Richard Harris

How To Clean Up Fish Farms And Raise More Seafood At The Same Time

Richard Harris — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 20:08:00 +0000

Last month, we told you about companies that are growing salmon on dry land. That's an effective — but expensive — way to reduce water pollution caused by fish farms.

Gizmo Uses Lung Cells To Sniff Out Health Hazards In Urban Air

Richard Harris — Fri, 31 May 2013 17:18:00 +0000

Cities like Houston are dotted with air-sniffing monitors that measure levels of benzene and other potentially unhealthy air pollutants. But those monitors can't answer the question we care about most: Is the air safe?

That's because there's no simple relationship between toxic air pollutants and health risks. Researchers at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill are trying to get a leg up on that problem.

Breathing Easier: How Houston Is Working To Clean Up Its Air

Richard Harris — Thu, 30 May 2013 07:01:00 +0000

The Houston area produces about a quarter of the nation's gasoline, and about a third of the plastics that are in our cars, cupboards and just about everywhere else. So it is no surprise that this heavily industrial area has a problem with air pollution.

Not Your Grandpa's RV: This Roving Lab Tracks Air Pollution

Richard Harris — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:18:00 +0000

If you're driving down the road someday and you come across a camper with a 50-foot periscope sticking up into the sky, you just might have crossed paths with Ira Leifer. His quirky vehicle is on a serious mission. It's sniffing the air for methane, a gas that contributes to global warming.

Leifer is an atmospheric scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Go Fish (Somewhere Else): Warming Oceans Are Altering Catches

Richard Harris — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:06:00 +0000

Climate change is gradually altering the fish that end up on ice in seafood counters around the world, according to a new study.

"The composition of the [global] fish catch includes more and more fish from the warmer areas, and cold-water fish are getting more rare, because the temperatures are increasing," says Daniel Pauly at the University of British Columbia, a co-author of the study.