Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies, 2015. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Flippers first, I splash into the year 2100. Graduate student Hannah Barkley and I are swimming in Nikko Bay, among the Rock Islands of Palau. Here the warm blue-green water resembles naturally what the tropical Pacific will be like by the end of the century, as carbon emissions take an ever-greater toll on the seas. It should be a window into a dire, climate-change future. But things here look fine. In Palau's Nikko Bay and a few other acidified Rock Island sites, life appears to be shrugging off a sneak preview of the coral-reef apocalypse. Now Barkley, her boss Cohen, and the rest of the team are trying to answer a few pressing questions. Are the corals really okay? And if so, how? Moreover, what does that mean? / by Joshua Sokol. / S.M.

Thesis: S.M. in Comparative Media Studies, Writing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Humanities, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (page 22 ). / People have taken delight in nature throughout human history, but more recently the work of the natural historian has become more like that of the scientist. Using methods and tools of science, today's naturalists can record nature with precision-and through this, learn more about it. Ecologists now pay heed to the often-forgotten sense of hearing. The Tropical Ecology Lab at University of Puerto Rico, San Piedras, blurs the lines between natural history and science. An array of remote microphones collects sounds from the forests and wetlands, and researchers use computers to analyze the soundscapes themselves. / by Abigail Stokes Nighthill. / S.M. in Comparative Media Studies, Writing

Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2013. / "September 2013." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 23-43). / For centuries, humans killed the grey wolf (canis lupis) out of fear and misunderstanding. By the 1950s, the species had been hunted to brink of extinction within the continental United States save for a small remainder in Minnesota's heavily forested northern wilderness. Environmental studies in the 1960s demonstrated that wolves were valuable to local ecosystems, leading to a scientific and cultural reassessment. In 1974, the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) shielded wolves from further slaughter, allowing the species to rebound and spread across the Great Lakes region. The decision to protect wolves bred resentment amongst some farmers who complained that the predators were a threat to their livelihoods. In late 2011, the government removed the grey wolf from the ESA, citing its full recovery. Just days later in January 2012, Minnesota and Wisconsin both authorized public wolf hunts to bring their respective populations back down to manageable levels. Game officials maintained that these "harvests" - the first in each state's history - were a necessary step for effective wolf management. Critics, however, protested that killing a recently threatened species in such fashion might jeopardize its long-term survival. Wolves invoke passionate sentiments that obscure rational discussion; objective analysis does not always prevail. In Minnesota, there was valid evidence for a cull. With 3,000 wolves in the forest and advanced monitoring technology available to researchers, reducing that number by 400 wolves was a calculated risk worth taking. This fact did not, however, deter conservation groups and advocacy organizations from mounting a concerted protest over the summer of 2012. In Wisconsin, the rationale for a hunt was thinner. Politicians insisted upon aggressive measures that many scientists felt would pose a legitimate danger to the Badger State's fragile contingent of 800 wolves. Input from the state's leading biologists was largely ignored during the legislative process. This is a tale of two ostensibly similar, yet ultimately divergent, wolf hunts: one that took science into account and one that shoved it aside. Both carry equally important implications for the future of grey wolf management in the Midwest. / by Trent Knoss. / S.M.in Science Writing

Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 26-33). / This is the story of an invasive species and one man's quest to eradicate it. The Nile monitor lizard (Varanus niloticus), smaller cousin of the famed Komodo dragon, grows into six feet of carnivorous, ill-tempered muscle. The animal's size and aggression make it a poor candidate for the exotic pet trade, but the species nevertheless obtained popularity in the 1990s. Two decades later, the descendants of released Nile monitors are breeding in the coastal town of Cape Coral, Florida, where the lizards benefit from extensive drainage canals and a buffet of native wildlife-and they're spreading. Herpetologist Todd Campbell has devoted more than a decade of his research to these reptiles, attempting to understand how they got here, how their invasion is wreaking havoc on native ecosystems, and most of all, how to eliminate them for good. The challenges he's faced along the way echo the wider concerns of fighting invasive species, which represent one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity and ecosystems but are poorly studied and rarely prioritized. This thesis follows the trajectory of the Nile monitor from its native Africa to southern Florida, exploring what it is about this lizard's natural history, ecology, and allure to reptile enthusiasts that has made it a charismatic symbol of the perils of biological invasion. / by Erin Maureen Weeks. / S.M.in Science Writing

