Science & Society
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Science & Society
2017 delivered humility, and proved our potential
Acting Editor in Chief Elizabeth Quill reflects on some of the top scientific stories of 2017.
- Science & Society
Colliding neutron stars, gene editing, human origins and more top stories of 2017
A gravitational wave discovery is the year's biggest science story — again.
- Genetics
CRISPR gene editing moved into new territory in 2017
Scientists edited viable human embryos with CRISPR/Cas9 this year.
- Neuroscience
Brains of former football players showed how common traumatic brain injuries might be
Examinations of NFL players’ postmortem brains turned up chronic traumatic encephalopathy in 99 percent of samples in large dataset.
- Science & Society
Would you opt to see the future or decipher the past?
Acting Editor in Chief Elizabeth Quill wonders what it would be like if scientists could see into the past and the future.
- Life
Readers debate ethics of resurrecting extinct species
Readers raised questions about using gene editing tools to bring species back from the dead.
- Science & Society
First controlled nuclear chain reaction achieved 75 years ago
The anniversary of the first controlled nuclear chain reaction marks an achievement of immigrants who served America in World War II.
- Science & Society
Parents may one day be morally obligated to edit their baby’s genes
The CRISPR debate is moving from “should we or shouldn’t we?” to “do we have to?”
- Science & Society
Actress Hedy Lamarr laid the groundwork for some of today’s wireless tech
‘Bombshell’ tells the story of Hedy Lamarr’s double life as a Hollywood starlet and tech inventor.
- Climate
Climate foiled Europeans’ early exploration of North America
The book ