by Naila Moreira | Jul 10, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Down to Earth, News
We’re in the middle of a national crisis of public life. The idea that we can make life better by sharing our collective wealth (money and natural resources) and brainpower (science, engineering, literature and the arts) is under threat. In a recent article for Salon,...
by Naila Moreira | Jun 5, 2017 | Articles, Down to Earth
As we struggle with tough questions surrounding science today, we could do worse than look for guidance to the great figures of the past. One such figure, it turns out, belongs to our own Pioneer Valley, and many argue he’s received too little attention: Edward...
by Naila Moreira | May 1, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Down to Earth, News, Newsletter
The very schools we depend on to educate our children could be making them less smart. Drinking water in schools across Massachusetts, including here in the Pioneer Valley, has been found to contain lead significantly exceeding safety standards. Lead exposure,...
by Naila Moreira | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Down to Earth, News, Newsletter
We tell stories to know who we are. Speaking our own stories, we rediscover ourselves. And by hearing and identifying with one another’s journeys, we discover and reach each other, too. My world — my story — is one of science. I birdwatch. I teach students how to...
by Naila Moreira | Feb 6, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Down to Earth, News, Newsletter
Nurturing. It’s so often a feminine term, bringing thoughts of mothers, sisters, daughters; of Gaia, the Mother Earth. For a synonym, my thesaurus gives me “motherly.” It’s a term linked, too, with gentleness and tenderness, which in turn are associated with...