Environment

Unlock the secrets of Seattle's mysterious seed vault: Travel For Good

Seattle is home to the largest seed collection in the Pacific Northwest. It’s called the Miller Seed Vault, and it’s tucked away in a small building, surrounded by public gardens, on the edge of University of Washington campus.

TED Radio Hour

Ermias Kebreab: What do seaweed and cow burps have to do with climate change?

Each year, one cow can belch 220 pounds of the greenhouse gas methane. Animal scientist Ermias Kebreab experimented with alternative cow diets and found a surprising solution: seaweed.

TED Radio Hour

Andrew Dent: How everyday materials can make innovative new products

Materials scientist Andrew Dent takes us on a tour of the "materials library" where companies can find existing materials to reuse in their products—from chewing gum, to fish scales, to cow manure.

TED Radio Hour

Gay Gordon-Byrne: Why do big manufacturers prevent you from repairing your own stuff?

Manufacturers intentionally make their products hard to fix. Right-to-repair advocate Gay Gordon-Byrne fights for laws to stop companies from monopolizing repairs and let people fix their own stuff.

Soundside

Puget Sound is full of old tires... on purpose?

Decades ago, states began putting bundles of tires on the sea floor as "artificial reefs." Their aim was to build new habitats for local marine life. Today, researchers have found those tires are toxic. So who's job is it to pull these tens of thousands of tires back up?

KUOW Newsroom

How bad is our spring weather this year? Pretty miserable, but not like 1955

‘If you go back further in time, to the 1950s and 1960s, cold springs were much more common.’

KUOW Newsroom

How to search for a real-life Pikachu while hiking: Travel For Good

For the last few years scientists have encouraged people in Washington state to document pika encounters.

KUOW Newsroom

This Skagit County park was almost a nuclear power plant. A tribe helped save it: Travel For Good

At different points in its history, the Kukutali Preserve was slated to become a summer resort and even a nuclear power plant. But those plans didn’t come to pass. Instead, a unique partnership between the Swinomish Tribe and state government now safeguards the area for conservation and public use. It opened to visitors as one of the state’s newest parks in 2014.