America’s Plastic Legacy By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight A father and daughter tour landmarks in the early history of modern plastic and assess the toxic legacy of petrochemistry.
The Engineers Who Can’t Quit Voyager By Michelle Legro Commentary The nine flight-team engineers of the 1977 mission have been putting off retirement to see through one of NASA’s most successful spacecraft all the way to the end.
The Uncomfortable Discoveries That Come with Home DNA Testing Kits By Mike Dang Highlight Home DNA testing kits are making it easier for people to learn more about who they are, but they often come with surprising results.
Swabbing Filthy Surfaces for Tomorrow’s Cures By Aaron Gilbreath Commentary As the world faces a global health catastrophe from drug-resistant microbes, one scientists is searching the natural world for the antibiotics of the future.
“Beef and cheese are the most important ingredients… But really, cheese.” By Michelle Weber Highlight Who’s moving America’s (1.3 billion pounds of) cheese? The Dairy Management Institute
The Louisiana Environmental Apocalypse Road Trip By Justin Nobel Feature Louisiana serves as a terrifying example of what can become of a state that shortchanges science and environmental regulations to boost industry and infrastructure.
Despair All Ye Who Enter Into the Climate Change Fray By Danielle Tcholakian Commentary A climate change feature at New York Magazine leads a scientist to take on its extraordinary claims.
Reunification Will Have to Bridge the DMZ and Massive Technological Gaps By Michelle Weber Highlight Physicians in South Korea are working to understand the health issues North Korean defectors face, in preparation for eventual reunification.
A Village Falls into the Sea By Pam Mandel Highlight Shishmaref, an island village north of Nome, Alaska, is the front line for global warming’s effects on rising sea levels.
(Re)Merchandising NASA as a Feminist Act By Pam Mandel Highlight “I took the NASA shirts from the ‘boys’ section from where they were prominently displayed, and put them little kid eye level next to tank tops in the ‘girls’ section 20 feet away.”
He Doesn’t Know What It’s Like to Feel Pain. She Feels It All the Time By Mike Dang Highlight He can’t feel pain. She feels as if her body is constantly on fire. A genetic link connects them both.
The Surprising Social Habits of Crows By Krista Stevens Highlight Crows are more than squawk rockets — they’re highly social creatures who, commute to work, mourn their dead, and show appreciation for kindness.
Sometimes You’re the Bug. Far Fewer Times, of Late. By Pam Mandel Highlight Spending less time cleaning your windshield? A group of researchers in Germany is trying to find out why.
The Gun Barrel and the Damage Done: A Profile of Trauma Surgeon Amy Goldberg By Krista Stevens Highlight Jason Fagone profiles veteran trauma surgeon Dr. Amy Goldberg, who spends her days saving the lives of gunshot victims in Philadelphia, PA.
Unlocking the Genetic Code of Poverty By Michelle Weber Highlight The emerging science of epigenetics argues that poverty can change our genetic expression.
Opioid Addicts Are Losing Their Memories and Doctors Don’t Know Why By Krista Stevens Highlight How does opioid overdose permanently damage the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for memory?
The Pitfalls and Promise of the Horseshoe Crab, Unlikely Biomedical Hero By Michelle Weber Highlight Pharmaceutical companies catch half a million horseshoe crabs a year to drain their blood for medical use. But is this practice sustainable?
Ending Depression With a Push of a Button, But Only For a Moment By Michelle Weber Highlight For people with severe, depression, deep-brain stimulation offers an uncertain but potentially life-altering solution.
The Conservative Movement to Get the GOP on Board With Global Warming By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight These conservatives are hoping to rally Republican voters around global warming in a way that gets the GOP to finally listen.
In 1975, Newsweek Predicted A New Ice Age. We’re Still Living with the Consequences. By Longreads Feature All climate change deniers needed was one article to cast doubt on the science of global warming.
Why Dylan Matthews Donated His Kidney to a Stranger and You Should Too By Krista Stevens Highlight At Vox, Matthews recounts the the long and rewarding process of donating a kidney to a perfect stranger.
Kim Stanley Robinson’s Cheerful Novel of Climate Change By Michelle Legro Commentary The sci-fi writer explains how his city-dwellers learn to survive and thrive after a climate-change catastrophe.
The Surgeon Who Helped Revolutionize Hand Transplants By Mike Dang Highlight Dr. Kodi Azari dreamed that one day he’d perform a hand transplant on a patient who would wake up from surgery and start moving their fingers right away.
How Tiny, Yet Über-Efficient Spider Brains Can Improve Computer Technology By Krista Stevens Highlight Big brains offer no advantage in the animal kingdom.
Evolution and Chill: Survival Is No Longer Just About Competition By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Scientists are taking a second look at the effect of cooperation on evolution.
Treating the Insects of the Mind By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight In STAT, Eric Boodman examines delusional parasitosis, a psychiatric condition neither science nor medicine understand much about.
A Nuclear Bomb at Ground Zero, and What Happens Next By Krista Stevens Highlight At the Atlantic, two researchers discuss their study of how humans might respond after a nuclear attack on Manhattan.
Welcome to Mars, Sorry About the Face-Melting! By Michelle Weber Highlight The Red Planet presents scientists with kinks they’ll need to figure out before you can book a shuttle.
Oh, Give Me a Home Where the Woolly Mammoths Roam By Michelle Weber Highlight Ross Andersen’s captivating profile of Nikita Zimov and his quest to re-create a Pleistocene ecosystem is worth reading, not least for a fascinating explanation of how grasses went from being slimy ocean plants to covering huge swaths of the planet.
‘When Neanderthals Disappeared From Here, We Became the Sole Inheritors of Our Continent’ By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight In Gibraltar, science writer Gaia Vince discovers that analyzing the genetics of ancient humans means changing ideas about our evolution.
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