As a graduate student working out of Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, evolutionary biologist Shane DuBay noticed soot clinging to the bird specimens he handled. Like many researchers, he ...

Lead pollution likely led to widespread declines in IQ during the ancient Roman era, a study has found. The negative health effects of lead exposure in modernity have been widely recognized. Over the ...

A new study highlights a surprising lens for tracking pollution trends over centuries: preserved plants and animals housed at natural history museums around the world. According to Shane DuBay, a ...

Think today's latest chemical scare accounts for the onslaught of children’s diseases? Think again. America has been swimming in synthetic soup since long before Earth Day was born in 1970 (think DDT, ...

Lead exposure has left its toxic fingerprints all over history. We've come a long way in reducing its presence, but even low levels of lead can wreak havoc, especially on the cognitive development of ...