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Lucas Laursen

Lucas Laursen is a journalist covering how people use science, markets and serendipity to test new ideas, with a special interest in the developing world. He writes for Scientific American, IEEE Spectrum, and many other magazines.

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Articles (5)

clock-icon 9 MIN READ

Feature/Taming the genie in the forest of the devil’s trees

Exports of argan oil from the forests of Morocco have boomed in the past two decades. But what impact has this had on the forests and the local communities who value them?

WRITTEN BY Lucas Laursen
clock-icon 12 MIN READ

Feature/Squeezing water from a drying Himalayan desert

Hydrologists work with mountain farmers in Nepal to meet changing climate challenges. In the process they're learning to use local insight to guide their data collection.

WRITTEN BY Lucas Laursen
clock-icon 15 MIN READ

Feature/Saving Mexico’s most totemic chilli

Chefs, scientists, and entrepreneurs are giving the chilhuacle pepper – a once-imperilled ingredient of Mexico’s holiest mole – a new future. Lucas Laursen tracks a potentially purposeful transformation.

WRITTEN BY Lucas Laursen
clock-icon 11 MIN READ

Feature/How Kenya’s herders got their livestock insured

Researchers puzzled out how to include dryland livestock herders in the global insurance market. Their next challenge is to stay in balance with a changing ecosystem.

WRITTEN BY Lucas Laursen
clock-icon 10 MIN READ

Feature/Trial and error in a Mexican beach town

The inhabitants of Xcalak started with coconuts, moved on to fish, welcomed tourists, and now face an ongoing struggle to find the right path ahead.