Skip to main content
Nuking Hurricanes Out of the Sky ‘Doesn’t Make Sense at All’
Top of Page

In the News

Mar 26, 2025

North Carolina’s Cape Fear River Is a ‘Forever Chemical’ Hotspot — What Does That Mean for Its Birds and People?

Audubon
Scott Belcher, an environmental toxicologist at North Carolina State University, tested alligators in the Cape Fear River after noticing they had lingering open wounds, a surprising sight for the quick-healing species.

Mar 17, 2025

Dinosaur Egg Study Reveals New Species Diversity in Utah’s Cedar Mountain Formation

Lake County Gazette
Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Josh Hedge recently published an article on fossil eggshell diversity of the Mussentuchit Member in the scientific journal PLOS One. Hedge collaborated with researchers from North Carolina State University, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Stellenbosch University in South Africa and the University of Minnesota.

Mar 12, 2025

Sex Determination: Its in the Genes — Sometimes

The Scientist
We know the ‘why’ of sex change pretty well. The ‘how’ we know a lot less well … Exactly how they transduce a social cue into a change in the gonads remains somewhat mysterious.” —John Godwin, North Carolina State University

Mar 7, 2025

Bill Pushing ‘Sound Science’ Would Impact Future Regulations on ‘Forever Chemicals’

Chattanooga Times-Free Press
PFAS and their effects on human health have been studied in labs for more than two decades, said Suzanne Fenton, a professor of biological sciences and director of the Center for Human Health and the Environment at North Carolina State University.

Mar 7, 2025

Tennessee Bill Could Limit State Regulation of PFAS and Other Chemicals

Environmental Health News
“Today, all kids are born with some PFAS in their bodies, and that wasn’t the case 20 years ago.” — Suzanne Fenton, director of the Center for Human Health and the Environment at North Carolina State University.

Mar 4, 2025

AI Versus the Brain and the Race for General Intelligence

ARS Technica
“I think that’s a big distinction, this idea of generalizability,” echoed neuroscientist Christa Baker of NC State University. “You can learn how to analyze logic in one sphere, but if you come to a new circumstance, it’s not like now you’re an idiot.”

Jan 23, 2025

A Praying Mantis, Beetles and Other Insects Take Off in Slow Motion

The Kid Should See This
The insects are temporarily captured and filmed by research biologist Adrian Smith, head of the Evolutionary Biology and Behavior Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and an assistant research professor at NC State.

Aug 27, 2019

Nuking Hurricanes Out of the Sky ‘Doesn’t Make Sense at All’

Popular Science
Since the dawn of nuclear explosives, citizens and scientists alike have speculated that the government might be able to repurpose weapons of war as weapons of weather. Most recently, President Donald Trump asked why we couldn’t just nuke hurricanes out of the sky. Meteorologists are wincing at the reappearance of this all-too-familiar myth. “It is a spectacularly bad idea,” says Gary Lackmann, a meteorologist and professor at North Carolina State University’s department of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences.