Blog

In Praise of Bacteria

In his wildly imaginative book Imaginary Magnitude (1973), Polish author Stanislaw Lem introduces Eruntics, a fictional treatise in which a philosopher describes how he taught English to a colony of bacteria. These microbes, according to Lem, communicate via Morse...

Teaching to Protect

When I read about the ecological challenges facing Latin America, I realize how urgent it is to change our perspective. I’m increasingly convinced that education is one of the most powerful tools we must address these challenges. In our region, biodiversity is a true...

Multicolored squawk: A Telaraña about toucans

In January 1854, after a three-month journey from Germany to San Juan del Norte, in Nicaragua, naturalist Carl Hoffman was about to arrive to Costa Rican. The greatest adventure of his life was about to begin. With his friends, Alexander von Frantzius and Julian...

Will women save the planet?

In the 1960s, Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring (1962): one of the most influential works on environmental protection ever written. Her message went viral, long before that concept became popular. In 2018, Greta Thurnberg, at just 15 years old, challenged world...

Kamikazes

About 25 years ago, the festivities in my town, ‘Churuca’, were among the most outstanding in Cartago. They were renowned for their family atmosphere and the quality of their gastronomy, with visitors arriving from across the province and even from other...