Warren Cornwall
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Contributing correspondent, Science magazine. Freelance science and environment journalist.
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Articles by Warren Cornwall
The research is loud and clear. Human noise is quietly killing wildlife
1:24 12 hours ago Is Alcohol Brain Shrinkage Truly Reversible? Unbranded - unbranded - Lifestyle • 12h Despite its deep cultural roots in modern society, alcohol consumption, even in low to moderate amounts, measurably alters brain structure and size. Scientists have long recognized that excessive alcohol consumption damages neurological pathways and accelerates brain tissue loss. However, emerging research reveals that even moderate intake may reduce overall brain volume.
[转载]News from Science-364
Weekly Headlines (Excerpts) 1. The first dinos that only ate fruit munched like parrots Toothless, turkey-size oddity may have evolved alongside the emergence of flowering plants 23 Oct 2026 By Taylor Mitchell Brown 2. Flickering signals in monkey brains hint at how we become conscious of what we see Detailed recordings reveal an unexpected way neurons represent perceived and unnoticed images 23 Oct 2026 By Zoe Beketova 3.
Europe’s summer heat wave killed more than 50,000 people in urban areas
1.0x 00:00 05:39 1.0x Audio is AI-generated. Report an issue|Give feedback Europe’s torrid summer set a gruesome record, killing more than 50,000 people in the continent’s cities from excess heat, according to research accepted for publication in Nature Health. The toll is nearly double the estimated deaths in European cities during two of the deadliest past heat waves, in 2003 and ’22.
We’re way closer to protecting 30% of the planet than we knew. But there’s a catch.
1:03 3 hours ago The Real Reason You Are Getting More Skin Tags Unbranded - unbranded - Lifestyle • 3h According to dermatological consensus, skin tags are benign growths that commonly form where skin rubs against skin or clothing. However, recent epidemiological research supported by institutions like the University of Liverpool link a sudden increase in skin tags to underlying metabolic changes.
Coral can heal rapidly from bleaching—if it touches a clone
When coral bleaches during a heat wave and ejects its symbiotic algae, it usually means either a death sentence or a slow recovery over months or years. But scientists working separately at two labs an ocean apart have found a faster acting shortcut, one that has scientists hoping it could eventually help coral recover from bleaching and endure future heat waves.
Scientists built a soundtrack to lure baby corals to their cyborg reef
5 hours ago For months, Anthropic and OpenAI have warned that AI may be on the verge of improving itself. This tipping point, known as “recursive self-improvement,” or RSI, could mean that new AI capabilities arrive faster than ever. But the advent of RSI might also be highly perilous for humanity, potentially …
Project will harness technology to track Amazon biodiversity in real time
1.0x 00:00 5:28 1.0x Audio is AI-generated. Report an issue|Give feedback Scientists can tell within days whether a grove of trees has been felled anywhere in the world, thanks to satellite imagery. But when it comes to knowing what’s happening in real time to the species that live there, researchers remain woefully blind.
What’s the better bargain, protecting a rainforest or regrowing it?
What’s the better bargain, protecting a rainforest or regrowing it? By Warren Cornwall Anthropocene Magazine September 23, 2026 Category: Forestry Region: International Planting a tree in the Amazon does a lot less for the rainforest than simply leaving one alone. That’s the uncomfortable arithmetic in new research on Brazil’s jungles.
In a first, probiotics helped real coral survive a real heatwave
Probiotics are a popular dietary supplement, promising to boost people’s health by populating their guts with healthy microbes. People trying to help coral endure heatwaves might soon be reaching for something similar. Infusions of a special probiotic cocktail helped coral stay healthier as they stewed in overheated water in the Red Sea near Saudi Arabia, scientists reported last week in Cell Reports. Even a mix of dead microbes, a so-called postbiotic, proved beneficial.
In a first, probiotics helped real coral survive a real heatwave
1 hour ago He bought the taxidermied head at an antique store for $70. It just sold for $85,000. Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: The last known thylacine—a dog-like marsupial—died in captivity in 1936, but a taxidermied thylacine head just sold at auction for upwards of $85,000. • The seller had …
To prevent forest fires, Trump wants to end a road-building ban. Scientists are skeptical
1.0x 00:00 5:26 1.0x Audio is AI-generated. Report an issue|Give feedback When President Donald Trump’s administration announced in August that it was proposing to rescind a 25-year-old U.S. Forest Service (USFS) regulation barring road construction on some national forest land, officials billed it as a way to reduce wildfire dangers and aid overgrown forests.
To fight wildfires and climate change, scientists say: Don’t burn debris, bury it.
