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Articles by Naila Moreira
Natural history, art museum leaders at UMass raise concerns about storage of collections
Home News Opinion Sports Arts & Life Obituaries Classifieds Calendar UMass Collections Manager Katherine Doyle stands with a right whale called Staccato, which has been part of the UMass natural history collection for about 30 years. Doyle says that because UMass doesn’t have a natural history museum, “so many useful and interesting specimens are behind doors.” UMass does not have a natural history museum, something of a quirk of history.
Speaker for the whales: Indigenous artist interprets endangered right whale’s legacy and meaning
Collections assistant for the UMass Natural History Collections Cristian Paunescu prepares a stand for the flipper bones of a juvenile sperm whale Wednesday afternoon for its upcoming display in the Morrill Science Center. STAFF PHOTO/DAN LITTLE Shinnecock artist and filmmaker Courtney M. Leonard stands for a portrait at her exhibition “BREACH: Logbook 24 | Staccato” on Wednesday at the Umass Museum of Contemporary Art. STAFF PHOTO/DAN LITTLE Shinnecock artist Courtney M.
Speaker for the whales: Indigenous artist interprets endangered right whale’s legacy and meaning
Collections assistant for the UMass Natural History Collections Cristian Paunescu prepares a stand for the flipper bones of a juvenile sperm whale Wednesday afternoon for its upcoming display in the Morrill Science Center.
Speaker for the whales: Indigenous artist interprets endangered right whale’s legacy and meaning
Kate Doyle, vertebrate collections manager for the UMass natural history collection, stands with a Right Whale called Staccato, which has been part of the UMass natural history collection for about 30 years. The whale died of internal bleeding believed from injuries after a ship strike "I feel attached because I am their steward, I am their first defense," said Doyle.
Natural history, art museum leaders at UMass raise concerns about storage of collections
E-Edition Advertise Newsletters Subscribe Home News Opinion Sports Arts & Life Obituaries Classifieds Calendar UMass Collections Manager Katherine Doyle stands with a right whale called Staccato, which has been part of the UMass natural history collection for about 30 years. Doyle says that because UMass doesn’t have a natural history museum, “so many useful and interesting specimens are behind doors.” UMass does not have a natural history museum, something of a quirk of history.
Speaker for the whales: Indigenous artist interprets endangered right whale’s legacy and meaning
Kate Doyle, vertebrate collections manager for the UMass natural history collection, stands with a right whale called Staccato, which has been part of the UMass natural history collection for about 30 years. The whale died of internal bleeding believed from injuries after a ship strike. “I feel attached because I am their steward, I am their first defense,” said Doyle.
Natural history, art museum leaders at UMass raise concerns about storage of collections
E-Edition Advertise Newsletters Subscribe Home News Opinion Sports UMass Arts & Life Obituaries Classifieds Calendar UMass Collections Manager Katherine Doyle stands with a right whale called Staccato, which has been part of the UMass natural history collection for about 30 years. Doyle says that because UMass doesn’t have a natural history museum, “so many useful and interesting specimens are behind doors.” UMass does not have a natural history museum, something of a quirk of history.
Poem: 'Baby Crocodile'
Science in meter and verse Edited by Dava Sobel Tender bones, tiny soul: it could escape in death in an instant. Itself death-dealer— mouth of teeth, tyrannosaur in miniature, an apparently exact copy of its dozen nestmates—it repeats, too, time. Yet over its life lurks the great oversoul: the mother. She hulks. Seems to sleep.
Western Mass' Solar Siting Problem
By Naila Moreira SHUTESBURY - At the base of an oak trunk too large to wrap my arms around, a russula mushroom's scarlet cap sprouts like a fairy umbrella, perched above clubmoss on a milk-white stem. Nearby, mountain laurels - slow growers at just a foot a year - arch over the footpath. Rivulets hurry downslope to coalesce and join larger Adam's Brook below. Eventually, they'll end up in the Atkins Reservoir.
Who Needs Journalism?
Yet for decades, as a matter of principle, journalism courses did not count for credit at Smith College. The first course explicitly aimed at teaching journalism hit the Smith curriculum just five years ago. Traditionally, journalism has been viewed by liberal arts institutions as a “pre-professional” educational track that teaches students a “trade”: a set of mechanics by which the practitioner translates current events into text.
