Jake Lucas

Living on Earth: Building Complete Streets

After the Second World War, planners built roads with wide lanes and high speed limits to accommodate trucks carrying goods. But these wide fast roads were unfriendly to pedestrians and cyclists in towns and cities, and as Living on Earth's Jake Lucas reports, cities are redesigning streets with people in mind.

Living on Earth: Science Note: Reducing Bovine Belches and Global Warming Gases

Researchers from Holland and around the world are developing a feed additive that reduces methane emissions from cows. Jake Lucas reports that the additive prevents microbes in bovine gut from making so much of the potent global warming gas.

Living on Earth: Infrared Technology To Cool Buildings

The US Department of Energy estimates that air conditioning consumes nearly fifteen percent of energy used by buildings. Now, as Living on Earth's Jake Lucas reports, a group of Stanford physicists and engineers have developed a technology to keep buildings cooler by reflecting sunlight as infrared radiation out into the coldness of space from the building's roof.

A Lowell Guidance Counselor Who Survived A Genocide

Seng Ty is a popular guy among students at Stoklosa Middle School in Lowell, where he's a guidance counselor. But it wasn't until they read his memoir that they understood all he had been through.

Could Car Sharing Help Ease Boston's Parking Woes?

We take on Boston's parking troubles and discuss possible solutions, including a proposal from the mayor's office to sell public parking spaces to car-share services.

CommonHealth: Nearly 100-Year-Old Vaccine Could Help Type 1 Diabetics

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital are launching a big clinical trial that could open the door to a new treatment for Type 1 diabetes using a century-old vaccine.

Living on Earth: A Man, His Clarinet and Nature's Singers

David Rothenberg teaches music and philosophy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. And he takes his clarinet, and plays along to and with birds, bugs and whales. He talks with Steve Curwood about his music, why creatures sing, and the rare moments of interspecies harmony he's enjoyed.

Living on Earth: Omaha, Nebraska

In his essay for Orion Magazine, Patrick Mainelli, a writer and community college professor in Nebraska, describes his morning commute through the wilds of urban Omaha.