic, its overpopulation is threatening fellow aquatic creatures. So scientists are… Continue watching
Aug 24 How do you stop invasive lionfish? Maybe with a robotic zapper By Nsikan Akpan, Matt Ehrichs A nonprofit company is engineering robots to cull invasive lionfish, a detrimental species in the Atlantic Ocean. Continue reading
Aug 12 Inside the extraordinary nose of a search-and-rescue dog By Nsikan Akpan, Matt Ehrichs Rescue dogs are super-smellers, and the motley crew of scientists is figuring out why. Continue reading
Jun 21 Watch 4:16 Smelling doesn’t just perceive a scent — it changes it By PBS News Hour Scientists are discovering more about normal human biology every day. Case in point: the sense of smell, which everyone utilizes constantly, but few understand in depth. Science producer Nsikan Akpan takes a look at how smells work, how they move… Continue watching
Jun 09 What a smell looks like By Nsikan Akpan, Matt Ehrichs Smells are normally invisible, but this lab in Colorado uses lasers to bring odors to life. The research is part of a nationwide project to build a robot that can smell. Continue reading