Hanusia Higgins

Valerie Thomas retired from NASA in 1995 after three decades of work, and she left with a legacy as a trailblazing scientist and creative inventor. More than 20 years later, her contributions and her dedication to teaching and uplifting underrepresented youth in her field are still making an impact. Thomas was born in Maryland in February of 1943. Despite an early interest in mechanics that she shared with her father, Thomas was not encouraged to pursue her passion for science and math.

The decline of North American bee populations has been a hot topic in recent years. Calls to “save the bees” have people buzzing about pesticides and habitat loss. But why the bees need saving in the first place is a complicated question. And to understand why bees are struggling, we first have to know which bees are doing poorly and which aren’t — which is where Kathryn LeCroy, a PhD student at the University of Virginia, comes in.

The US residential power supply system is messed up at all times, but Texas's power supply is particularly problematic right now. And worse, it's about to be crushing financially for millions of families impacted by winter weather, especially the families that are poor, or elderly, or not white (or all three). Because many states have deregulated their power markets, a lot of people get their power through retail energy suppliers. These companies are, essentially, energy arbitrage firms.