Latest from Ryan Biller
Syria’s Druze Grapple with Israel and Militancy
After the fall of Assad, Syria’s Druze community is grappling with new anxieties, from Israel’s encroachment to the rise of anti-government militants.
The Congo’s Dinosaur of Discord
Mokele-mbembe is the Congo Basin’s bigfoot. Or that’s what it’s become, anyway — a cryptid. The myth was originally a kind of spiritual metaphor, but a confluence of European colonial exploration and early paleontology warped it into what it is today: a living dinosaur, hidden deep in the jungle.
Could Vaccinating Gorillas Be Our Best Shot To Stop a Pandemic?
After a wave of Ebola devastated the Congo Basin’s gorilla population in 2002, one American ecologist embarked on a quest to vaccinate the great apes and, he hoped, stop animal-borne diseases from spreading to humans. Could he convince the vaccine skeptics among his colleagues that it would be worth it?