Finding Solace in the Charged Particles of the Aurora Borealis By Krista Stevens Highlight “Cree First Nations believe ‘the northern lights are dancing spirits of loved ones who have passed on.’”
The Octopus’ Branding Makeover: From Devil-Fish to Brilliant Invertebrate By Krista Stevens Highlight “Each arm, with its own brain inside, moves completely independent of the others. So much so that arms have been known to steal food from each other.”
Climate Messaging: A Case for Negativity By Rebecca McCarthy Feature Nell Zink, Joy Williams, and a different kind of climate skepticism.
Greenland’s Deepening Ecological Grief By Krista Stevens Highlight “We no longer understand it here. We don’t trust it.”
Yentl Syndrome: A Deadly Data Bias Against Women By Longreads Feature The science of medicine is based on male bodies, but researchers are beginning to realize how vastly the symptoms of disease differ between the sexes — and how much danger women are in.
We Still Don’t Know How to Navigate the Cultural Legacy of Eugenics By Audrey Farley Feature From abortion to immigration, a long-debunked scientific movement still casts long, confusing shadows over our most fraught debates.
From the Sewer to the Syringe By Katie Kosma Highlight Biomedical researchers find remedies for antibiotic-resistant infections in grody places.
The Age of Forever Crises By Linda Kinstler Feature We need to learn how to talk about our irreversible mistakes. Historian Kate Brown says the first step is to resist the Chernobylization of knowledge.
Against Hustle: Jenny Odell Is Taking Her Time at the End of the World By Rebecca McCarthy Feature The attention economy is killing us and the planet. Artist and writer Jenny Odell talks about why slowing down could be the only way to survive.
‘I Cannot Name Any Emotion That Is Uniquely Human.’ By Hope Reese Feature According to primatologist Frans de Waal, we don’t like to admit that animals, especially apes, have emotions just like ours, and science has become better at studying apes’ behaviors than human ones.
A Fascinating Case of Precocious Puberty By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight Patrick Burleigh carried an extremely rare genetic mutation, which brought on puberty prematurely.
The Hunt for Planet Nine By Shannon Stirone Feature What will it take to find the biggest missing object in our solar system?
Tommy Tomlinson: The Weight I Carry By Krista Stevens Highlight “On top of all that, some of us fight holes in our souls that a boxcar of donuts couldn’t fill.” Tommy Tomlinson shares the physical and emotional costs of weighing 460 pounds.
A Race to Claim a Piece of Space: The Out-of-This World Obsession of Meteorite Hunters By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight Meteorite hunters Mike Farmer and Robert Ward travel to Carancas, a tiny village at 12,000 feet in Peru’s remote altiplano, to examine a crater in the hope to claim precious rock from space.
The Science of Dreaming By Jessica Gross Feature Science journalist Alice Robb on why we need to take our dreams seriously.
The Bat-Borne Virus That Threatens to Become the Next Pandemic By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight Steven Bedard, a former field biologist, travels around Bangladesh with a team of public health investigators studying Nipah, a bat-borne virus with the potential to become the next pandemic.
Duet for a Small Porpoise’s Extinction By Kimi Eisele Feature Kimi Eisele contemplates coherence, the near extinction of the vaquita, and the expensive bycatch of being human.
Science Has Yet to Prove Mold Makes us Sick By Krista Stevens Highlight Is it the black mold causing your headaches, or is it all in your head? Don’t turn to science. It has no answers.
Life Under (Water) Pressure By Michelle Weber Highlight Welcome to the dangerous, cramped world of the saturation diver, and the extraordinary strangeness of working 500 feet under the sea.
We Are Scientists By Kirtan Nautiyal Feature A scientist examines the connections between his Indian immigrant father and the brilliant but overlooked Indian scientist Yellapragada Subbarow.
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.
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.
Homeward Bound: Allegedly a Sea of Sexual Harassment in the Field of Science By Krista Stevens Highlight A program to encourage women to take leadership positions in the field of science has sailed into the rough seas of the #metoo movement.
What If Forensic Science Isn’t Really Science? By Michelle Legro Highlight When bad forensics enter the courtroom, it can become impossible to get rid of them.
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.
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 Big Black Market for Spare Human Body Parts By Krista Stevens Highlight Beware, should you donate your body to science in the US. Lightly regulated, the industry is ripe for fraudsters trying to make a buck on your personage.
The Aftermarket for (Human) Spare Parts By Pam Mandel Highlight “What they are doing is profiting from the sale of humans.”
Bringing Up the Bodies: How NecroSearch Helps Police to Locate the Dead By Krista Stevens Highlight Why do they volunteer their time in such a grisly enterprise? To bring closure to the families of the dead.
