NPR People: Christopher Joyce

Wildlife experts convene next week in the city of Doha in Qatar to consider how to control the trade in rare animals and plants. Trade in elephant ivory continues to be a contentious issue. And this year sees a brand new effort to move offshore and protect some of the ocean's most charismatic and sought-after species.

Scientists have discovered a macabre death scene that took place 67 million years ago. Preserved for eternity are an 11-foot snake and its prey, a newly hatched dinosaur. The discovery is among the rarest of the rare — fossils that reveal how ancient animals behaved.

The earthquake in Chile on Saturday not only brought down buildings and killed hundreds of people — it also created a tsunami. The tsunami set off alarms around the Pacific basin. Eventually, the waves turned out to be pretty small, at least beyond Chile. Scientists explain why it wasn't as severe as it might have been.

When it comes to climate change, some look at the facts presented and see a coming catastrophe, while others see a hoax. This difference in interpretation, social scientists say, has more to do with each individual's existing outlook than with the facts.

California's towering redwoods depend on coastal fog for much of their yearly water supply. But in a new study scientists report that the long-term health of these iconic trees may be in danger as weather changes could contribute to fewer days in the mist.

Climate scientists are on the defensive after doubt was cast on their objectivity. Most say the evidence for a warming world is still as strong as ever. But some now acknowledge they need to do some housecleaning and improve their public relations skills so skeptics don't glom on to mistakes.

With snow blanketing much of the country, the topic of global warming has become the butt of jokes. But most scientists who study the climate don't see a contradiction between a warming world and lots of snow.

Scientists have sequenced most of the DNA of a 4,000-year-old human using tufts of hair found in Greenland. The researchers say this is the most complete reconstruction of ancient human DNA to date and reveals details not only of the man himself but also where his people came from.

New research dispels the notion that migrating insects are simply at the mercy of the wind. Researchers have found that the moths can actually select wind currents and often end up traveling faster than many migrating birds.

Heavy rains in California, record snowfalls in the mid-Atlantic and fires in Indonesia are all being attributed to the phenomenon. Government meteorologists say the effects of the most powerful El Nino since 1997-98 will very likely persist for another month or two.

Researchers say that people who learned to run barefoot put less stress on their feet and legs than their shod peers. And it's more energy efficient, too. Barefoot is, after all, the natural way to run.

As China and the United States promise emissions cuts, coal consumption takes center stage. By Monday, as many as two dozen countries will have listed their emissions targets. Experts say countries need to weigh the costs and benefits of continuing to use a technology that produces the largest amount of greenhouse gases.

The island of Madagascar, located off the east coast of Africa, is host to a bizarre menagerie of small animals, many of which are found nowhere else. Biologists believe these creatures, like the ring-tailed lemur (above), arrived on the island millions of years ago from Africa — but no one has determined how they got there. Now, scientists are proposing that they floated across the ocean divide on stray vegetation and tree limbs.

As attention turns from search and rescue to rebuilding Haiti, experts say that the billions of dollars in aid may be wasted unless money is invested in long-term projects. They say that soil erosion and a decline in agriculture exacerbated the quake's toll.

The magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck a country whose buildings were barely built to engineering standards and were hopelessly fragile in the grip of such a strong quake. Haiti has no national building code, and many structures may not have been sound to begin with.