Posts
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Increasing Access to Health Care Using a Community-Based Approach
Community Health Workers (CHWs), health assistants or lay health workers who provide a fundamental level of health care for residents in the community in which they live, have been shown to make a tremendous contribution to public health and community development. In Kisumu, Kenya, residents of Manyatta, an informal settlement with nearly 90,000 people that…
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PhD. Ode to a Tree
“I was deeply saddened by the loss of one of our most beautiful trees on campus during the last storm. It had perfect symmetry and such a beautiful color display late in the fall,” wrote geochemist Martin Stute, after a highly unusual heavy October snow felled a 22-year-old Bradford pear at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where he…
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Winter Extremes: So Last Year?
What are the odds that this winter will be as snowy as the last two? Climate scientist Jason Smerdon and tree-ring scientist Rosanne D’Arrigo are working on an answer, looking at the long-term history of two important weather patterns—the North Atlantic Oscillation and La Niña state in the tropical Pacific—that similar to last year could…
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Larry Burns Elected to the National Academy of Engineering
Larry Burns, director of the Earth Institute’s Roundtable on Sustainable Mobility, was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) on Oct. 16, 2011. A self-proclaimed “engineer through and through,” Burns teaches engineering practice at the University of Michigan and visits New York City regularly to lead the Roundtable.
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Trees on Tundra’s Border Are Growing Faster in a Hotter Climate
Measuring Techniques Improve—But Implications Are Not Certain
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Health Risks From Famine Likely to Persist
Video Short: IRI’s Madeleine Thomson discusses the short- and long-term health risks of the East Africa famine
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Asia’s Motown Meets Waterworld–The Global Water Supply Chain Crisis
Since July, an almost unceasing torrent of rain has soaked Thailand, flooding farms, roads, factories, and finally Bangkok itself, a city of some 12 million people; so far at least 500 people have died. To date the government has ordered evacuations of 12 of the city’s 50 districts, even as water continues to creep through…
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Monitoring Antarctica’s Changing Glaciers – No Longer Like ‘Watching Paint Dry’
By Kirsty Tinto & Mike Wolovick As little as a few decades ago you could ask a scientist what it was like to monitor the changing ice in Antarctica and the response might have been “Like watching paint dry” — seemingly no change, with no big surprises and not too exciting. Well times have changed.…
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Two Wren Brains Are Better Than One
When researchers observed activity in the brains of plain-tailed wrens while singing, they discovered something striking: In both sexes, the neurons reacted more strongly to the duet song than individual contributions — they are seemingly wired to enhance cooperation.