Northampton cannabis tax revenue dropping fast
NORTHAMPTON — Even as a hotly debated limit takes effect on the number of pot shops allowed in Northampton, business for cannabis is down in the city. Tax revenues from adult-use marijuana sales have fallen a third from the peak reached shortly after the first stores opened, according to data from the Northampton mayor’s office. The tax, called the local option adult-use marijuana excise tax, is a 3% levy on sales in Northampton.
This robot automatically tucks its limbs to squeeze through spaces Original
Inspired by how ants move through narrow spaces by shortening their legs, scientists have built a robot that draws in its limbs to navigate constricted passages. The robot was able to hunch down and walk quickly through passages that were narrower and shorter than itself, researchers report January 20 in Advanced Intelligent Systems. It could also climb over steps and move on grass, loose rock, mulch and crushed granite.
Sea life offers a lens for self-exploration in ‘How Far the Light Reaches’ Original
How Far the Light Reaches Sabrina Imbler Little, Brown & Co., $27 In How Far the Light Reaches, Sabrina Imbler shows us that the ocean, in all its mystery and dazzling glory, is queer — that is, the life that takes shape there challenges how we landlubbers perceive ways of being. This collection of essays tells the stories of 10 sea creatures, with Imbler, a queer and mixed-race writer, weaving in stories of their own family, self-discovery, sexuality and healing.
Readers react to disinfectants made from sawdust, goldfish that drive and more
Leaving microbes in the dust Antimicrobial molecules in wood waste could be used to make more sustainable disinfectants, Carolyn Wilke reported in “A disinfectant may get its oomph from sawdust” (SN: 2/12/22, p. 5). Some readers wondered if the tree species or freshness of the wood waste affects the potency of the disinfectant. In the study, the researchers used sawdust from birch wood. They did not look at the disinfecting effects of sawdust from different species of wood, Wilke says.
Explainer: The body’s immune system
Your immune system is probably something you ignore, at least until you get ill. Then you realize how important the immune system is. It’s all the various organs, cells and proteins spread throughout the body that protect us from bacteria, viruses and other potentially harmful invaders. Cells of the immune system can be split into two closely related military squads: innate and adaptive. Troops belonging to the first — innate — patrol the body to detect intruders, such as bacteria and viruses.
Explainer: The body’s immune system
Your immune system is probably something you ignore, at least until you get ill. Then you realize how important the immune system is. It’s all the various organs, cells and proteins spread throughout the body that protect us from bacteria, viruses and other potentially harmful invaders. Cells of the immune system can be split into two closely related military squads: innate and adaptive. Troops belonging to the first — innate — patrol the body to detect intruders, such as bacteria and viruses.
An eco-friendly disinfectant made from sawdust mows down deadly microbes
A new, sustainable disinfectant made from sawdust and water can knock out more than 99 percent of some disease-causing microbes, including anthrax and several strains of flu. Widespread use of some disinfectants can cause environmental harms. For instance, chlorine-containing ones, such as bleach, can form dangerous by-products when they react with other molecules (SN: 11/25/18).
Bandages made from crab shells speed healing
A new medical dressing helps skin wounds heal faster. Its innovative ingredient is the structural material in the skeletons, scales and shells of marine animals and insects. Called chitin (KY-tin), this polymer is second only to plant cellulose as nature’s most abundant material. And as a natural waste produced by seafood-processors, it costs little. Jinping Zhou is a chemist at Wuhan University in China. He was part of a team that created the new wound dressing.
To Autumn: Reading Keats in Pandemic Winter
By NAILA MOREIRA When I nurse my baby son Oliver to satisfaction, a beautiful look grows on his face. His small damp lips purse; his cheeks pinken; his black lashes rest delicately shut. If I try to offer more, those lips squash upwards in contented refusal. “You’ve o’er-brimmed his clammy cells,” my partner Paul always observes. He’s quoting of course from that most beautiful of poems, John Keats’ To Autumn. To Autumn was the last of Keats’ great Odes.
