Alessandra Potenza
The Verge
New York, NY, United States
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Past articles by Alessandra:
Scott Pruitt out as head of the Environmental Protection Agency
Scott Pruitt has resigned as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, amid a slew of scandals involving everything from luxury travels to rampant conflicts of interest. Second-in-command Andrew Wheeler will become acting director of the EPA come Monday, according to President Donald Trump. → Read More
To save money, my insurance company forced me to try drugs that didn’t work
Why I had to wait two years to get Botox for my migraines → Read More
Were real dinosaurs as bulletproof as the one in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom?
The new film Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom features a new dinosaur hybrid that seems to be immune to gunfire. Dinosaurs shrugging off bullets for dramatic purposes pop up fairly often in action movies where dinosaurs and modern weaponry somehow co-exist. Is there any basis in fact there? Could dinosaurs actually have been bulletproof? → Read More
What to expect when you’re expecting to order birth control online
An online service that prescribes and delivers birth control methods called The Pill Club announced that it’s now available to residents in New York, in addition to Arizona, California, and other seven US states. But why would anyone want to order contraceptives online? → Read More
How a 50-year-old NASA invention could change the way we fight cancer
This bizarre goo is called ferrofluid, and it really is the stuff of science fiction. It was created at NASA as a way to move fuel in space, and someday soon, it may be used to pilot medicine through your body. In this latest Verge Science video, we delve into the sci-fi world of ferrofluid. → Read More
A short history of Scott Pruitt’s scandals from the big to the bizarre
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, has certainly had an eventful tenure. Lately, the scandals have gotten more and more ridiculous — there are reports of Pruitt asking his staffers to scout for a Trump hotel mattress and Ritz-Carlton hotel moisturizing cream. → Read More
This book imagines what animals might look like if humans went extinct
If humans disappeared from the face of the Earth, letting evolution run its course, what would animals look like in 50 million years? That was the premise of the book After Man: A Zoology of the Future, published in 1981 by paleontologist Dougal Dixon. Last month, Breakdown Press published a new edition of the book. → Read More
NASA’s Curiosity rover discovers that methane on Mars changes with the seasons
NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected background levels of methane in the atmosphere of Mars, and these concentrations seem to go up in the summer and down in the winter, according to new research. Where the methane is coming from is still a mystery, but scientists have some ideas, including that microbes may be the source of the gas. → Read More
Your ears are cockroach heaven and that’s why they keep crawling in there
Last month, a cockroach crawled inside a Florida woman’s ear while she was sleeping. Then last week, another Florida resident went through the same ordeal. So, why does this keep happening? Why do cockroaches wriggle themselves inside people’s ears, where they’ll almost certainly meet their death? → Read More
What bacteria are right for delicious cheese? We went to a cheese cave to find out
Murray’s Cheese in New York City develops its own cheddar from scratch, and microbiologists Jeanne Garbarino and Odaelys Walwyn from Rockefeller University have been studying what communities of microbes live on this cheddar as it ages. Those microbial changes play a big role in how different cheeses develop different flavors. And today, we finally have the tools to study the changes up close. → Read More
Why we can’t predict how destructive a hurricane season will be
Hurricane season begins in the Atlantic, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting that there will be up to nine hurricanes, including one to four major storms with winds blowing at 111 mph (about 178 km/h) and up. → Read More
Here’s what Earth looks like from the US’s most advanced weather satellite
Almost three months after launching into space, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s latest weather satellite, called GOES-17, sent us its first official images of our planet. The incredible views, which were captured on May 20th and made public today, were taken even as the satellite is having some issues with one of its instruments. → Read More
Falling into lava would be a pretty hot mess
As Hawaii’s Kīlauea volcano keeps regurgitating molten rock, the US Geological Service continues to post amazingly terrifying photos and videos of lava spewing up in the air and taking over land. The lava is scorching hot, it glows bright orange, and it has the power to gobble up anything that crosses its path. So, what would happen if you touched it? → Read More
We fact-checked Mercury 13, Netflix’s doc about NASA’s first women astronaut trainees
David Sington and Heather Walsh’s film explores a 1960s program that tested women pilots for suitability as astronauts, and found they outperformed men in some categories. The program was shut down, but the doc doesn’t tell the whole story. A historian and author explains what Mercury 13 is missing about what went on behind the scenes. → Read More
Money’s better than e-cigs or nicotine gum at helping smokers quit, study says
A new study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that giving smokers free electronic cigarettes won’t help them quit. But experts say more research is needed to confirm whether or not e-cigarettes can help smokers kick the habit. → Read More
SpaceX is launching twin NASA satellites to spy on droughts and melting ice sheets
NASA is slated to launch two twin satellites that will observe how water moves around our planet. Called GRACE-FO, the mission replaces the two original GRACE satellites, which gave scientists valuable insights into melting ice sheets, droughts, and sea level rise. The new probes will continue that work, helping researchers better understand how water behaves on Earth, especially now that the… → Read More
Digging mammoths in the Arctic isn’t as pretty and sci-fi as this new Lego set suggests
A kid playing with the new Lego City set about Arctic exploration might think that scientists excavate mammoths and saber-toothed cats out of ice cubes using enormous saws, ice crawling machines with huge claws, and four propeller choppers. The reality, unfortunately, is not nearly as sci-fi, according to experts. → Read More
Are cotton totes better for the Earth than plastic bags? It depends on what you care about
A new life cycle assessment said that plastic bags are better for the environment than organic cotton tote bags. So, was my decision to ditch plastic bags bad for the environment? The answer is not that easy. → Read More
Here’s what vanishing sea ice in the Arctic means for you
As the world’s temperatures go up, the Arctic keeps losing its ice. Why should I care, you ask? Our planet is an interconnected system, and the vanishing ice is already having ripple effects down south. Among them: faster global warming, rising sea levels, and possibly more extreme natural disasters. → Read More
Puke, poop, and sweat: a ranking of New York City’s grossest attractions
Disgust is highly subjective. It’s influenced by experience, as well as where and how we grew up. I find vomit incredibly disgusting, but maybe you’re more grossed out by cockroaches or you just can’t stand rubbing your arms against somebody’s sweaty armpit on a crowded train. So, is it possible to create a scale of disgust that everyone can agree with? → Read More