Animals

Freshly cooked Dungeness crab sits on a pot of boiling water at Nick's Lighthouse Restaurant in San Francisco, Nov. 5, 2015.

Why A Neurotoxin Is Closing Crab Season In California

9:39am November 07, 2015

by Lauren Sommer

State officials have closed recreational and commercial fishing for Dungeness and rock crab on the California coast, due to a large algae bloom that's making the crab unsafe for consumption.

Human stem cells, in this case made from adult skin cells, can give rise to any sort of human cell. Some scientists would like to insert such cells into nonhuman, animal embryos, in hopes of one day growing human organs for transplantation.

Should Human Stem Cells Be Used To Make Partly Human Chimeras?

6:37pm November 06, 2015

by Rob Stein

The National Institutes of Health has issued a moratorium on funding work that puts human stem cells into nonhuman embryos. The concern is that hybrids might develop human brain cells, sperm or eggs.

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Juvenile Chinook salmon swim in the American River in California. The state's salmon fishery, which revolves around fall-run Chinook, has been estimated to be worth $1.4 billion, with the fish finding their way into markets and restaurants.

Big Trouble Looms For California Salmon — And For Fishermen

4:32pm November 06, 2015

by Alastair Bland

Thanks to a blazing hot summer and unusually warm water, early counts of juvenile winter-run Chinook are at extreme low levels. To protect them, regulators may restrict ocean fishing.

"Emotion is absolutely central to understanding everything that happens in our brain. Our perceptions, our decision-making our actions, our planning — everything is affected by emotion." — David Anderson

What Can Fruit Flies Tell Us About Human Emotions?

9:59am November 06, 2015

by NPR/TED STAFF

Neurobiologist David Anderson explains why psychiatric drugs don't always work, and how researchers are working to find targeted forms of treatment — including his own experiments with fruit flies.

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Chipotle restaurant workers fill orders for customers. The company is now sourcing some of its pork from a British supplier that uses antibiotics to treat pigs when ill. Gail Hansen, a veterinarian and longtime critic of antibiotic overuse on farms, welco

Why Chipotle's Hard Line On Swine Antibiotics Is Now Blurry

8:16pm November 03, 2015

by Dan Charles

Some Chipotle restaurants now sell pork from pigs that received antibiotics to treat illness. It's a move that acknowledges the drugs can be used responsibly on farms.

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Tracey Stewart poses with Tweed and Gidget at Farm Sanctuary's Watkins Glen, N.Y., location. Stewart is the founder of the online magazine, Moomah.

Books
Arts

For Tracey Stewart, Life After The 'Daily Show' Is All About The Animals

3:29pm November 03, 2015

When they ran out of room for rescue animals in their home, Tracey Stewart and her husband, former Daily Show host Jon Stewart, bought a farm. Her new book is Do Unto Animals.

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One-quarter of the endangered mountain gorilla population lives in the Virunga National Park, which activists are trying to protect from oil exploration.

Environment

Congolese Activists Honored for Fighting Oil Exploration in Virunga National Park

6:04pm October 30, 2015

by Alexandra Starr

The Alexander Soros Foundation has given awards to people trying to block a British company from doing drilling in the park. The activists fear the operations would damage human and wildlife habitats.

Jane Goodall grooms the coat of a chimpanzee as he eats a banana in this photo from 1974.

Jane Goodall Wants To Save Us (And Her Beloved Chimps) From Ourselves

5:48pm October 30, 2015

by Malaka Gharib

She's learned a lot about chimpanzees. But what has she learned from them has given her a new mission: improve the health of the planet.

Goose bumps are triggered as part of the body's fight or flight response.

The Hair-Raising Science Of Goose Bumps

2:06pm October 30, 2015

by Adam Cole

Skunk Bear's shivery new video explores how and why our skin acts so weird when we watch a scary movie, get cold or listen to music.

Along U.S.-Canada Border, A Booming Business For Dinosaur Bones

2:03pm October 30, 2015

by Stacey Vanek Smith

Dinosaur fossils are often found along the U.S.-Canada border. But what happens after someone discovers them on their land depends on what the rules are about ownership, scholarship and preservation.

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