Down to Earth: The radical collective of slime mold
The other day, wandering the back alleys of social media, I discovered a Facebook group to fall instantly in love with: “Slime Mold Identification & Appreciation.” Joining the group, I was amazed to discover that it boasted 5,422 members (today, it’s cracked 6,000). Go figure, I thought to myself — you can find anything on the internet. I composed a post to my Facebook friends. “Who on earth joins a Facebook page called Slime Mold Identification and Appreciation?” I wrote.
Friday Takeaway: Ecological hope through art
So climate anxiety is a thing. Last year, a Yale University report noted that 21 percent of American adults are “very worried” about climate change. The American Psychological Association has put out a 70-page guide, “Mental Health and our Changing Climate,” to help mental health professionals in working with clients.
Secret Finds
July 8, 2015 Dispatches By NAILA MOREIRA Today the corn is new, no higher than my knee, and at this height it has a special color: luminous green under the overcast sky. The clouds are thick and dark, like a stew. For some, this place might seem always the same: the corn growing, the looming mountain, the lone trees far off across the fields still and silent, punctuating the view. But for me there is always something to see.
UMass men’s basketball hits reset button ahead of Atlantic 10 play
Published: 1/4/2019 1:34:42 PM AMHERST — There were a lot of teams around the Atlantic 10 that needed to hit the reset button this week. The nonconference schedule was not kind to the league with eight teams finishing with seven wins or fewer in the first half of the season, and several teams taking questionable losses. UMass fits into that group after it fell to 7-6 overall with a 91-72 loss to Georgia on Sunday.
When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, think small
On one recent cold and rainy afternoon, Mike Hills stood beneath an awning in downtown Northampton eating a hot pastry. He made the trip with his wife from New York to visit WEBS America's Yarn Store and stopped at Tart Baking Company for one last treat before New Year’s Day. “Just before this sticky bun, I decided I was going to eat really well (afterward),” Hills said, pausing between bites. “This is the last hurrah. I came all this way to get this sticky bun.” Starting on Jan.
Down to Earth: Discovering #ScienceTwitter
A lot of us, when we think of Twitter, first bring to mind the frequently controversial, often belligerent, at times misspelled tweets of the current U.S. president. We may think of furious political discourse, of Russian bots, of doxxing and flaming and intemperate attacks by gangs of online trolls.
Down to Earth: A choice: forests or solar panels?
One of the most popular alternatives to fossil fuels, solar energy, has a problem — it needs land. With that land hunger comes inherent conflict, recently highlighted in Belchertown where a vigorous local fight has sprung up over proposals to build two solar farms on forested land. The struggle pits the plans’ opponents not only against the solar companies and land owners, but those who worry that excessive obstacles are being raised against solar.
Down to Earth: The Ocean Alongside Us
It’s summer, and with these golden months for many of us come trips to the seaside. As much as I love the Pioneer Valley, one of my regrets in choosing this home is its landlocked geography. Out here in Western Massachusetts, the ocean can feel almost infinitely far away. I miss the swash and leap of waves on white boulders. Breathing in a humid hang of pollen, dust, and soot blown north from New York City, I long for the bracing sting of salt. The sea, though, is closer to us than we realize.
Down to Earth with Naila Moreira: The ocean alongside us
It’s summer, and with these golden months for many of us come trips to the seaside. As much as I love the Pioneer Valley, one of my regrets in choosing this home is its landlocked geography. Out here in Western Massachusetts, the ocean can feel almost infinitely far away. I miss the swash and leap of waves on white boulders. Breathing in a humid hang of pollen, dust, and soot blown north from New York City, I long for the bracing sting of salt. The sea, though, is closer to us than we realize.
Down to Earth: Sugaring in a warmer world
In the sugaring room of North Hadley Sugar Shack and Market on a recent Saturday, a trio of young farmers manned the massive wood-fired evaporator slowly boiling off water from maple sap. Mahogany-colored product rushed every couple minutes from the spigot. On a smaller corner woodstove, a kielbasa sausage bubbled for their lunch in a pail of sap.
Down to Earth: The Land Through Native Eyes
Two summers ago, I visited the grasslands of southwestern Brazil. I stayed at a fazenda, a farm property offering lodging for tourists on the side. Our pousada or lodge was especially tiny as these properties go – run by a woman and her partner who had rented space on the farm for their small business. We grew friendly with our hosts over the week. Eventually, Mirjam and Wagner invited us to visit a nascent commune they were creating in a nearby village.
