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A sampling of my feature articles  in the view, UVM's online newsmagazine:

It's A Good Way to Row April 29, 2009
Imagine, for a moment, that a space alien lands at the UVM Fitness Center. It's a busy day and the treadmills, elliptical trainers, and exercise bikes are all in use. Looking around, the alien shakes her head and asks: who has enslaved these workers and what are they making in this factory?

Pop Open a Nice Cold Forest April 15, 2009
It's a dappled April afternoon on a hardwood slope in the White Mountains of  New Hampshire. Four  undergraduates huff uphill on aluminum snowshoes, deep in the US Forest Service's Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. They've been working all day through a National Science Foundation grant that supports undergraduates participating in research.

It's the Ecology, Stupid March 25, 2009
The most obvious fact about ecological economics is that, well, ecology comes before economics. "For example," says Joshua Farley, an economist at the University of Vermont, "without healthy ecosystems to regulate climate and rainfall and provide habitat for pollinators, agriculture would collapse." Which makes it tough to sell cars.

New Uses for Old Growth March 16, 2009
Last year, Wired magazine published a brief article that called for cutting the oldest trees, landfilling "the scrap" and replacing old-growth forests with tree farms. That's plain wrong, says Bill Keeton.

Seeking Answers as the Arctic Warms Dec 10, 2008
Across the Arctic, permafrost seems to be getting a lot less permanent. As stretches of once-frozen tundra melt, the underlying soil can collapse, leaving behind a bumpy landscape of hollows, hummocks and sinkholes that scientists call thermokarst.

New York, New York, Big City of Trees Dec 3, 2008

An urban forest might sound as far-fetched as a rural subway. But New York City already has more than five million trees, and these create a canopy that shades 24 percent of the city. While not a moose-filled wilderness, New York’s urban forest exists now: cooling city streets, soaking up rainfall and carbon, reducing pollution that triggers asthma, and making twiggy homes for New Yorkers’ beloved birds.

It's Complex Nov 12, 2008
Peter Dodds is lost. Well, not exactly. He knows he’s going to meet me at 2:30 in the Davis Center. But just where? He doesn’t remember. And yet, without hesitation, he walks into the atrium, past crowds of people, up the sweeping staircase and directly into Henderson’s coffee shop. There I sit, gulping a latte. How did he figure out where to go?

When Good Maples Go Red Oct 15, 2008

On a hushed October morning, when leaves have ripened to the fall, who hasn’t stood under a flaming maple and wondered why it goes red? Though Robert Frost might have imagined something more poetic, tree physiologists will tell you the answer is anthocyanin. This is the pigment that leaves produce in autumn, creating the bright displays of red and purple foliage that draw thousands of wistful tourists (and their wallets) to New England

INTERview: Gro Harlem Brundtland October 8, 2008
In 1981, at age forty-one, Gro Harlem Brundtland, a physician and mother of four, took on a new job: prime minister of Norway. I spoke with Brundtland about climate change and global politics in a post-Bush world.

INTERview: Hans Ohanian Sept 24, 2008

In 2005, scientists and historians around the world wrote papers, shot fireworks, created exhibits, held conferences, and raised a glass — all to praise Albert Einstein. Hans Ohanian, adjunct professor of physics, was among them. He attended lectures, visited new museum displays across Europe, and read a stack of new books — all dedicated to taking the measure of Einstein’s greatness. But Ohanian was struck by a constant omission: no one talked about Einstein’s mistakes.

Members of the Upper Crust Sept 16, 2008

In the high desert of Utah, at a research site about 20 miles outside of Moab, Deborah Neher tries to step on the bushes. She doesn’t want to hurt the soil. Or, rather, what lives on top of the soil. Here, an inch-high layer of lichens, mosses, tiny fungi, cyanobacteria, and microscopic creatures stretches in a bacon-colored carpet between scattered clumps of creosote bush. It’s lumpy, pinnacled, scabrous, pointillistically beautiful, “and darn fragile,” says Neher, chair of UVM’s Department of Plant and Soil Science.

At UVM, Even the Toilet Paper Is Green Sept 16, 2008
UVM announced this week that it has signed a new contract to purchase "green certified" toilet paper and paper towels made from 100% recycled paper, bleached without chlorine, and that meets other stringent environmental standards.

