Latest

cheryl patel

Looking for a Buzz

3 min read
I was covered from head to toe, with every possible opening shut tight by zippers or elastic. This was my first time in a bee suit, and it was making me slightly claustrophobic. Professor John Neeves at UC San Diego had offered to give me a tour of the beehives he keeps in the biological field station on campus. Read More

Reindeer are in Our Hands

2 min read
Reindeer are critically endangered, and I couldn’t believe it when I first read about it in articles. These creatures are also referred to as woodland caribou, but that name probably doesn’t garner the type of nostalgic and mystical image that the general public responds to. Read More

Pack Dynamic

3 min read
About two years ago I worked with National Geographic on a project about the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, and a lot of that work was associated with gray wolves Read More

Welcome to the Polar World

4 min read
There wasn’t any wind whipping around to bite at the exposed skin on my face, but the chill that rose from the packed snow was enough to keep my cheeks and nose red. Patrick and I waited outside the known den of a mother polar bear for about two days. Read More

Stars Wasting Away

4 min read
I had been wading through the surf on the beach at the Scripps Coastal Reserve in La Jolla, California for almost half an hour when I found a cluster of sea stars in a tide pool. Large, smooth rocks slick... Read More