Picking Up the Bones

Moving burial grounds before the sea takes them away is painstaking and expensive. Why do we do it?

Nov 26, 2019 | 5,300 words, about 26 minutes

From Berth to Death

The history of influenza as a global disease is inextricably tied to steamships and the expansion of world trade. A war demonstrated how big a pandemic could get.

Nov 19, 2019 | 4,200 words, about 21 minutes

Nightmares from the Sea

Because cannibalism and monsters make good bedtime stories.

Oct 31, 2019 | 1,600 words, about 8 minutes

The Fight Over a Shitty Rock

A tiny, uninhabitable islet in the North Atlantic has become an unlikely battleground in the fight for fishing rights.

Oct 29, 2019 | 2,200 words, about 11 minutes

The Antique Technology Still Taking the Ocean’s Pulse

The Continuous Plankton Recorder has been measuring the ocean’s plankton (almost) continuously since the 1930s.

Oct 23, 2019 | 1,100 words, about 5 minutes

Deciding the Future of Massachusetts’s Striped Bass

Sportfishing advocates say there’s more money to be made by closing the commercial striped bass fishery.

Oct 17, 2019 | 1,000 words, about 5 minutes

The Tentacled Topper

Not as iconic as a Stetson, this functional fascinator still said a lot about the samurai who once wore it.

Oct 8, 2019 | 750 words, about 3 minutes

Don’t Call Me Lobster

Charmed by the large and delicious lobster-like langoustines found in a Northern Irish market, a writer heads to the source.

Sep 19, 2019 | 1,200 words, about 6 minutes