Model Earth July 16, 2008

Human life benefits from models. Take two examples: the weather forecast and the highway map. Both of these models select one slice of the planet’s boggling complexity and use it to allow informed guesses about the future. But what about land use? To what model should a land manager or government scientist turn when trying to weigh the economic value of, say, conserving a forest versus cutting it for a new housing project?

At the Speed of Green May 20, 2008
The bleachers at the New Hampshire International Speedway stood as empty as a Roman ruin. The UVM team sat in the infield eating sandwiches and watching a perky red car from McGill University weave deftly around orange cones. Their own sat motionless in a nearby garage. They had nothing left to do but go home.

Plug, Unplug, Drive Apr 30, 2008
Richard Watts pulls a plug out of a weatherproof socket. He rolls up the green extension cord. Then he yanks the other end out of a socket in the bumper of a car and tosses the cord in the trunk. “It’s all charged,” he says. “Ready to go?”

Just Coffee? Apr 23, 2008

If you bought a cup of coffee at Starbucks between 1999 and 2004, did you notice any wild drops in the price of your Venti latte? Four dollars one week, two dollars the next? Not Likely. Yet, in that same period, coffee prices on the international commodity markets plummeted, throwing thousands of small-scale coffee farmers in Mexico and Central America into poverty. Ernesto Mendez, assistant professor of agroecology and environmental studies, examines the coffee crisis in his new book.

Mountaintop Shakeup Apr 02, 2008
Twenty-six-hundred feet up the side of Camels Hump, maple, birch, and beech trees rise in jagged lines against a canvas of snow. Here, on a strangely warm March morning, Carrie Pucko and Brian Beckage are easy to see, walking on snowshoes between the towering trunks. Then, a moment later, just a few yards upslope, they disappear into a low tangle of evergreen.

Imprints on the Land Mar 05, 2008
An animal track is more than a mark in mud or snow that says a fox or flock of turkeys passed by. It's a lens into a shadowed world of animal intentions. The single strike of claw and toepad can summon a vast ecological narrative for those with skill to read what's there.

Car by the Slice Feb 20, 2008
The transmission on Kate Westdijk’s 1984 sports car just died. That’s promising. At least it’s promising for the volunteers who’d like to recruit her into Green Mountain CarShare, a new non-profit company being launched by UVM graduate student Annie Bourdon.

Neumann’s Own Ice Cores Feb 06, 2008
Position: 76 degrees 4 minutes south, 22 degrees 28 minutes east, 11,768 feet above sea level. Here, about 500 miles inland from the coast of Antarctica, UVM geologist Tom Neumann looks out the window of a 12-foot-long box on skis being pulled by a tractor—and describes what he sees.

INTERview: Samir Doshi and Valerie Esposito Jan 30, 2008
Samir Doshi and Valerie Esposito, doctoral candidates in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, are the lead organizers at UVM for Focus the Nation, a national “teach-in” on global warming solutions that will be held Thursday, Jan. 31 at more than 1,700 universities and other places. They sat down with the view to talk about their work.

ECHO Engineering Nov 28, 2007
Below the main exhibit hall of the ECHO Science Center in downtown Burlington, halfway up the stairs on the mezzanine landing, under the baleful eyes of the long-nosed gar in a nearby fish tank, Kate McKegney tests the torque and shear strength of a wind turbine. She’s five years old. Her test consists of running.

Natural Network Oct 31, 2007
Mercury is a mystery. Or at least it’s a devilishly complex and poorly understood toxic substance that can be found in many forms and in many places. How it moves in a forest canopy, from dry air to leaves and ground — and back — is poorly understood. Which is why I’m standing 72 feet off the ground with Mim Pendleton and Sean Lawson from the Vermont Monitoring Cooperative.

A Warm Slice of Nobel Prize Oct 24, 2007
Surely, the Norwegian Nobel Committee didn’t notify Al Gore by email. But that’s how Jennifer Jenkins, a research assistant professor in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, learned of her share.

Invasion of the Woody Plants Oct 10, 2007
Around 1852, when Senator Justin Morrill started planting the garden for his now-famed homestead in Strafford, Vt., he picked buckthorn to run along the border. Today, buckthorn is achieving a new form of notoriety: as an invasive species, spreading quickly in woodlots and forest edges across Vermont, choking out native plants with a woody thicket.

