Going Deep

A mile and a half below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, hydrothermal vents — underwater hot springs — are home to some of the world’s most exotic creatures. Too deep to be reached by sunlight, these strange animals thrive on energy from the center of the earth. Biologist Charles Fisher and his students dive in the submersible Alvin to explore hydro-thermal vent sites and the communities that survive there.

“Not By Jobs Alone”

Welfare reform marked a radical change in the American war on poverty. But how has it affected the lives of struggling families? To find out, Linda Burton and a host of her colleagues are conducting “the largest ethnography of its kind ever attempted.”

A Storm Is Born

It’s not Twister. Rather than focusing on full-blown tornadoes, these researchers and their students track the birth of storms that produce lightning, hail, and enough rainfall to cause flash floods. They want to understand how such storms form, particularly weather phenomena at a scale too small to be detected by the National Weather Service.

Love and Money

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