Natalie van Hoose

Climate experts say the most important step you can take to fight climate change is to talk about it. WEDU PBS does exactly that in a special Public Square program about West Central Florida. We take a clear-eyed view of the challenges our region faces and honor the grit and adaptability that define Floridians as we share the stories of local changemakers.

A feature film can generate 574,000 pounds of waste. Some studios and producers are trying to change that.
This year, Becky Casey mourned the retirement of one of NBCUniversal’s most versatile and under-celebrated stars: a set of faux rock walls originally constructed for beach scenes in the late-1990s sitcom Malibu, CA.

Lethal bronzing disease is decimating thousands of Florida's palm trees, native and nonnative species alike. One scientist is testing a surprising solution.

The controversial construction of a 950-mile train loop through Mexico's environmentally sensitive and culturally rich Yucatán Peninsula has set archaeologists scrambling to conduct as much research as they can before the rumble of bulldozers arrives.

Scientists are "cautiously optimistic" that the critically endangered smalltooth sawfish is on the brink of a recovery after 20 years of federal protections.

This press release on how climate change is altering the delicate seasonal clock of North American songbirds was AAAS EurekAlert's second most-read news story of 2017, with nearly 500,000 views.

On June 24, 2021, two-thirds of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Florida, plummeted to the ground in seconds, killing 98 people. In the aftermath, a team of Florida judges and lawyers dedicated themselves to a single goal: to render justice as swiftly as possible to survivors and families of the victims.

Each year, millions of reef fish die of a grisly condition caused by surfacing from deep waters too quickly. A new program is training thousands of recreational anglers with equipment to release reef fish safely, helping protect fisheries along the Gulf Coast.

Redfish are big, brawny fighters and key contributors to Florida’s $13.8 billion recreational fishing industry. But redfish have a weak spot: They faithfully return to the same waters each year to spawn. This past fall, Hurricane Ian and red tide hit West Central Florida at a critical spawning time, delivering a one-two punch to a fish that is back in the conservation spotlight.

When Norman Beatty first witnessed people sleeping under mosquito nets in rural Arizona, he was stunned. And yet, some residents of remote areas in the U.S., including parts of Florida, use the nets in their homes each night – not to protect against mosquitoes, but kissing bugs, blood-sucking insects that can spread a potentially lethal disease known as Chagas.

When UF evolutionary biologist Gareth Fraser gives a talk titled “Why sharks are the future of dentistry” at dental conferences, there are a lot of raised eyebrows.
But slide by slide, he outlines the surprising structural similarities between human and shark teeth and shows how the genetic pathways undergirding our tooth development are the same.
“We can learn a lot about mammalian and human tooth development from looking at sharks,” says Fraser, an assistant professor of biology. “They lay ...

A lizard called Delcourt’s giant gecko has long been one of herpetology’s biggest mysteries — literally.

Presumed extinct, the animal is by far the largest gecko known to have crawled the Earth, measuring at least 600 millimeters, or about two feet, from snout to tail tip. The only example scientists have of the gecko, however, is a single museum specimen, preserved in the 19th century with no notes as to its origin or identity.

Now, DNA from the specimen reveals that the colossal lizard belo...

The Indian River Lagoon saw a brief respite from massive algal blooms this year. But heavy rains from Hurricane Ian led to wastewater spills and stormwater outflows in yet another setback to water quality. Even so, natural resource managers say the lagoon's restoration is still attainable.

Estradivari’s passion for restoring degraded reefs began in a childhood spent in the concrete jungle of Jakarta, Indonesia. She often escaped to the city’s closest beach to swim and play in the sand. Only years later did she learn her beloved getaway was one of the most polluted coral reefs in the country.

Early in her marine conservation work, however, Estradivari realized protecting reefs involved more than boosting the number of fish or improving water quality. As she partnered with ...

The University of Florida faces the unique challenge of relocating hundreds of thousands of campus residents: its beloved bat colony.
The university is home to the world’s largest occupied bat houses, a trio of raised structures at the Field & Fork gardens across from Lake Alice on Museum Road. Together, two of these houses shelter an estimated 500,000 bats — possibly the biggest bat colony east of the Mississippi River. Crowds gather regularly to watch the twilight spectacle of bats streamin...