April 21, 2026

Digging for clues about the North Pole’s past

In the past, even with an icebreaker and during peak melt season, getting to the North Pole wasn’t a sure bet. It took favorable winds to crack the frozen ocean surface, and ships had to fight through ice that had grown many meters thick over several winters. In the summer of 2025, though, Jochen Knies…

The Download: CRISPR’s climate promises, and protecting forests with tech

November 4, 2024
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. How a breakthrough gene-editing tool will help the world cope with climate change Jennifer Doudna, one of the inventors of the breakthrough gene-editing tool CRISPR, says the technology will help the world grapple…

How a breakthrough gene-editing tool will help the world cope with climate change

November 2, 2024
Jennifer Doudna, one of the inventors of the breakthrough gene-editing tool CRISPR, says the technology will help the world grapple with the growing risks of climate change by delivering crops and animals better suited to hotter, drier, wetter, or weirder conditions. “The potential is huge,” says Doudna, who shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry…