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Reaching net zero: A challenging but necessary journey

Boston Globe’s Studio B for Phillip Morris International, November 4 2022.

For decades warnings about climate change have said that humans need to lower how much carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere. Now, the goal is net zero.

The idea of net zero is to limit how much the Earth warms to under 2 degrees Celsius. If this isn’t achieved, Earth’s systems may be disrupted to the point that the effects of climate change would be beyond control. 

To meet this goal, net zero emissions needs to be achieved by the middle of the century, according to Ed Rubin, professor emeritus of environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. “That doesn’t mean that we have to stop making carbon dioxide and turn everything off. But if we continue to emit carbon dioxide, we have to identify ways of taking it out of the air.” Read More >

Posted by Jennifer Welsh in 2022, Boston Globe's Studio B, Branded Content, Climate & Environment, Feature, Technology & AI

Reading Genomes: The Key to Life and to Thwarting Death

Simons Foundation, September 30, 2021.

In a hospital in Wuhan, China, a 41-year-old man struggles to breathe. He came in on December 26, 2019, with a fever and flu-like symptoms, but doctors can’t figure out what’s ailing him. Several other people at his workplace, an indoor seafood market, are also sick.

His doctors run tests for influenza and other infections, but the results come back negative. Next, they collect a sample from his lungs by flooding his airway with a sterile saline solution, then suctioning out the fluid. Read More >

Posted by Jennifer Welsh in 2021, Biology & Genetics, Branded Content, Feature, Simons Foundation