As Innocuous as Plant No. 1 By Aaron Gilbreath Feature William Vollman enters the radioactive red zone to visit the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
Where Have You Hidden the Cholera? By Longreads Feature In Mozambique and around the world — and throughout history — cholera outbreaks have caused riots. Why? And what does it have to do with bicycles?
Before We All Teach Someone a Lesson By Catherine Cusick Highlight Online harassment gets out of hand constantly. Can prosocial bots help turn the tide of anonymous interactions before people become abusive?
The Amateur Investigators of the American West By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight When 66-year-old Bill Ewasko got lost near Joshua Tree National Park, the case spawned a network of amateur investigators obsessed with finding him.
It’s Time for Real Talk About Aliens By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight No time in human history has presented clearer, more compelling evidence that something unexplained is interacting with human beings, be they aliens or UFOs.
The Way We Treat Our Pets Is More Paleolithic Than Medieval By Longreads Feature Hunter-gatherers tended to think of pets as part of the family, and so do we. But in other time periods, intimacy with animals has been more taboo.
How Do You Control One of Nature’s Biggest Rivers? By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight The Mississippi River’s infrastructure is aging, and no one can agree who should fix it.
Climate Change Is Personal for These Alaskan Women By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Here are the voices of the Alaskans threatened by climate change.
Welcome to the Center of the Universe By Shannon Stirone Feature For the men and women who use the Deep Space Network to talk to the heavens, failure is not an option.
The Quest for the Collision Zone: An Arctic Expedition By Longreads Feature Geologists on a mission to vindicate their theory of a lost mountain range discover something even more significant buried beneath the ice.
Struggling to Balance Business and Conservation in the Amazon Basin By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Driving through the Amazon Basin on a single road to see whether Brazil can balance economic development with rainforest conservation.
A Toxic Tour Through Underground Ohio By Justin Nobel Feature A booming injection well industry is pumping toxic waste deep into the earth in Ohio’s rural towns.
Reconnecting with Nature, and with Wi-Fi By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight What does a naturalist do at the end of their career!? Retire in nature, of course.
Longreads Best of 2017: Science, Technology, and Business Writing By Longreads Reading List We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in business, tech, and science writing.
Black Women’s Maternal Mortality Rates in the US are Staggeringly High By Danielle Jackson Highlight Shalon Irving was educated, insured, and well-supported by family and friends. She still became a casualty of missed opportunities and neglect by healthcare providers.
I Think, Therefore I Am Getting the Goddamned Epidural By Rebecca Schuman Feature On midwives, metaphysics, and intensely natural births.
The Planet Is Pissed and Wants You Outta Here By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Massive volcanic events are the cause of most global mass extinctions. When will the next one destroy life on earth?
The Aftermarket for (Human) Spare Parts By Pam Mandel Highlight “What they are doing is profiting from the sale of humans.”
What Makes a Disability Undesirable? By Danielle Tcholakian Commentary Should we try to correct disabilities to help the disabled, or make their existence easier for the abled?
The Dream of a Perfect Android By Michelle Legro Highlight Hiroshi Ishiguro has spent his career creating robots. But does he know enough about humans to make them lifelike?
The Sacred Right of Universal Narcotic Entitlement By Michelle Weber Highlight Inventing maladies and marketing drugs to relieve them isn’t a new m.o. for pharmaceutical companies. OxyContin is its fullest and most terrible expression.
We Should Be Talking About the Effect of Climate Change on Cities By Longreads Feature But we’re not. Instead, the effects on cities tend to be edited out or statistically minimized.
Scientific Conferences Are Filled with Spies By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight The world’s intelligence agencies send operatives to scientific conferences to collect information and protect themselves.
An Interview with MacArthur ‘Genius’ Jason De León By Matt Giles Feature The anthropologist studies the objects left behind by migrants as they cross the border.
We Need to Talk About Madness: A Reading List By Danielle Tcholakian Commentary Talking about it is terrifying, but not talking about it is deadly.
Civilization Was Supposed to Make Our Lives Better, Right? By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Cultivating crops led to permanent settlements, but also greed and exploitation. Was it all worth it?
Mothering Is Not the Enemy of Creative Work By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Journalist Erika Hayasaki uses science to show how motherhood can improve creativity.
Atomic City By Justin Nobel Feature On January 3, 1961, a nuclear reactor the size of a small grain silo exploded in the Idaho desert, causing one of the only recorded nuclear fatalities on U.S. soil.
Why Oil-Loving Louisiana Should Embrace America’s Coming Offshore Wind Boom By Justin Nobel Feature The budding wind power industry is rich in jobs, and the people of south Louisiana are ready for clean energy.
What the Future of Death Looks Like By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Commentary A look at the process of alkaline hydrosis, a more eco-friendly type of cremation, and the growing movement behind it.
You must be logged in to post a comment.