Down To Earth: Artistically collaborating with unicellular slime molds
The other day, wandering the back alleys of social media, I discovered a Facebook group to fall instantly in love with: “Slime Mold Identification & Appreciation.” Joining the group, I was amazed to discover that it boasted 5,422 members (today, it’s cracked 6,000). Go figure, I thought to myself – you can find anything on the internet. I composed a post to my Facebook friends. “Who on earth joins a Facebook page called Slime Mold Identification and Appreciation?” I wrote.
Libraries and the great outdoors
What do a public library and the great outdoors have in common? Because I write about nature and the environment, I’ve always made use of library books on nature. But it took me a long time to fully realize how closely and intimately libraries and the environment are linked, and to begin to notice and imagine ways they could be still more closely connected. The Shutesbury M.N. Spear Memorial library takes lending for nature one step further.
Opening the Book of the Earth
What do a public library and the great outdoors have in common? Because I write about nature and the environment, I’ve always made use of library books on nature. But it took me a long time to fully realize how closely and intimately libraries and the environment are linked, and to begin to notice and imagine ways they could be still more closely connected. For one thing, libraries “are the number one reuse machine,” says Forbes Library director Lisa Downing.
One Good Tern Deserves Another; Saving The Birds One Nest At A Time
One favorable consequence of always carrying binoculars in plain view is that they help create an international citizenry of nature lovers. I’ve just returned from a trip to England visiting family. There, we camped in the chilly, Scotland-like region of northeast England called Northumberland – in Latin, the “North Shadows” – an island-pocked coastline of temperamental weather and steep cliffs wedged between rocky and sandy beaches.
Book Bag: “Asking the Names” by Michael Miller; “Water Street” by Naila Moreira
Amherst poet Michael Miller could be the very definition of a late bloomer: Now in his late 70s, he has penned seven volumes of poetry in the last several years, and he’s not slowing down. In his newest (and eighth) collection, “Asking the Names,” Miller explores some familiar themes from his other books: aging, love, the scars and horrors of battle, the beauty of the natural world, and memories of his reckless youth.
Investigation: Yes, There Is Lead In Pioneer Valley Schools' Drinking Water
The very schools we depend on to educate our children could be making them less smart. Drinking water in schools across Massachusetts, including here in the Pioneer Valley, has been found to contain lead significantly exceeding safety standards. Lead exposure, experts say, can cause lower IQ, increased attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other cognitive problems.
Down to Earth: Trump's cuts to science are a knife to my heart
We tell stories to know who we are. Speaking our own stories, we rediscover ourselves. And by hearing and identifying with one another’s journeys, we discover and reach each other, too. My world — my story — is one of science. I birdwatch. I teach students how to write about science. As a graduate student, I studied geology — the science of the vast, beautiful, complicated earth — then applied it as an environmental consultant helping clean up contamination.
Down to Earth: The Power of Nurture, the Antidote to Fear
Nurturing. It’s so often a feminine term, bringing thoughts of mothers, sisters, daughters; of Gaia, the Mother Earth. For a synonym, my thesaurus gives me “motherly.” It’s a term linked, too, with gentleness and tenderness, which in turn are associated with deference, docility and mildness. But in the past few weeks, I’ve seen nurturing become an act of strength — an act of resistance and assertiveness. And not just for women.
Down to Earth: Hope, the Environment, and the Election
I sometimes startle people by saying I don’t have much hope for the environment. “But you’re an environmentalist!” they stutter. “Surely, you must think we can prevent nature from being destroyed? That taking action is worth it?” The other day, for instance, I chatted with a friend about the recent election and Donald Trump’s anti-environmental stances, like claiming he’ll disband the Environmental Protection Agency and falsely asserting climate change is a hoax perpetrated by China.
Down to Earth: Is the Valley Prepared for Another Flood?
Just across from one of my favorite writing spots — the window counter at Northampton Coffee — I can see a dark mark on the former lumber building: “Flood Level — 1936.” When I walk past, the mark is almost a foot over my head. After writing, I often hop on my bicycle and cross the levee meant to guard the town from rising waters. As I cycle over it, I ponder the 2005 collapse of New Orleans’ levees during Hurricane Katrina and the overtopping of Louisiana’s levees in this August’s deadly floods.
