The new UST Vegetable Drop-Off Program needs your help
Some of the produce donated from the UST Stewardship Garden in 2012 Food insecurity is when consistent access to adequate, nutritious food is limited by lack of money or other resources. Nearly 15...
View ArticleSnack Patches: A free source of healthy foods for the UST community
Imagine it’s lunch time, and you’re staring at the food you brought from home. Maybe you have a cheese sandwich, or some leftovers, or some microwaveable meal. It’s all so uninspiring. You wonder how...
View ArticleNew video features UST Environmental Science students tracking nutrient...
Lauren Reuss and Chip Small record measurements of Lake Superior water near Duluth’s aerial lift bridge. What kinds of research opportunities does the University of St. Thomas offer for Environmental...
View ArticleAquaponics research update
Reblogged from Biophilia: Several exciting developments to report in our aquaponics research. First, Isaac Bergstrom presented a poster at the Ecological Society of America meeting on the research we...
View ArticleBiology and Dance: “The Red Queen”
Back in April, I wrote a post about the project that my Urban Ecosystem Ecology course was working on in collaboration with a videography class and an environmental studies class at St. Thomas, a dance...
View ArticleCritical Science
One interesting aspect of the government shutdown is that it allows us to see how our elected officials prioritize different functions of government. This is playing out today as Republican House...
View ArticleAre we in for a hard landing? Professor Tom Hickson thinks so.
Dr. Tom Hickson, of the UST Geology Department, sent me the following post last week, just as the government shutdown ended. -cs Maybe a soft landing is too much to ask for? Source: Wikimedia Commons....
View ArticleOn not seeing the forest for the trees (or the watershed for the lake)
One lesson I try to get across to my students is the importance of thinking about environmental problems from a holistic perspective. Otherwise, focusing only on one part of a problem can...
View ArticleRefuge in a Cloud Forest?
Reblogged from Biophilia: by Kate Hanson with help from Biol 211 coursemates Our course – BIOL 211: Introduction to Field Ecology – is visiting 4 sites in Costa Rica this January. Our group’s first...
View ArticleScientists stepping out of the ivory tower
This week I read a pair of remarkable articles on scientists who have stood up against industry. The first piece, in the Feb. 10 edition of The New Yorker, profiles UC-Berkeley toxicologist Tyrone...
View ArticleAquaponics Update
As winter continues its grip on Minnesota, a tropical river ecosystem is thriving inside the OWS greenhouse. We started last spring with a small-scale experiment, asking how efficiently we could turn...
View ArticleMasdar City: Oasis of Sustainability, or Just a Mirage?
Can a city be truly sustainable? In a 2012 paper, ecologist Robbie Burger argues that even Portland, Oregon, widely considered to be the “greenest” city in the United States, falls far short of true...
View ArticleThe End of Growth? Perspectives from an Aquinas Honors seminar
“Questioning (economic) growth is deemed to be the act of lunatics, idealists, or revolutionaries. But question it we must. The idea of a non-growing economy may be an anathema to an economist. But the...
View ArticleUST Environmental Science students in national sustainability competition
The blog has been on hiatus for a while, partly because we’ve had so many exciting things going on. One of our current projects involves investigating the feasibility of using hydroponic gardens to...
View ArticleWhen form beats function: Plant-scrapers and indoor growing
This entry is from Kristen Bastug, a senior Biology major at the University of St. Thomas. The global agriculture system has benefited from technological advances, and scientists and farmers continue...
View ArticleCooling with Food
This entry is from Ryan Merry, a senior Biology and Environmental Science major at the University of St. Thomas. When the weather is scorching hot, which is occurring more frequently due to global...
View ArticleThe Compost Cure: a widely applicable and cost effective soil remediation...
This post is by Brendan Sisombath, a senior Biology major at the University of St. Thomas. Developing soil remediation strategies is becoming an important undertaking in urban environments. Many urban...
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