Southern California 1 hour ago Southern California’s scorching heat wave peaks: Here’s how hot it will get and when it will end Los Angeles Times - Alex Wigglesworth • 1h Wednesday is forecast to be the hottest day of Southern California’s worst heat wave of the summer. Most coastal and valley areas will be 10 to 15 degrees above normal, with temperatures topping 100 in the valleys, according to the National Weather Service. Downtown Los Angeles is expected to reach …
As the Arctic warms, gray whale boom turns into a bust
1.0x 00:00 08:22 1.0x Audio is AI-generated. Report an issue|Give feedback OCEAN SHORES, WASHINGTON—Whale CRC-2293 was once part of a celebrated revival, a member of a burgeoning population of gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
[转载]News from Science-349
Weekly Headlines (Excerpts) 1. DNA could act like a famed gravity-defying pump Shrunken version of Archimedes screw could allow researchers to move molecules around at tiny scales 10 Jul 2026 By Julia Vaz 2. Thin air. Frozen temps. Toxic food. How these mice survive extreme elevations Scientists crack the secrets of Andean leaf-eared mice living near the top of the world 9 Jul 2026 By Yejin Lhee 3. How much killing will it take to save the spotted owl?
How much killing will it take to save the spotted owl?
Table of contents A version of this story appeared in Science, Vol 393, Issue 6807.Download PDF Related podcast Owl wars and the immune system’s memory Podcast 09 Jul 2026 1.0x 00:00 21:23 1.0x Audio is AI-generated. Report an issue|Give feedback Northern California—The next casualty in the owl wars appeared in the pickup truck’s headlights like a ghost, gliding across the dirt road in California’s Marble Mountains and disappearing into the forest.
Owl wars and the immune system’s memory
Danny Hofstadter 00:00 32:40 Download Follow Apple Spotify Overcast Pocket Casts Related Introduction to Special Issue Memories that endure Science Immunology 03 Jul 2026 First up on the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Warren Cornwall goes on an owl hunt in the woods of Northern California.
When war came to Chornobyl, the animals didn't all run away.
Icy winters are no match for these floating solar panels Using foam and aquarium pumps, engineers designed a floating photovoltaic system that keeps working efficiently through Canadian winter conditions Pumas are quietly tracking your hiking and biking habits better than you think GPS collars and fitness-app traffic reveal that the Santa Cruz Mountains' pumas track human recreation patterns with surprising precision and adjust their lives accordingly-complicating old assumptions about...
Il pesce miracoloso
Il destino di un piccolo tratto della foresta amazzonica in Brasile poggia sulle esili spalle di Antônio Humberto Figueiredo da Cunha, 34 anni. Da quasi metà della sua vita dedica tre giorni al mese a pattugliare il dedalo di corsi d’acqua e laghi interconnessi che circondano il suo villaggio di São Raimundo, nel cuore della giungla. Lui e gli altri guardiani sono una linea di difesa sottilissima contro bracconieri, minatori e chiunque voglia saccheggiare le acque e le foreste circostanti.
What if DEET could become mosquito perfume rather than repellent?
A 15-year field experiment in Kenya reveals that dung beetles-and the ecosystem services they provide-collapse when elephants disappear, offering evidence of coextinction in the wild.
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Sometimes, the fate of lots of small things hinge on the fate of a few very big ones. Take the story of the dung beetles and the elephant. For a long time, scientists have warned that the loss of certain “keystone” species can cause outsized disruptions in an ecosystem. At the most extreme, it can wipe out still more species, a phenomenon known as “coextinction.” While this domino effect makes sense in theory, documenting its occurrence in the wild has proven much trickier.
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Cement is one of the world’s most commonly used manmade materials. It is also one of the largest industrial sources of carbon dioxide; producing cement generates about 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions. In a new paper in the journal ACS Energy Letters, researchers report a new kind of cement that cuts energy use by 70% and carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 98% compared with traditional cement-making methods.
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What does a bat-killing fungus have to do with the municipal bond market? More than you might think. And the link points to the possibility of harnessing investors’ pursuit of profits to help biodiversity. “This isn’t about conserving bats for bats’ sake,” said Yale University economist Eli Fenichel.
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Scientists, including ecologists, are data hogs. More data can give analyses more statistical power, increasing confidence that a researcher is seeing something real in the numbers, whether it’s fluctuations in an animal’s numbers, location, or some other metric. There is generally no such thing as “too much data.” Except when there is.
The power of a fish
Along Brazil’s Juruá River—The fate of a small piece of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest rests on the slender shoulders of Antônio Humberto Figueiredo da Cunha. For nearly half his life, the 34-year-old has spent 3 days each month patrolling the maze of interconnected creeks and lakes surrounding his village of São Raimundo, deep in the jungle. He and his fellow guardians are the very thin line against poachers, miners, and other people bent on pillaging the surrounding waters and forests.