Down to Earth: Saving Honey Bees, One Person at a Time
I’ve always had a thing for creepy crawlies. I was the kid who caught the wasp stuck in the classroom to let it out the window. And I still crouch to move a worm from the sidewalk into the grass. So, when a colleague of mine, Sara Eddy, started her first beehive, I devoured her Facebook posts about the process. And this spring, I had a chance to visit her and the bees. The hive sat pertly in her Amherst backyard, painted lavender and protected from bears by an electric fence.
Fair pay for natural treasures
It’s one of the things we need most for survival, yet take most for granted. We need it to drink, to cook, to bathe, to brush our teeth. We’re blessed to live in a zone of abundant rainfall, and the Mill and Connecticut Rivers pour through the Valley. But even here, clean water isn’t a given. Water for our homes and businesses must be treated, tested, pumped, and disposed of — requiring money and infrastructure.
Right whales feast on the Cape, but for how long?
About 500. That’s smaller than Smith College’s first-year class by 100 and it’s a tenth of the entering class at UMass. It’s also the number of right whales known to be alive in the entire world. These huge creatures — second in size only to the blue whale — are among the rarest whales on the planet. And remarkably, about half their population has been spending each early spring just off the coast of Massachusetts in Cape Cod Bay. Arriving in March, they normally stay through April.
Naila Moreira: Plastic bag ban in Northampton ‘necessary, but not sufficient’
JERREY ROBERTS Amy Cohen, of Northampton, attaches a rope handle to a reusable shopping bag made from a malt bag Tuesday at Northampton Survival Center. Cohen is a volunteer at the center. The bags will be given to clients at the center who don't have reusable bags. Purchase photo reprints » JERREY ROBERTS Amy Cohen, of Northampton, attaches a rope handle to a reusable shopping bag made from a malt bag Tuesday at Northampton Survival Center. Cohen is a volunteer at the center.
Down To Earth: Life after plastic (bags)
Jonathon Bowen of Greenfield bags up a customer's groceries in plastic at Foster's on Tuesday. Recorder/Mciky Bedell A friend of mine recently forgot his reusable bags when he dropped in at Stop and Shop. To make matters worse, he’d also forgotten about Northampton’s new plastic bag ban, which started January 1st. Then the person in line behind him lectured him on the merits of the ban. “Don’t give me that,” he sputtered to me later.
Our New Winter
About a year ago, I saw three deer running across the Connecticut River. They weren’t walking on water: the river had frozen, thick enough to support their lightly tripping hooves. Last winter, Bostonians got so much snow they called it the Snowpocalypse. This December, I saw a deer again, but it stood on the Connecticut’s bank, its head dipped, drinking. Three kayakers paddled slowly towards it. I stood with my bicycle on the bike trail, clad only in a sweater.
Our new winter: More than passing strange
About a year ago, I saw three deer running across the Connecticut River. They weren’t walking on water: the river had frozen, thick enough to support their lightly tripping hooves. Last winter, Bostonians got so much snow they called it the Snowpocalypse. This December, I saw a deer again, but it stood on the Connecticut’s bank, its head dipped, drinking. Three kayakers paddled slowly toward it. I stood with my bicycle on the bike trail, clad only in a sweater.
A world overheating not just in temperature, but in its very structure
This December, I saw a deer again, but it stood on the Connecticut’s bank, its head dipped, drinking. Three kayakers paddled slowly towards it. I stood with my bicycle on the bike trail, clad only in a sweater. Outside my office, that morning, I’d seen a cherry tree putting out hesitant, puzzled white flowers – flowers that wilted and turned a wrinkled brown with the New Year’s cold snap that finally plunged us into the winter weather we’d been expecting. We live in New England. Things change here.
| GazetteNet.com
Hillary Rodham Clinton, former US Secretary of State, speaks during her keynote remarks at the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves summit, Friday Nov. 21, 2014 in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) Purchase photo reprints » FILE - In this March 23, 2015 file photo, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks in Washington. Clinton will launch her long-awaited 2016 presidential campaign on Sunday, April 12, 2015, according to people familiar with her plans.
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