independent media institute

By Lucy Goodchild van Hilten A warehouse filled with huge gleaming silver vats hums around the clock, as billions of yeast cells work to make a material we can wear, sit on and carry around. In an adjoining room, rows of benches hold molds of different shapes and sizes, where sheets of cellulose layer up […]

By Lorraine Chow The world’s plastic problem may seem vast and incalculable, but its footprint has actually been measured. In a sweeping 2015 study, researchers calculated that 9 billion tons of the material have been made, distributed and disposed in fewer than 70 years. That’s an astonishing figure, but it’s also one that’s hard to […]

By Daniel Ross A rock seawall protecting the Air Force’s Cape Lisburne Long Range Radar Station on the North East Alaska coast is under increasing duress from extreme weather patterns affecting Arctic sea ice—nearly $50 million has been spent replacing vulnerable parts of the wall already. In 2013, a late summer monsoon rainstorm struck Fort […]

By Melissa Kravitz “You are what you eat” may be one of the oldest sayings ever to be repeated around the dinner table, but can you also eat what you are? The idea of eating to suit your identity dates back millennia, particularly with religious dietary restrictions seen as shaping an eater’s personality and identity. […]

By Reynard Loki, Independent Media Institute There is growing evidence that our addiction to cellphones could be impacting brain functionality and be the cause of stress, anxiety, insomnia and a lack of attention and focus. Now a new report has found that we’re not the only living things to be affected by our increasing dependence […]