Humble Bowls Sep 12, 2007
The wood shavings smell like bread dough. They fly off the lathe, covering Ralph Tursini’s arms in pale yellow confetti. Tursini again pushes a long steel chisel into the spinning block of black cherry, inward and down. In response, a circle seems to move outward, like a slow-motion ripple in a pool of wood. He’s turning a humble bowl.

Trustworthy LANDS Aug 28, 2007
In a cornfield by the Winooski River, just south of the Richmond exit on Interstate 89, Jessica DeBiasio ’07 is giving a tour of her backpack. Nine other UVM students sit sweating in the shade, swatting mosquitoes. A wooden sign nearby reads “Rochford-DelBianco Preserve — Richmond Land Trust.”

Water Course Jun 27, 2007
From a canoe in the Winooski River, Paul Bierman, professor of geology, is trying to impress a practical truth upon eight undergraduates paddling nearby. He points up a fifty-foot-high mud-and-rock embankment that rises from the river’s edge. The students — the first participants in a new UVM “watershed field camp” — crane their necks to look at several tidy bungalows perched at the top.

Lost in the Grass? May 23, 2007

For songbirds like savannah sparrows, streaky brown birds with a yellowish eyebrow stripe, and bobolinks, black birds that look like they’re wearing a tuxedo backward and sound like the emphatic beeping of R2D2, the era of intensive hayfield management has created a nest of troubles. But Allan Strong, assistant professor of wildlife biology, is working to slow and reverse the dwindling numbers of these birds.

An Energetic Introduction May 02, 2007
“Energy,” wrote William Blake, “is Eternal Delight.” But trying to catch enough of it to illuminate a flashlight — a flashlight powered by the back-and-forth shuffling of a winter boot — might make a first-year engineering student think otherwise.

Comparing Crags Apr 24, 2007
“New England’s alpine ecosystems are extremely rugged and extremely fragile,” says Rick Paradis, instructor in Comparative Mountain Systems Natural History and Conservation. Paradis brought his students to Mt. Mansfield for one of four field trips that form the heart of the course.

INTERview: Jerome Ringo Mar 27, 2007
Taking up the urgent theme of global warming, UVM's Spring Aiken Lectures, “Global Climate Change—No Time to Waste,” will bring two internationally renowned problem-solvers to campus, Jerome Ringo and Lawrence Susskind.

Farm Fresh Fuel Mar 07, 2007
John Williamson's acreage in Shaftsbury looks like a typical, aging Vermont dairy farm, but his secret is getting out: Williamson has become a farmer with a plan — an oil plan.

Mellow in Europe, Crazy in America Feb 27, 2007
Reed canarygrass is a bit like some people on vacation. At home, they stay on their side of the fence, and speak nicely with the neighbors. But jet them into Las Vegas and, by week’s end, they are shoving other people out of the way in the casino.

Clean Bus, Clean Air Feb 21, 2007
Every 21 minutes, the Redstone Route shuttle bus pulls up in front of Royall Tyler Theatre on its loop around the University of Vermont. Until Feb. 20, students waiting to get on board would have seen a sight familiar around the world – a noisy bus spewing a cloud of diesel smoke out the tailpipe.

Fungal Fighter Jan 30, 2007

For some, a fungus success story means nothing is growing at the back of their refrigerator. But for Scott Costa, research assistant professor of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont, and Stacie Grassano, his graduate student, the vigorous growth in their laboratory of a fungus strain called Lecanicillium muscarium, means a hopeful new chapter in the otherwise bleak tale of the eastern hemlock tree.

Pollution Solutions Dec 06, 2006
From inside Burlington’s water treatment plant, Chinese scientist Yang Bin looks out across Lake Champlain. Behind him, in holding tanks, quiet pools catch the mid-morning sun. Where the rays go down, the water is so clear that the bottom looks magnified and strangely gilded.

Lions and Tigers and ... Mosquitoes? Nov 15, 2006
As natural terrain shrinks, “top predators” like jaguars and mountain lions often are the first to disappear, along with a cascade of other changes flowing through the food web. Rather than studying endangered Siberian tigers for an answer, professor of biology Nicholas Gotelli turned to the northern pitcher plant.