Thesis: S.M. in Comparative Media Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Humanities, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 294-300). / As American professional journalism with its established rules and values transitions to the little-regulated, ever-evolving world of digital news, few of its practitioners, contributors and consumers are giving thought to the moral and intellectual implications that this transition entails. While technologists and innovators have embraced this passage into a hybrid model of skilled and citizen-generated news production, even spearheading its new practices at times, this transition is taking place in a moral and regulatory void: without a strong legislative foundation for cyberspace and revised ethical rules for the journalism profession online, media professionals and independent news producers lack guidance and tools to respond appropriately to new ethical issues not covered by current laws and ethical codes. Some of the key questions facing the profession are: should online journalism and all new forms of news media production be regulated, and if so, to what extent and by whom? What constitutes ethical collaboration? How does current regulation operate? Should or could it be extended to the digital domain? In this thesis I argue that professional and amateur news publishing on the Internet and other digital formats have created new social issues, ethical dilemmas and unanticipated situations for journalists, which are specific to digital media and unaddressed by current laws, standards, and codes of ethics. Following an analysis of these issues and the deficiencies of current ethics codes, using a real-life case study and comments from working journalists on their new professional needs, I then propose my vision for online news media production, arguing for an open-source, participatory model supported by a solid, individual ethical foundation and a revised relationship with sources. The thesis culminates with my proposed code of ethics for collaborative journalism in the digital age, the Open Park Code of Ethics and the Global Media Ethics Forum. Initially conceived as a news-reporting and educational tool for the Open Park project of The MIT Center for Future Civic Media, the OP Code reflects the principles and guidelines of my open-source model and is readily usable and adaptable to the needs of varied news media communities and individual producers. / by Florence H. J. T. Gallez. / S.M. in Comparative Media Studies

Thesis: S.M. in Science Writing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, 2020 / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 14-15). / The discovery of extraterrestrial (ET) life would be a revelation of scientific and cultural magnitude that rivals Darwin's theory of evolution and Copernicus's hypothesis that the Earth revolves around the Sun. But while conjecture about the existence of ET life predates industrialism, it is only within the past century or so that technology has developed to the point where humans can add empirical observations to centuries of wondering. With rapid advancements in biological, chemical, and technological science, discovering ET life could be within reach. However, investigations of other planetary environments are still on the edge of technological capability and researchers may need to rely on indirect signs of life to make a detection. These signs may be difficult to interpret. This thesis surveys some of the main techniques and technologies that researchers currently use or are developing to search for alien life. It also teases out some limitations and ambiguity inherent in contemporary data interpretation. / by Kate S. Petersen. / S.M. in Science Writing / S.M.inScienceWriting Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing

Thesis: S.M. in Science Writing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, 2020 / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 15-17). / When a single remaining population of black-footed ferrets was discovered in Meeteetse, Wyoming in 1981, scientists had one last chance to save North America's only native ferret from extinction. Though the discovered population numbered over 100 individuals when it was found, ferrets began to die at an alarming rate just a few years after the rediscovery of the species. With their options running out, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service made the drastic choice of pulling every single surviving ferret into captivity. Thanks to decades of captive breeding and release efforts involving hundreds of people, there are now a few hundred black-footed ferrets back in the wild today. The black-footed ferret recovery effort has yet to overcome its greatest challenge, however: plague. Keeping ferrets alive in the wild is time consuming and cost intensive. Every wild ferret needs to be rounded up and vaccinated, and insecticides are sprayed over hundreds of thousands of acres each year to stave off the looming threat of a plague outbreak. To make matters worse, ferrets are becoming more inbred each year, making them even more susceptible to disease. Recently the black-footed ferret recovery effort has turned to cutting-edge genetic technologies to introduce more diversity into the ferret line, and, eventually, resistance to the plague. Some researchers think that such drastic measures might now be the only way for black-footed ferrets to ever have a hope of surviving on their own in the wild again. / by Rachel Fritts. / S.M. in Science Writing / S.M.inScienceWriting Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing

