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Marlisse Silver Sweeney

Marlisse Silver Sweeney is a freelance journalist based in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Marlisse Silver Sweeney is a freelance journalist based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and a graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Her writing has been published in print and online across North America, including in The Atlantic, Salon, The Daily Beast, The Columbia Journalism Review and The American Lawyer. When not typing, she can be found teaching public speaking and business writing at The University of British Columbia.

Scientist works on vaccine

Repurposing drugs: How old vaccines are finding new uses

Science

It’s a long process for drugs to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. So why not use those already on the shelves? Researchers are finding new uses for old vaccines, some which even may cure rare diseases.

Jerry Seinfeld

Why comedians are refusing to put on shows on college campuses

Arts
Coal power plant

World leaders announce goal of fossil fuel freedom by 2100 at UN Climate Change conference

Environment
Casts of the jaws of Australopithecus deyiremeda

How a new fossil discovery changes the perceived evolutionary path for humans

Science
Beefsteak tomato

Why your beefsteak tomatoes are getting beefier

Science
Keystone XL protests

Even protesting the Keystone XL pipeline could land you on an FBI watch list

Justice

Environmental activism may be enough to land you on an FBI watch list. New documents demonstrate how investigators classified Keystone XL protesters.

Coal in West Virginia

Appalachia is being hammered by the fall of coal

Environment

With coal generating less than 40 percent of electricity in the country today, miners are in mourning. Mass lay-offs have become weekly news and residents in Central Appalachia, an area once rich with opportunity, don’t know what to do next.

Sunscreen being applied

Don’t forget, wear sunscreen. Why SPF is more important than ever

Health

New research suggests a quarter of your skin cells may have already mutated, making you one step closer to getting skin cancer. What can be done to prevent further damage?

A mock-up of an atomic waste barrel is pictured at the entrance of the annual meeting of German utility giant E.ON in Essen on May 3, 2012.

‘It’s worse than any site I’ve been to:’ radioactivity and a Missouri neighborhood

Environment

An underground waste dump on fire is rapidly approaching the site of a landfill with radioactive waste in a small town in Missouri. Environmental activists say the results could be disastrous. Childhood cancers in the area are already on the rise, so why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?

DJ Jazzy Jeff speaks at an event where hip-hop DJs Grandwizzard Theodore, Grandmixer DXT and Grandmaster Flash are inducted into Guitar Center's RockWalk in Los Angeles on March 6, 2014.

Science crunched Billboard’s charts to determine music’s most revolutionary year. It was 1991.

Science

Evolutionary biologists have been using big data and statistics to track the musical revolutions over the past 50 years and the results are surprising. The new research demonstrates that The Beatles may not have been as important to pop culture as previously suggested.