ATMOS

MAY 30. 2025

The Microbial Garden Within

Inside you, a hidden garden teems with ancient life—invisible microbes pulling the invisible strings of all life on this planet.

MAY 29. 2025

Why Some Brains Are Wired for Extremism

Neuroscientist and author of The Ideological Brain Leor Zmigrod illuminates the factors leading some people down a path of extremism.

MAY 28. 2025

In Death, New Life: The Science And Symbolism of a Whale Fall

When a whale dies, its body creates a new mini ecosystem on the ocean floor—a process full of biological and poetic lessons.

MAY 27. 2025

The Mountain Deity Being Lost to Climate Change

Glaciers high in Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains are rapidly melting, displacing a mountain god the Bakonzo people believe lives inside the ice.

MAY 26. 2025

A Mycologist’s Foray Into the Abundant Queerness of Nature

In Forest Euphoria, Dr. Patricia Kaishian bears witness to nature’s diverse approaches to identity and entanglements with social justice.

MAY 23. 2025

The Palestine Sunbird: A Symbol of Freedom

The Palestine sunbird moves freely between borders in stark contrast to the people it flies among.

MAY 22. 2025

Trump Wants to Save Columbus Day. From What, Exactly?

The U. S. President has promised to bring Columbus Day “back. ” What he’s really reviving is a political fight over whose history matters.

MAY 21. 2025

When the World Is on Fire, What Does Reproductive Choice Really Mean?

Roxane Gay reflects on the ways that the choice of whether or not to have kids is limited both by legislation and the climate crisis.

MAY 20. 2025

These Scents Were Once Erased by Humans. Now They’re Back.

With ancient DNA and the tools of modern biotechnology, scientists and perfumers are “scent-surrecting” extinct aromas.

MAY 19. 2025

Surviving Occupation in a Climate-Changed West Bank

Climate change is causing strange rainfall patterns in Palestine. That compounds the devastation of Israel’s weaponization of water.