A team effort to save a giant fish, the power of moonlight, and how scientists can navigate a tough political environment
First up on the podcast, along Brazil’s Juruá River, local residents have been working with scientists to manage a giant fish called the arapaima—affecting the land, the people, and the economy. Contributing Correspondent Warren Cornwall joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about this collaborative effort. Next on the show, how moonlight affects nocturnal animals.
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The vast ocean dwarfs our efforts to understand it. Sensor-laden buoys, high-flying satellites and sophisticated computer models can only do so much to plumb the depths of the waters covering more than two-thirds of the planet. But a creature with intimate knowledge of the ocean might help humans get a more accurate picture of what lies beneath.
Fin-tech: How sharks could sharpen ocean forecasts
The vast ocean dwarfs our efforts to understand it. Sensor-laden buoys, high-flying satellites and sophisticated computer models can only do so much …
Nonprofit journalism dedicated to creating a Human Age we actually want to live in.
A new device captures greenhouse gases and pollutants from the atmosphere and produces electricity. The battery-like device produces enough power for small sensors and Bluetooth Internet-of-Things gizmos. “This work introduces a simple, scalable, self-powered platform that integrates gas capture with electricity generation,” write researchers from Korea in the journal Energy & Environmental Science. They call the device a Gas Capture and Electricity Generator.
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If you every have the good fortune to taste honey from the remote Philippine island of Palaui, chances are you will be savoring the flavor of an endangered tree. That’s what scientists working on Palaui learned when they studied wild honey collected by Indigenous Agta people there. That honey, prized for its supposed medicinal qualities, bore a chemical fingerprint suggesting it came almost exclusively from a single species of tree, the endangered Pterocarpus indicus, or narra.
Nonprofit journalism dedicated to creating a Human Age we actually want to live in.
Lakes and wetlands are welcome natural oases amidst the concrete and asphalt of the urban world. In many cities, they are magnets for people seeking a chance to go birdwatching, fishing, swimming, or just use the water as a scenic backdrop. But these spots have an invisible and unappetizing side as well. They can be hotspots of antibiotic-resistant microbes, posing a potential health risk to people coming in contact with the water.
Nonprofit journalism dedicated to creating a Human Age we actually want to live in.
When Mark Stoeckle went fishing in New York City’s East River, he caught a lot more than he was expecting. The scientist from The Rockefeller University was focused on testing whether DNA floating in the water could shed light on which fish were living in the notoriously polluted stretch of water that separates Manhattan from Brooklyn and Queens. But the buckets of water he hauled up from the eastern edge of Manhattan contained evidence of a lot more than just aquatic life.
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In a sustainable twist to the saying “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” researchers in Hawaii are developing a method to convert discarded fishing nets and plastic trash into asphalt roads. Their early tests show that incorporating recycled plastic into asphalt is technically viable and bears minimal risk of shedding microplastics that could end up in the oceans.
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There’s an archetypal nightmare where a dreamer is being pursued by some menacing creature, but they can only run in slow motion, as if stuck in syrup. That’s how some coral scientists might be feeling right now. Researchers have been rushing to find ways to help coral evolve quickly enough to withstand underwater heatwaves super-charged by global warming.
The future of coral reefs lies in human intervention
Ranked: The Countries Building the Most Nuclear Power See visuals like this from many other data creators on our Voronoi app. Download it for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven …
An alleged nuclear blast may reignite weapons testing, and who owns the Moon
Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images First up on the podcast, a peek into the roiling seas of U.S. science policy. ScienceInsider Editor Jocelyn Kaiser talks about shifting leadership at the National Science Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as a dip in funding rates by the National Institutes of Health. Staff Writer Robert F. Service covers proposed restrictions on access by international researchers and students to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Nonprofit journalism dedicated to creating a Human Age we actually want to live in.
People have tried all kinds of strategies stem the trade in illegal animal parts. Often these involved high-profile crackdowns, such as arresting smuggler or torching piles of contraband elephant tusks. But in southern Africa, wildlife advocates are celebrating success with a different, more friendly strategy. They are persuading communities to swap real leopard skins for synthetic versions for ceremonial uses.
Nonprofit journalism dedicated to creating a Human Age we actually want to live in.
While smoking is a well-known carcinogen, what’s less appreciated is that scientists have observed some species of birds adding bits of cigarettes to their nests. Scientists in Poland say they have discovered one possible reason why: The cigarettes might be boosting the health of nestlings by warding off parasites.
Nonprofit journalism dedicated to creating a Human Age we actually want to live in.
People have been trying all sorts of strategies to help species keep up in a warming world. They have bred hybrid coral from different parts of the world to create heat tolerant variants, worked to protect habitat projected to stay cooler as temperatures rise, even moved migratory birds to help them keep pace with the seasons. But species aren’t just waiting for humans to help them out.
