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The Man Who Turned Antibiotics Into Animal Feed

The food industry and the medical community have fought bitterly, and for decades, over the widespread practice of adding antibiotics to livestock feed to make animals grow faster. Banning the practice would be an agricultural disaster, food companies predict—or at least the end

Richard Conniff December 9, 2012
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Gay Ugandans Take the Law Into Their Hands

There are things many Ugandans know about Rachael Kungu: that she is a DJ who spins at clubs and house parties, that she is warm and approachable, that crowds adore her, and that, perplexingly, she is a lesbian. Kungu lives in a leafy,

Alexis Okeowo November 30, 2012
Golden Toad, Monte Verde

A Rise in Fungal Diseases is Taking A Growing Toll on Wildlife

On the southeastern outskirts of Washington, D.C., inside the Smithsonian Institution’s cavernous Museum Support Center, one can see some frogs that no longer exist. Alcohol-filled glass jars hold preserved specimens of Incilius periglenes, the Monte Verde golden toad;

Michelle Nijhuis October 23, 2012
Acropora palmata spawning in Belize, courtesy of Raphael Ritson-Williams.

Frozen Sperm Offer a Lifeline for Coral

COCONUT ISLAND, Hawaii — Just before sunset, on the campus of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, Mary Hagedorn waited for her mushroom corals to spawn.

As corals go, Fungia is fairly reliable, usually releasing its sperm and eggs two days after the full moon.

Michelle Nijhuis October 23, 2012
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For Financial Literacy, A Surprising Political War

When Kelly Cook and her husband tackled the daunting task of buying their dream home in Lebanon, Ohio, they got help from an unexpected source. Struggling to come up with a down payment, the couple discovered a program intended for moderate income homebuyers

Mary Kane September 23, 2012

Chinese Demand Stokes U.S. Coal Battle

TRINIDAD, Colorado – When the New Elk mine reopened amid windblown prairies last winter, it attracted little attention. But the mine – a long shaft boring through some of the world’s most valuable coal – strikes at the heart of a growing debate about the future of American coal.

Craig Simons January 2, 2012

China’s Rising Consumer Class Sparks Climate Change Fears

TUOJIA VILLAGE, China – When you think about China’s growing greenhouse gas emissions, you probably don’t think of people like Zhang Chao or his father Zhang Dejun. Zhang Chao, a 35-year-old middle school teacher living in small city in southwestern

Craig Simons January 1, 2012

Fleeing the Fight: Displaced in Afghanistan

Thousands of Afghans have fled the death and destruction of southern Afghanistan by abandoning their ancestral homes. They are now displaced, living in a sewage-soaked camp in Kabul, having forsaken their land for survival and their family’s future. Among a maze of mud walls, shielded by leaking

Andrea Bruce December 9, 2011

The Hill That Women Built

On a hill overlooking Kabul, with little access to electricity, women have made their own houses, brick by brick, from the land beneath them. They have created what is known by Afghans as “The Hill That Women Built.”

Andrea Bruce November 12, 2011

Shadow Lives USA

Jon Lowenstein (APF – 2008) has compiled his recent work on deportation and immigration into “Shadow Lives.” Jon won a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship and a TED Global Fellowship. He is a member of the NOOR international photo agency, based in Amsterdam. His work

Jon Lowenstein August 21, 2011

Is Wyoming Ruining Water Supplies to Produce Natural Gas?

PAVILLION, WY—Jeff and Rhonda Locker’s water changed abruptly one day in the mid-1990s while Rhonda was doing the laundry. A Denver-based gas company was working over an old well in back of their house. Suddenly, the wash water turned black. “It happened just

Andrea Peacock August 20, 2011
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The Environmental Toll of Gas Development

BLANCO, New Mexico—Chris Velasquez sees the impacts of gas development in the San Juan Basin of northern New Mexico through the eyes of a rancher. He and his dad ran cattle, until recently, on a grazing allotment called the Rosa, rolling high desert

Andrea Peacock May 16, 2011
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Energy Pollution, Past and Future, in Utah’s Indian Country

ANETH, Utah—I first climbed the sacred butte at the edge of the Greater Aneth oil field in 1998. My husband, Doug, had been here before and knew where to find hand and footholds in a break along the steep sides. He told me

Andrea Peacock May 16, 2011
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The Treasure of the Rocky Mountain Front

BROWNING, MT—Nowhere in the West does the rolling sea of the high plains meet the mountains with such dramatic effect as in northwestern Montana. State Highway 2 stretches through the northern Hi-Line for miles of coulees and intermittent creeks, antelope, buffalo and Plains

Andrea Peacock May 16, 2011

A Whole World Gone: The Loss of the American Chestnut Tree

Early McAlexander looks through the window of his granddaughter’s car onto a wide open hill fringed by a line of white pines. “All this land used to belong to my father,” Early says in a voice that’s surprisingly steady and strong for a

Susan Freinkel May 6, 2011

Lady of Limbo Land

She looked like a human crucifix — arms outstretched, left hand grabbing the wall while the right hand grasped the door, legs clamped. Maria Guadelupe Aranda was in labor.

I didn’t know Lupe when I put my hands on her belly. I didn’t even speak her language.

Cheryl Reed May 4, 2011

Importing Nuns to Save American Monasteries

PHILADELPHIA – The monastery’s gray stone mother house stands stoically amid lonesome pine trees and statues of saints. At one time, the Sisters of St. Basil the Great on Fox Chase Road numbered about 150. Today most sisters have quietly retired from

Cheryl Reed May 4, 2011