The Holy Grail of Organics Nov 01, 2006

The plum curculio is a nasty weevil: pimply, snout-nosed, hump-backed and loutish. By itself, this pest has been enough to drive many New England apple growers away from trying to grow their fruit organically. Road Scholars Oct 18, 2006 Standing by the edge of Susie Wilson Road in Essex, Anthony Gervais eyes a line of cars at a light as they start to accelerate toward Colchester. Aiming his radar gun carefully at an approaching pick-up truck, Gervais stares with a calculating concentration at the read-out on screen. He’s a freshman at UVM and this is Civil Engineering 003.

INTERview: Adrian Ivakhiv Sep 20, 2006
Adrian Ivakhiv’s research on culture, religion, and environment has taken him around the world — and to public radio for an hour-long interview on ecological impulses in ancient Pagan religions and their growing modern revivals. the view wanted to learn more, to continue the conversation.

Coffee Curriculum Sep 06, 2006
On a table, a tiny forest of waxy green plants is quickly getting snatched up as Horticulture Club members replenish the stock. Mark Starrett, associate professor of plant and soil science, is the force behind the nearly 2,500 coffee plant seedlings, one for every first-year student.

Earth Inc. Aug 29, 2006
The president of Earth Inc. smiles at the assembled board of directors. After two weeks of hard work, the completed business plan, bylaws, and mission statement sit in a stack on the large table. “We have articles of incorporation,” he says. All the vice presidents clap.

Stopping Stormwater Jun 29, 2006
Black-eyed Susan, silver maple, grey birch, Indian grass, speckled alder: these may not seem the typical tools of an engineer. But on an overcast Friday afternoon, Maeve McBride, a doctoral candidate in civil and environmental engineering, puts them to elegant use.

The Textbook is Dead. Long Live the Textbook. Jun 29, 2006
In 1970, let’s say, you were a freshman in college. You wrote your papers on a typewriter after consulting journals in the library, you completed your calculus homework with a slide rule, you called your mother from the payphone in the hall, and your biology textbook was a five-pound, 1000-page encyclopedia.

New Strategies for Systems May 24, 2006
A strange gelatinous blob floats into view on the PowerPoint projector screen. "Of course most of you will recognize this as a picture of slime mold," says Maggie Eppstein, assistant professor of computer science and biology, with a hint of a smile.

Fern Turns May 03, 2006
What’s a species? Open a biology textbook and read: "Species are groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups." Well, that sounds tidy. But, as David Barrington, professor of botany, will tell you, this famous definition has spawned as much controversy as clarity.

Pushing (Recycled) Paper Apr 25, 2006
The 1970’s vision of the “paperless office” now seems as naive as the 1950’s vision of nuclear power “too cheap to meter.” Just check your recycling bin. Office paper seems here to stay — but what kind of paper?

Hitting the Books — er, Brook Apr 14, 2006
Crossing back and forth on logs, about 25 eighth-graders from Edmunds Middle School bash their way up Englesby Brook. “I hope I don’t fall in,” one of them shouts and then prances across the three-foot-wide current on a rickety board.

The Iceman Goeth Mar 29, 2006

The fate of civilization rests on Greenland. This may be an exaggeration, but it is true that the two-mile-high ice sheet sitting atop this desolate country, the world’s largest island, contains about as much water as fills the Gulf of Mexico. It’s enough water to raise sea levels more than 20 feet, obliterating coasts and lowlands where much of our planet’s population lives. That is, if all the ice melts.

A Taste of Technology Mar 08, 2006
Forget about buckets. Most maple syrup is now made with an assortment of machines and tubes so complex that some sugarmakers call their final product “technosyrup.” Tim Perkins, director of UVM’s Proctor Maple Research Center in Underhill Center, will start boiling sap at a new research building to test exactly what effect new technologies have on the chemistry, flavor and quality of maple syrup.

Eggsact Science Feb 21, 2006
NASA used heat shields, a parachute, and rockets to safely land Pathfinder on the rocky surface of Mars. The fire escape outside Williams Hall isn't Mars, but for 200 middle school students trying to safely transport an egg from its fifth-floor landing to the surface of our planet, it was just as daunting.

Secrets of a Pitcher Plant Feb 07, 2006
While its leaves can’t literally chew or speak, 2005-2006 University Scholar Nick Gotelli thinks the carnivorous northern pitcher plant has a lot to tell us, not only about its elegant tricks for capturing and digesting insects, but also about acid rain.

Last modified May 19 2009 04:52 PM