Feature
- Microbes
Watch: Recent microbial discoveries are changing our view of life on Earth
Videos capture the strange movements and predatory styles of protists — among the closest microbial cousins to multicellular life.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
How brain implants are treating depression
This six-part series follows people whose lives have been changed by an experimental treatment called deep brain stimulation.
- Neuroscience
Today’s depression treatments don’t help everyone
In the second story in the series, deep brain stimulation is a last resort for some people with depression.
- Health & Medicine
The science behind deep brain stimulation for depression
The third part of the series explores the promising brain areas to target for deep brain stimulation for depression.
- Neuroscience
What’s it like to live with deep brain stimulation for depression?
The fourth article in the series explores the physical and emotional challenges of experimental brain implants for depression.
- Health & Medicine
There’s a stigma around brain implants and other depression treatments
The fifth article in the series asks why people are so uncomfortable with changing the brain.
- Neuroscience
What’s the future of deep brain stimulation for depression?
The final story of the series describes efforts to simplify and improve brain implants for severe depression.
- Health & Medicine
Why sewage may hold the key to tracking diseases far beyond COVID-19
COVID-19, mpox and many other pathogens are detectable in wastewater, but public health officials are still figuring out how best to use those data.
- Space
Clara Sousa-Silva seeks molecular signatures of life in alien atmospheres
Quantum astrochemist Clara Sousa-Silva studies how molecules in space interact with light, offering clues to what distant objects are made of.
By Elise Cutts - Math
Here’s why mathematicians are so interested in cake cutting
The question of how to fairly divide resources attracts game theorists, computer scientists, economists, legal experts and more.
- Neuroscience
Here’s what lucid dreamers might tell us about our sleeping minds
Lucid dreaming could prove to be a powerful tool for probing dreams, one of the most universal yet elusive human experiences.
- Climate
How one device could help transform our power grid
As coal-fired power plants are retired, grid-forming inverters may be key to a future that relies on solar and wind power.