Feature
- Science & Society
A few simple tricks make fake news stories stick in the brain
Human brains rely on shortcuts to be efficient. But these shortcuts leave us vulnerable to false information.
- Health & Medicine
Capturing the sense of touch could upgrade prosthetics and our digital lives
Haptics researchers are working on ways to add touch to virtual reality, online shopping, telemedicine and advanced artificial limbs.
- Science & Society
Videocalling needed more than a pandemic to finally take off. Will it last?
Zoom and social distancing ushered in the futuristic videophone fantasy AT&T wanted and consumers rejected for decades.
- Ecosystems
Wildfires launch microbes into the air. How big of a health risk is that?
How does wildfire smoke move bacteria and fungi — and what harm might they do to people when they get there?
- Particle Physics
How matter’s hidden complexity unleashed the power of nuclear physics
In the last century, physicists learned to split atomic nuclei and revealed a complex world of fundamental particles.
- Ecosystems
Simple hand-built structures can help streams survive wildfires and drought
Building simple structures with sticks and stones — and inviting in dam-building beavers — can keep water where it’s needed to fight drought and wildfires.
- Health & Medicine
New drugs that block a brain chemical are game changers for some migraine sufferers
Drugs that block a brain chemical called CGRP are helping some patients who suffer from migraine pain.
- 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.
- 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.
- Space
Solar storms can wreak havoc. We need better space weather forecasts
Solar storms can devastate power grids and other systems on Earth. We need better forecasting
- Health & Medicine
How 5 universities tried to handle COVID-19 on campus
U.S. colleges opened in the fall with a patchwork of control measures to keep COVID-19 at bay.
- Science & Society
Can privacy coexist with technology that reads and changes brain activity?
An onslaught of new technology aims to listen to — and maybe even change — your brain activity. Readers, scientists and ethicists grapple with the ethical implications of new ways to get inside the skull.
