Eric Niiler
WIRED
Southport, NC, United States
Contact Eric
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
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Past articles by Eric:
Everyone Wants to Build Green Energy Projects. What's the Holdup?
Proposals for wind, solar, and battery storage projects are running into a logjam of paperwork and grid connection issues. → Read More
Offshore Wind Turbines Could Mess With Ships’ Radar Signals
A new study finds that turbines can muddle ships' navigational systems, obscuring the location of smaller boats or creating misleading images on radar screens. → Read More
Biologists Mask Up to Protect Bats (Yes, Bats) From Covid-19
New federal guidelines ask scientists to wear protective gear to keep the virus from jumping back into animal species. → Read More
Hurricane ‘Price Tags’ Could Reveal the Cost of Global Warming
A new study shows that climate-driven sea level rise made the damage from Superstorm Sandy $8 billion worse around New York City. → Read More
Hurricane ‘Price Tags’ Could Reveal the Cost of Global Warming
A new study shows that climate-driven sea level rise made the damage from Superstorm Sandy $8 billion worse around New York City. → Read More
Melting Mountain Glaciers May Not Survive the Century
Scientists crunched 20 years’ worth of satellite data to estimate the melt rate across the planet, and the news isn’t good. → Read More
NASA Launches Astronauts to the ISS on a Reused SpaceX Rocket
The six-month mission is another step toward an eventual moon landing, and the second time this Crew Dragon capsule has visited the space station. → Read More
The Tide Is High—and Getting Higher
A trove of historic records show that dredging and sea level rise are making nuisance high tides worse along the US coasts. → Read More
Can Technology Open Spaceflight to Disabled Astronauts?
The European Space Agency wants to make sure its new astronaut class is more diverse. But it will take redesigned gear to make space accessible to everybody. → Read More
Could Carbon Dioxide Be Turned Into Jet Fuel?
A team at Oxford University has reverse engineered fuel from the greenhouse gas—but so far just in the lab. → Read More
Can Biden Make Climate Progress With a Divided Congress? Actually, Yeah
Environmental experts say the administration may fare better by working with green governors and clean tech businesses, and by signing executive orders. → Read More
Wild Predators Are Relying More on Our Food—and Pets
A new study shows that some big carnivores are getting up to half their diet from sources like trash, crops, or small mammals that live near people. → Read More
Can a Genetically Modified Bug Combat a Global Farm Plague?
Biotech company Oxitec has created a caterpillar with self-destructing eggs in an attempt to curb agricultural damage. But will other pests simply move in? → Read More
Should We Conserve Parasites? Apparently, Yes
A group of ecologists and biologists say the world's ticks, leeches, and tapeworms need love and conservation, too. Now they've got a 12-point plan. → Read More
Why Do Razor Blades Get Dull So Quickly?
An MIT team tackled the mystery of why something as soft as hair can erode a steel blade, hoping to figure out how to make shaving tools last longer. → Read More
The Anglerfish Deleted Its Immune System to Fuse With Its Mate
Underwater “sexual parasitism” between male and female allows two bodies to become one. Now we know the reason why. → Read More
The Covid-19 Economic Slump Is Closing Down Coal Plants
This year, coal usage has dropped in the US, and renewables now generate more electricity. To some experts, the financial crisis is a clean energy opportunity. → Read More
Covid-19 Forces Spring Science Field Work to Go Fallow
Researchers and graduate students who depend on outdoor data collection find themselves stuck inside, just as expedition season normally gets going. → Read More
Are Running or Cycling Actually Risks for Spreading Covid-19?
An unpublished study went viral after a research team warned that respiratory droplets may travel more than 6 feet during exercise. But that's not the whole story. → Read More
‘Environmental DNA’ Lets Scientists Probe Underwater Life
With the help of a new kind of drone, marine biologists can sequence DNA found in the ocean to reveal what's living in an ecosystem—and what's missing. → Read More