Science News for Writers

Credit: Diagram from PNAS; designed by Renate Helmiss This diagram shows an interlinked system of animals that carry nutrients from ocean depths to deep inland -- through their poop, urine, and, upon death, decomposing bodies. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that -- in the past -- this chain of whales, seabirds, migratory fish and large land mammals transported far greater amounts of nutrients than they do today. Here, the red arrows show the estimated amounts of phosphorus and other nutrients that were moved or diffused historically -- and how much these flows have been reduced today. Grey animals represent extinct or reduced densities of animal populations. If the world's food chain collapses. . . if.  What would the effects be on your characters?   It is said that our civilized behavior only runs skin deep.  Given the choice between starvation and access to food and water, what would your cha...

I read this article to my pet cat, Sam.   His response?   A cold stare as if to say, "You unspeakable animal." As distasteful as it sounds in both meanings of the word, there are areas in our world where hunger is such that pet cats are consumed as food.  If we're hungry enough, we'll eat anything, including each other.  In many parts of the world, hunger is a daily ordeal.  In the developed world, we look at this practice as pitiful and disgusting - until our food supplies run out. Even if you or I are well prepared for a disaster, food and especially water supplies are limited.  I remember reading one estimate that in a power failure a community will run out of drinking water as soon as the municipal water system runs dry in a day or two.  Food supplies will last a bit longer, in most communities between three and seven days. And then what? Survival of the most willing to do what must be done to survive?  Probably.  I doubt ...