Search

This year's annual meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology is in Bras©lia, the capital of Brazil that was designed, in 1960, to be a futuristic dream city. From 15 to 19 July, against a backdrop of innovative architecture and high-tech recycling bins, scientists are gathering to discuss the Earth's ecosystems and the various ways we humans are disturbing them. Washington correspondent Emma Marris packs her sunblock and jets down south to catch the sizzling science behind saving the planet.

Samuel Wasser is a conservation biologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, and an outspoken opponent of elephant poaching. He talks to Emma Marris about his genetic methods for tracing poached ivory.

What's a company to do when it needs faster, cheaper new drugs and chemists are hard to find? Look for a source of bright graduates with low living costs, where legal changes have pushed firms to seek work, and you're there, says Emma Marris.

A forthcoming case in the Supreme Court could push the United States towards regulating against global warming, says Emma Marris.

Emma Marris writes back from Saint Louis, where thousands of scientists and policy experts are meeting to swap news in all areas of research, from climate change to bioterrorism. The American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting runs from 16-20 February.

Unapproved food additive could make baked goods safer.

The American Chemical Society is the world's largest scientific society, and its meetings are just as massive. This week, 17,000 chemists have converged in palm-tree-studded San Diego, California. Emma Marris braves the crowd to dish the dirt on all things chemical.

A mock tsunami this week let Pacific countries put their emergency warning systems to the test. Emma Marris talks to Brian Yanagi, who helped to develop and monitor the test, to find out how it went.

Current medications used to treat drug addiction help to some extent by easing withdrawal symptoms, but these treatments cannot curb the high that people receive when they relapse and take a hit of the drug. Emma Marris explores how researchers are working on a way to make these tempting drug highs history for recovering addicts.

Bethan Morgan is on a mission to educate African bushmeat hunters about the endangered wildlife they kill. Emma Marris talks to her about the work.

Elephant populations are soaring in some parts of Africa. Emma Marris discovers there's no single way to fit them in amid the people.

Emma Marris finds out how two South Africans in the field are convincing business and government to value biodiversity.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, coastal experts are trying to gauge the destruction to Louisiana's marshes. Emma Marris travels to the coast to learn what might be saved — and what might not.

Scientists say they gas mice and rats with carbon dioxide because it is humane. It's also simple, cheap and keeps their hands clean. Emma Marris analyses the final seconds of the lab rodents' life.

St Louis wants to become a hub of agricultural biotechnology. All it needs, says Emma Marris, is more start-ups and funds.

Governments, universities and journals all have roles to play in dealing with fraud, says Emma Marris.

Rising temperatures are changing mountain ecosystems as the heat forces some species upwards — until there is nowhere left to go. Emma Marris reports on the 'escalator effect', which is threatening species worldwide.

The US military is getting a lot of flak for the way it treats wounded soldiers returning from Iraq. Emma Marris reports on the advances in medical care that are helping to bring them home.

Emma Marris is gripped by an account of our love-hate relationship with extinct megafauna.

Emma Marris relishes a joyous vision of planetary stewardship over the long haul.

T. C. Boyle's latest novel probes the convoluted impacts of species eradication programmes, finds Emma Marris.

Emma Marris applauds a clear-eyed look at our coy relationship with endangered animals.

As spokesman for America's scientific élite, Ralph Cicerone will have to do some tough talking in Washington. Emma Marris asks him how he'll ensure that politicians will listen to the science.

Rare species and ecosystem services make uneasy bedfellows, discovers Emma Marris.

Emma Marris reflects on a classic children's fable that still has lessons for environmental policy 40 years on.

Zoo enclosure looks like a ministry of silly walks.

The US government has adopted a tough approach to battling harmful exotic plants: specialist strike teams. But can they prevail? Emma Marris finds out it's not all black and white.

While conservation biologists debate whether to move organisms threatened by the warming climate, one forester in British Columbia is already doing it. Emma Marris reports.

Illegally hunted animals turn up in markets from New York to London.

Bacteria could be put to use to make environmentally-friendly fuels.

Why do chemists make compounds that could blow up in their faces? Emma Marris finds out... from a safe distance.

A venerable conservation organization predicts how climate change will affect individual species. Will conservationists take pre-emptive action? Emma Marris reports.

Global map charts locations that use more water than is available in at least one month each year.

Experts who once disregarded it as a nutty idea are now working out the nuts and bolts of a conservation taboo: relocating species threatened by climate change. Emma Marris reports.

States and the Environmental Protection Agency argue over regulation of emissions.

Emma Marris is intrigued by an optimistic vision of high–rise farms.

In a world of declining biodiversity, botanical gardens are coming into their own — both as storehouses of rare plants and skills, and increasingly as centres of molecular research. Emma Marris reports.

Editors don't expect peer review to catch deliberate fakers. But recent scandals mean that journals are looking at other ways to detect fabricated papers. Emma Marris investigates.

Nature catches up with some past fraud investigations — and finds that, whether researchers are found to be guilty or innocent, the wounds are slow to heal.

What drives environmental activists to fire-bomb laboratories? Emma Marris investigates a radical fringe of the US green movement.

A small group of ecologists is looking beyond the pristine to study the scrubby, feral and untended. Emma Marris learns to appreciate 'novel ecosystems'.

Many scientists have nuanced views on animal research. But they are rarely heard, says Emma Marris.

Gretchen Daily knows the value of ecosystems — but can ascribing financial worth to them help to maintain biodiversity? Emma Marris meets an ecosystem-services evangelist.

The friction that arises when a scientific society aims both to serve its members and stay commercially competitive is generating heat within the American Chemical Society. Emma Marris takes the society's temperature.

Białowieża is one of the best-preserved woodlands in Europe. But is it a good reference point for what Europe looked like 5,000 years ago? Emma Marris goes deep into the forest to find out.

Everyone knows about the Amazon rainforest, but Brazil's tropical savannah is arguably under greater threat. Emma Marris visits a testing ground for future conservation strategies.

Marine biologists are developing an appreciation for conservation, a change that is creating new jobs. Emma Marris reports.