All Stories
- Genetics
DNA databases are too white, so genetics doesn’t help everyone. How do we fix that?
A lack of diversity in genetic databases is making precision medicine ineffective for many people. One historian proposes a solution: construct reference genomes for individual populations.
- Health & Medicine
People who have had COVID-19 might need only one shot of a coronavirus vaccine
Antibody levels in health care workers who had COVID-19 and got vaccinated were more than 500 times higher than those vaccinated but never infected.
- Materials Science
This soft robot withstands crushing pressures at the ocean’s greatest depths
An autonomous robot that mimics the adaptations of deep-sea snailfish to extreme conditions was successfully tested at the bottom of the ocean.
- Neuroscience
Three visions of the future, inspired by neuroscience’s past and present
Three fantastical tales of where neuroscience might take us are based on the progress made by brain researchers in the last 100 years.
- Environment
‘Green’ burials are slowly gaining ground among environmentalists
Researchers asked older environmental activists what they planned to do with their bodies after death. Many were unaware of “green” burial options.
- Physics
Black hole visionaries push the boundaries of knowledge in a new film
‘Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know’ follows researchers with the Event Horizon Telescope and other physicists working to understand black holes.
- Paleontology
Predatory octopuses were drilling into clamshells at least 75 million years ago
Holes found in ancient clams reveal that octopuses have been drilling into their prey for at least 25 million years longer than was previously known.
- Health & Medicine
A music therapist seeks to tap into long-lost memories
Alaine Reschke-Hernández is partnering with neuroscientists to figure out how music improves Alzheimer’s patients’ lives.
- Science & Society
‘Gory Details’ dives into the morbid, the taboo — and our minds
Erika Engelhaupt explores creepy insects, fecal transplants, cannibalism and more in her new book.
- Archaeology
An ancient dog fossil helps trace humans’ path into the Americas
Found in Alaska, the roughly 10,000-year-old bone bolsters the idea that early human settlers took a coastal rather than inland route.
- Health & Medicine
What you need to know about J&J’s newly authorized one-shot COVID-19 vaccine
Even as a third COVID-19 vaccine becomes available in the United States, questions remain over how well it works and if people will take it.
- Health & Medicine
Global inequity in COVID-19 vaccination is more than a moral problem
Wealthy countries are vaccinating at much higher rates than low-income countries. Such inequities could ultimately prolong the pandemic for all.
