Author name: Emily Crane

As COVID surged and schools across the U.S. shuttered in March 2020, Jamie Wyss, an elementary school counselor at the Virginia Beach City Public Schools system in Virginia, vividly remembers quickly assembling paper packets on social-emotional learning to hand out to parents. She initially thought students and staff would return in a week, maybe two.

Rats laugh, bees roll balls for fun, turtles dance when they anticipate feeding, and dogs wiggle their tails when they’re excited. Research into animal emotions and experience has been on the rise since the late 20th century, and scientists are beginning to use these findings to help understand an age-old question: Do nonhuman animals have

Food recalls seemed relentless in the U.S. last year. Cucumbers, eggs, even big-brand products such as McDonald’s Quarter Pounders and Boar’s Head deli meats were implicated in dozens of foodborne illness cases, leaving many questioning whether their favorite foods were safe to eat. But surprisingly, the total number of recalls issued by federal agencies in

Microplastics Are Messing with Photosynthesis in Plants Microplastics can cut a plant’s ability to photosynthesize by up to 12 percent, new research shows By Joanna Thompson edited by Andrea Thompson Plastic sheeting surrounds young zucchini crops. Timothy Hearsum/Design Pics/Getty Images Microplastics are now a ubiquitous part of our daily physical reality. These minuscule fragments of