Thesis: S.M. in Science Writing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, 2020 / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 13-15). / Health foe. Confidence booster. Female oppressor. No other shoe style has taken on as many roles as the high heel or had those roles as passionately debated. Throughout their long history in Western fashion, high heels have changed shape and had new ideas about femininity, performance and compliance heaped on them Warnings about the health dangers of chronic high heel use also have a long history, with medical professionals counselling against them for almost 300 years. Still high heels have remained a staple of womenswear, always returning after brief sojourns out of style. This thesis unpack s the high heel, first looking at the effects of high heel use on the body before turning to the history of the high heel and discussing the reasons why countless w omen have endured a shoe that is by design uncomfortable. Then we look at attempts to reengineer high heels so that they are more comfortable for wearers and discuss the future of high heels in the footwear landscape. The thesis concludes with a discussion of how attempting to fathom the long narrative of high heels can change your relationship with the object. / by Fernanda de Araújo Ferreira. / S.M. in Science Writing / S.M.inScienceWriting Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing

Thesis: S.M. in Science Writing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, 2020 / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / The U.S. Mexico border is a challenging place to survive for a Sonoran pronghorn. Nearly two decades ago, this endangered species faced near extinction in it s only home, an embroiled, increasingly shrinking habitat in Southwest Arizona. There in the Sonoran Desert, a passionate recovery team has dedicated significant efforts and investments to sustaining the approximately 200 remaining Sonoran pronghorns left in the U.S. The team face s two enormous obstacles that mo st endangered species rescue missions don't usually have to deal with. The first: a persistent drought that zaps water and plant life from the desert, making it hard for the animal to stay hydrated a nd fed. The second: Human disturbance in its range from off road driving by U.S. border patrol agents monitoring migrants. Its home happens to be one of the most concentrated areas of illegal activity at the border, and the off road driving further dries out vital plant life and diverts waterflow in the desert. It's also not the only environmental impact of border activity, as the recovery team's research shows. For the Sonoran pronghorn -- North America's fastest land mammal, an iconic creature seen on the landscape since prehistoric times -- there is nowhere to go when the rain never comes during drought The recovery team monitors the dire situation chasing pronghorns that can sprint up to 60 miles per hour to deliver food and water when the Sonoran Desert is too dry to graze. As it become s harder for the Sonoran pronghorn to escape increasingly inescapable human activity, it also become s harder for the recovery team to ensure the Sonoran pronghorn survives its estimated nearly one in four chance of being extinct by the end of this century. / by Ashley Belanger. / S.M. in Science Writing / S.M.inScienceWriting Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing

Thesis: S.M. in Science Writing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, 2020 / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 13-15). / A few blinks of an eye. The time it takes a hummingbird to flap its wings 80 times. For a photon of light to travel from Los Angeles to New York and back almost 40-fold. The second has been there since the literal dawn of time, if one exists. But what defines the second? Like a pop star constantly reinventing themselves, the second has undertaken a myriad of identities, first defined as a brief moment in the daily rotation of the earth around its axis. Today, the second is officially defined by over 9 billion oscillations of a cesium atom. Although it has changed costumes, its astronomical roots still ground the second. These definitions, these identities are projected onto it by an ever-curious, ever-demanding fan base. These fans are, of course, us - humans living in a complex, evolving society. They have been priests, farmers, scientists. Now, whatever our relationship is to one tick of the second hand, today we are beholden to this new, atomic second far beyond matters of time. Our entire technological infrastructure, from airplanes to smartphones, televisions to stock markets, driving directions to space research, would crumble without the atomic second and the 21st century horologists that build the timekeepers of the modern second: the atomic clock. / by Jessica Hendrickson. / S.M. in Science Writing / S.M.inScienceWriting Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing