Category: Richard Primack
Climate change affects the flight period of butterflies in Massachusetts
PhysOrg
Richard Primack, College of Arts & Sciences
In a new study, Boston University researchers and collaborators have found that butterflies show signs of being affected by climate change in a way similar to plants and bees, but not birds, in the Northeast United States…
Expert quote:
“Butterflies are very responsive to temperature in a way comparable to flowering time, leafing out time, and bee flight times. However, bird arrival times in the spring are much less responsive to temperature.”
An early sign of spring, earlier than ever
Space Daily
Richard Primack, College of Arts & Sciences
Record warm temperatures in 2010 and 2012 resulted in the earliest spring flowering in the eastern United States in more than 150 years, researchers at Harvard University, Boston University and the University of Wisconsin have found…
Understanding Climate Change, With Help From Thoreau
NPR “All Things Considered”
Richard Primack, College of Arts & Sciences
Modern scientists trying to understand climate change are engaged in an unlikely collaboration — with two beloved but long-dead nature writers: Henry David Thoreau and Aldo Leopold…
Heat brings earliest spring blooms on record
EarthSky
Richard Primack, College of Arts & Sciences
Unusually warm spring weather in 2010 and 2012 resulted in the earliest blooms on record in two US locations, a new study finds…
Praising Thoreau as early ecologist
Boston Globe
Richard Primack, College of Arts & Sciences
Henry David Thoreau may be best known as a philosopher, writer, and Transcendentalist, but the Thoreau Society’s Annual Gathering, which begins Thursday in Concord, exactly 195 years after his birth, will focus on his role as ecologist…
In remote China, plant hunters seek clues to climate change
Christian Science Monitor
Richard Primack, College of Arts & Sciences
Most Mandarin syllables have multiple meanings, so whenever the American ecologist Robbie Hart greets strangers in China, he explains the meaning behind Du, his Chinese name…
Ask The Professor — Pollen
WGBH-FM “The Emily Rooney Show”
Richard Primack, College of Arts & Sciences
It’s more information about pollen than you can shake an antihistamine at!…
Early Bloomers
New York Times
Co-written by Richard Primack, College of Arts & Sciences
The naturalist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau coined a wonderful word for an imagined instrument in his 1854 book, “Walden”: the “realometer.”…
Where Are Henry David Thoreau’s Plants Now?
Popular Science
Richard Primack, College of Arts & Sciences
In science as in anything else, history and tradition can be powerful teachers…
