Environment

A bee inspector checks on a frame of bees to assess the colony strength near Turlock, Calif., in February. More than 30 percent of America's bee colonies died off over the winter.

Bee Deaths May Have Reached A Crisis Point For Crops

10:56pm May 07, 2013

by Dan Charles

The number of honeybees has now dwindled to the point where there may not be enough to pollinate some major U.S. crops, including almonds, blueberries and apples. And this year brought farmers closer than ever to a true pollination crisis.

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Unearthing History: How Technology Is Transforming Archaeology

2:40pm May 06, 2013

For centuries, explorers tried to find la Ciudad Blanca, a fabled city in the rain forests of Central America. Dense jungle impeded efforts to uncover it. Douglas Preston tells the story of a team who used light detection technology to survey the iconic ruins from the air.

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Living Inside the Box

10:49am May 03, 2013

David Boyle and Michele Bertomen wanted to build their own house on a 20 by 40 foot lot they purchased in Brooklyn. Bertomen, an architect, drew up plans and the bid was over $300,000. Inspired by Bertomen's students at New York Institute of Technology, the couple built their house from five shipping containers, which cost a few thousand dollars a piece.

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Casual clothing detail fashion background made in the USA

Ethical Fashion: Is The Tragedy In Bangladesh A Final Straw?

4:05pm May 02, 2013

Since a garment factory collapsed last month in Dhaka, killing more than 400 people, ethical fashion has been in the spotlight. Elizabeth Cline, author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Price of Cheap Fashion, explains the economy that created this tragedy and what we can do to fix it.

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Environment

Forsyth County Gets an "F" for Ozone Levels

5:30pm May 01, 2013

by Keri Brown

According to the American Lung Association, more than 131.8 million people in the United States, or four in ten people live in counties that have unhealthy levels of either ozone or particle pollution. The organization gave several counties in N.C. high marks for air quality in a new report. But some Triad counties received a failing grade.

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Doctors at a hospital in Aleppo, Syria, treat a boy injured in what the government said was a chemical weapons attack on March 19. Syria's government and rebels accused each other of firing a rocket loaded with chemical agents outside of Aleppo.

How Doctors Would Know If Syrians Were Hit With Nerve Gas

12:02pm May 01, 2013

by Christopher Joyce

An international team of doctors is helping Syrian health workers recognize the signs of a chemical attack. They're also teaching them how to collect and preserve tissues as potential evidence if war crimes charges are brought.

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Great Salt Lake Is No 'Dead Sea'

10:21am April 26, 2013

Parts of Utah's Great Salt Lake are 10 times saltier than the ocean. But the lake is host to plenty of life, including salt-loving microbes that can turn the lake's water bubblegum pink. Bonnie Baxter, director of the Great Salt Lake, discusses how the bugs might hold the secrets to better sunscreen, hydrogen fuel cells--even life on Mars.

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Illinois River Crests To All-Time High Near Peoria

8:16pm April 25, 2013

by Tanya Koonce

Peoria has a front row seat to the great Illinois River flood of 2013. A temporary flood wall is in place and pumps are keeping the water at the lowest points from coming up through the sewers and into the store fronts. Whether their property is underwater or not, the resolve of people living and working along the Illinois River isn't wavering.

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Missouri farmer Gary Riedel says wet weather will put him about a month behind last year's planting.

For Corn, Fickle Weather Makes For Uncertain Yields

9:06am April 24, 2013

by Abbie Fentress Swanson

Corn production was down last year thanks to drought. This year, conditions are too cold and wet for farmers to plant the crop. Without a break in the clouds pretty soon, there may be another shortage of the crop at harvest time.

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After being frozen for thousands of years in a Siberian riverbed, this pristine mammoth tusk is a financial boon to the hunter who found it.

As Arctic Ice Melts, It's A Free-For-All For Oil ... And Tusks

11:47am April 23, 2013

by NPR Staff

The melting of ice in the northern latitudes is feeding new industries. Among them: speculating for petroleum products where vast amounts of undiscovered oil and natural gas are believed to be, and hunting for mammoth tusks unearthed in the softening tundra.

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