Matt Smith

Read the latest articles by Matt Smith at Seeker

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Climate

Earth & Conservation

As climate change’s influence on extreme weather events and deadly wildfire outbreaks becomes increasingly apparent, it’s also forcing farmers to change how they grow the food that destined for your dinner table.

How Climate Change Is Forcing Changes on the Farm

As the effects of climate change become increasingly apparent, improvements in data collection and technology are enabling scientists to be more forward-leaning about the impact it has had on extreme weather.

Extreme Weather’s Link to Climate Change Is Becoming Clearer

Seeker Media

The Swim may be over, but the cause for which Ben Lecomte tried to swim across the Pacific Ocean remains as important as ever.

‘The Swim’ Ends in Hawaii After Spotlighting Ocean Plastic Crisis

Conservation

Scientists who are monitoring the spread of tiny pieces of plastic throughout the environment are getting help from a small army of citizen volunteers — and they’re finding bits of polymer in some of the most remote parts of North America.

Citizen Scientists Are Tracking Plastic Pollution Worldwide

REUTERS/Rodrigo Gutierrez

Health

Take a closer look at the medical news and discoveries impacting our health and wellbeing.

Health News, Headlines and Videos

The flooding that followed Hurricane Florence put a national spotlight on the farms that house millions of hogs in North Carolina and the open-air lagoons of hog waste they produce.

Duke Study Highlights Hog Waste and Health Risks in North Carolina

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If you thought the headlines this week about how we only have until 2030 to avert catastrophic climate change were stark, wait until you read the fine print.

Carbon Capture Is Needed to Avoid Catastrophe, Says Dire Climate Report

The Swim

Seeker/The Swim

Far out in the Pacific Ocean, Ben Lecomte swam past a milestone this week.

Ben Lecomte's Trans-Pacific Swim Breaks the 1,000-Mile Mark

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The West is not only getting hotter, it’s getting less rain — and that’s likely to mean worsening fire seasons for a region that’s already seen a surge in massive blazes in recent years.

Drier Summers Are Stoking Western Wildfires

New Orleans is famous for its music — and infamous for its weather.

Weather Report in F Major: New Orleans Musician Turns Weather Data Into Sound

What if your life wasn’t really your life?

Bad Science: The Fiction and the Reality of The Matrix

Dumped by his girlfriend, behind on his rent, struggling to finish his novel, writer Eddie Morra gets a break in the form of a pill that lets him put more of his brain to work.

Matt Smith’s Recent Articles

How Climate Change Is Forcing Changes on the Farm

Global warming is likely to increasingly disrupt American farming with extreme heat, drought, wildfires, and heavy downpours.

Extreme Weather’s Link to Climate Change Is Becoming Clearer

“The science is advancing fast, and that may surprise a lot of people.”

‘The Swim’ Ends in Hawaii After Spotlighting Ocean Plastic Crisis

After repairing their boat, Ben Lecomte and the crew will return to the Pacific to collect data from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Citizen Scientists Are Tracking Plastic Pollution Worldwide

A nonprofit called Adventure Scientists has put outdoor enthusiasts to work in a global effort to trace plastic pollution.

Duke Study Highlights Hog Waste and Health Risks in North Carolina

A study on the impact of hog farms on local communities was published shortly after Florence flooded lagoons filled with excrement.

Carbon Capture Is Needed to Avoid Catastrophe, Says Dire Climate Report

The IPCC's alarming climate change report says that limiting global warming will require unproven carbon dioxide removal technologies.

Ben Lecomte's Trans-Pacific Swim Breaks the 1,000-Mile Mark

Now 1,000 nautical miles from Japan, Lecomte's swimming campaign across the Pacific for ocean health and conservation is kicking into high gear.

Drier Summers Are Stoking Western Wildfires

As wildfires rage, a US Forest Service study finds fewer incidences of rainfall and less total rainfall in the West.

Weather Report in F Major: New Orleans Musician Turns Weather Data Into Sound

Weather Warlock is the invention of New Orleans musician David Rolston, aka Quintron.

Bad Science: The Fiction and the Reality of The Matrix

Seeker’s Bad Science podcast discusses how the 1999 film predicted today’s debates about AI, neurokinetics, and epistemology.

One Pill Makes You Smarter: The Science Behind Limitless

Seeker’s Bad Science podcast examines the 2011 hit film starring Bradley Cooper.

Bad Science: Gettin’ Pruney With ‘The Abyss'

Seeker’s Bad Science podcast examines James Cameron’s deep-sea classic The Abyss.