Nonprofit journalism dedicated to creating a Human Age we actually want to live in.
It’s a familiar trope that when humans move into a place, biodiversity suffers. And there’s some evidence supporting that view. For example, a number of massive mammals disappeared from the Americas around the time when humans are thought to have arrived, though the link is hotly debated.
EV batteries are getting better faster than the climate is getting worse
Electric vehicles are key for decarbonizing transportation and even reducing household emissions to slow down climate change. Yet as the world gets warmer and faces more extreme heat waves, there are concerns that EVs won’t fare well. That’s because the lithium-ion batteries age faster under high temperatures. New research puts this worry at ease.
‘Insane’ images depict ant species in stunning 3D
Up close, the army ant Eciton hamatum is part monster, part marvel. Curved mandibles jut from its bulbous head like a pair of scimitars. Six whip-thin legs, bristling with hairs and spines, suspend its slender thorax above the ground. Then there are the insect’s innards—the tiny brain, the musculature filling virtually every nook and cranny of the exoskeleton, the digestive tract like a thread running the length of the body.
An alleged nuclear blast may reignite weapons testing, and who owns the Moon
Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images First up on the podcast, a peek into the roiling seas of U.S. science policy. ScienceInsider Editor Jocelyn Kaiser talks about shifting leadership at the National Science Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as a dip in funding rates by the National Institutes of Health. Staff Writer Robert F. Service covers proposed restrictions on access by international researchers and students to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Tropical birds’ ‘silent spring,’ and mapping people’s brains during surgery
First up on the podcast, producer Meagan Cantwell talks to Contributing Correspondent Warren Cornwall about his visit to Brazil, where he observed firsthand what it takes for researchers to understand why bird populations in the Amazon and beyond are shrinking.
Birds are vanishing from tropical forests. Is another ‘silent spring’ coming?
1.0x 1.0x Audio is AI-generated. Report an issue|Give feedback NEAR MANAUS, BRAZIL—The lilting song of the musician wren once commonly heralded sunrise in the central Amazon jungle. But in October 2025 it was a rare wonder when the flutelike melody cut through the dawn gloom. “Did you hear that?” whispered Stefano Avilla, an ornithologist and Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM) Ph.D. student. “Good ear,” said Jared Wolfe, a Michigan Technological University wildlife ecologist.
Rainforests are rain-making machines worth tens of billions of dollars to farmers.
Tropical rainforests get that name because it rains a lot in these places. But they deserve it for another reason as well: They make rain. By absorbing water and then transpiring it into the atmosphere, a single hectare of tropical rainforest in the Brazilian Amazon can generate approximately 2.4 million liters of rain per year, enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool, according to new research in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
Scientists decry Trump’s rush to loosen radiation exposure standards
When U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in May 2025 that would streamline federal radiation protection standards, Emily Caffrey was elated. Existing regulations were a jumble of red tape accumulated over decades, says Caffrey, a nuclear engineer and health physicist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, with radiation limits varying from one agency to another.
Can ecological collapse be undone? China is making a bold move on the Yangtze River.
The Yangtze River has long been an emblem of the ecological toll of China’s modernization. Since the 1950s, dam-building, mining, industrial pollution and overfishing have depleted fisheries there to a fraction of their former size. Some species have been driven to extinction, most notably the Yangtze River dolphin, or baiji, last seen in 2002. Now the river is offering a glimmer of hope that wildlife in such a heavily modified river can be revived.
Can you hear it? That’s the sound of a successful rainforest recovery program.
Programs around the world have tried to harness the power of money to save habitat, by paying people to protect or restore their land. When ecologist Giacomo Delgado wanted to test whether one of the oldest and most established programs was translating into biodiversity gains, he chose to listen for it.
El ADN revela cómo evolucionaron los icónicos pinzones de Darwin
Para conmemorar el Día de Darwin, que se conmemora cada año el 12 de febrero, fecha del nacimiento del naturalista inglés Charles Darwin, National Geographic presenta una investigación de ADN que aporta respuestas sobre la evolución de los pinzones de Darwin, una de las especies de aves que marcaron su carrera científica.
Dia de Darwin: tentilhões estudados pelo naturalista em Galápagos têm gene em comum com humanos
O Dia de Darwin, comemorado em 12 de fevereiro, é um bom momento para conhecer um novo estudo que descobriu que o gene responsável por ajudar a formar rostos humanos também molda os bicos dos pássaros tentilhões de Galápagos. Publicado 11 de fev. de 2026, 07:04 BRT Os formatos de bico extremamente diferentes dessas pequenas aves sul-americanas, conhecidas como "tentilhões de Darwin", desempenham há muito tempo um papel importante na compreensão da seleção natural das espécies.
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