Boston University

Environment & Ecology

Photo: A large group of people sit watching an individual giving a research presentation in a bright modern space

Inauguration 2024

Inauguration 2024 Research on Tap Celebrates BU’s Power to Bring Scholars Together to Better Our World

September 25, 2024

Fall foliage at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA. Photo via Unsplash/ana_essentiels

Fall

Boston’s Rain-Free Month May Mean Fall Foliage Will Come Early This Year

September 18, 2024

Photo: A picture of many polymetallic nodules, bumpy rocks, on the ocean floor

Marine Science

Oxygen Produced in the Deep Sea Raises Questions about Extraterrestrial Life

August 15, 2024

Photo: A picture of a woman with curly brown hair wearing a blue sweater and floral shirt smiling and posing in front of the Boston harbor.

Boston History

What the History of Boston’s Harbor Can Teach Us about Its Uncertain Future

July 29, 2024

Archaeology

Secrets of Ancient Egyptian Nile Valley Settlements Found in Forgotten Treasure

April 16, 2024

Photo: A clownfish hiding beneath a sea anemone

Clownfish

Clownfish: Studying their Complex Lives and Anemone Homes

February 9, 2024

Photo: Trees and mist in the green forest of Stanislaus National Forest from Yosemite National Park. A large green forest full of lush pine trees are shown. they look scenic with the rising sun. A hazy blue, green, and black static overlay is stylized at the bottom of the image.

Expert Take

US Forest Service’s Dangerous Carbon Disposal Plan Would Foul Our National Forests

December 7, 2023

Photo: Zoomed in shot shows a small, baby gray squirrel being held and fed milk with a small eye dropper.

Wildlife

New Study Identifies the Greatest Threat to Wildlife across North America and Canada: People

November 21, 2023

Photo: A woman with glasses and a polkadot blouse and red skirt poses for a picture in front of a stone building on a sunny day

MacArthur Fellowship

BU Ecologist Lucy Hutyra Wins a 2023 MacArthur “Genius Grant”

October 4, 2023

Photo: Group photo of Assistant Professor of Biology, Sarah Davies (center) and PhD student, Maria Valadex Ingersoll (CAS 23) and Dr Hannah Aichelman (right) (CAS 23). The three women pose in a lab as Davies holds up a sample of bleached coral and another sample of algae rests on the lab tables in front of Ingersoll.

Coral Reefs

For Coral Reefs, Temperature Is Everything—Is It Too Late to Save Them?

September 26, 2023

Photo: A large brown mushroom is shown at the trunk of a tree at the edge of a sidewalk next to a quiet street.

Forest Edges

Cutting Up Forests Disrupts an Essential Bond between Trees and Fungi

September 12, 2023

Photo: STH professor Rebecca Copeland poses for a photo on a bright green lawn. A white woman wearing glasses, a white blouse, black cardigan, and long beaded necklace, stands with hands placed in front of her. Foreground leaves frame her and an old church-like building is shown in the blurred background.

Climate Change

What Can the Bible Teach Us about Fighting Climate Change?

August 15, 2023

Photo: Pedestrians pass the One World Trade Center, center, amidst a smokey haze from wildfires in Canada. Scene is tinted a sepia-orange as masked pedestrians walk in and around the city.

Wildfires

The Impact of Wildfires on Climate Change and Air Quality

June 8, 2023

Photo: Isabel Novick, a white woman with wavy brown hair and wearing a cream long sleeved blouse smiles as she peers out from the other side of a clothes rack. She pushes aside a set of clothes and poses from in between them.

Ecology

Elevating the Clothes-Eating Moth from Pest to Evolutionary Marvel

May 3, 2023

Photo: Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall volcano erupts in the background as Peter Schroedl, a person wearing black clothes, a face mask, orange neon vest collects specimens from volcanic rocks in the foreground.

Microbes

What Microbes Can Tell Us about Life on Earth and in Space

April 24, 2023

Photo: To the far left, Andrew Reid Bell, a white man wearing a green cap, looks on as a small group of dark-skinned Black women and men look to tablets on a multi-colored, checkered long table. They are in a small wooden dwelling with an open doorway and cross-patterned open windows letting light in.

Conservation

How Do We Make Farming Better for the Planet? Ask Women

March 16, 2023

From left, Oliver McRae, Lena Dubitsky and James "Jacy" Bird, an ENG associate professor have been studying what bubbles can teach us about how microplastics, viruses, and bacteria aerosolize. Bird just put out a paper on his findings. The team worked in the lab, Wednesday, February 15, 2023. Photo by Jake Belcher. Three people stand in a lab setting with highspeed cameras and other technical equipment setup nearby.

Bubbles

New Bubble Popping Theory Could Help Track Ocean Pollution and Viruses

March 9, 2023

Photo: The Tobin Bridge is shown over the Mystic River in Massachusetts. A large, cantilever truss bridge is shown over a slightly foggy body of water with a small line of boats docked underneath. The city of Boston can be seen in the distant skyline.

Climate Resilience

Climate Change Is Threatening the Mystic River Watershed—Can It Be Saved?

March 7, 2023

Photo: Zoomed in macro shot of brown ants on a green leaf in front of a bright white background.

Ants

BU’s “Ant Man” Studies Ant Brains

February 16, 2023

Collage: (From left to right, top down) Photo: Bruce Willis at a speaking engagement wearing a blue collared shirt with a white undershirt, Photo of BU Medical student, Molly Jia Yong Zhao gives a flu shot to a patient during a clinic on September 29, 2020, vector illustration of a brain pixelating and dissolving from left to right, and Photo of Clinical Assistant Professor in Health Science, Hagere Yilma, posing for a photo. A Black woman with shoulder-length black hair styled in a twist-out hairstyle wearing a black, tunic-style blouse stands in front of a brick wall and smiles to the camera.

2022 in Review

Best of The Brink 2022: BU’s Most-Read Science and Research Stories

December 13, 2022

Best of The Brink 2022: BU’s Most-Read Science and Research Stories