That animal health and human health and environmental health are continuous—that the damage we cause comes back for us—is a commonplace, but it doesn’t commonly structure our policies. “Herd health, flock health—that is something we think about all the time, that is part of our training,” Slavinski said, of veterinarians and the perspective they bring to public health. She said that she likes the term “one health,” which is used by a number of different environmental and health organizations, as a way of thinking about the interconnectedness of humans, animals, and the planet, all the more so now with climate change and biodiversity loss. “It’s such a valuable means for conveying a very complex concept,” she said. “I think in my world, in my role, it’s human-centric, in that it’s, like, What do we see in animals, in the environment, that we’re worried about then spilling over into humans? But it’s so important to know and value what’s happening in the animal and the environmental world.”
It’s not easy to breathe in outer space. To keep crew members on the International Space Station alive, electrolysis is used to split water from the space shuttle’s fuel cells, astronaut perspiration and urine, into oxygen and hydrogen. The oxygen is then filtered back into the cabin, while the hydrogen is either vented into space or combined with carbon dioxide the crew exhales to make more water.
If only it were so simple on Earth.
Now an acoustics professor emeritus at Aalto University in Finland named Unto Laine has discovered an alternative and unexpected source for the sound. And it has absolutely nothing to do with trees.
After hearing inexplicable snaps of sound during an auroral storm one night back in 1990, he decided to apply his acoustician chops. The faint sounds seemed to correspond with waves of auroral light that were visible that night. Was he hallucinating?
After our separation, it was the first thing I made in my new apartment. I spooned the beans and toppings onto the lettuce and briefly considered giving the whole thing a drizzle of balsamic reduction for show, but I wasn’t trying to impress anyone. The salad was perfect already. It had everything I needed.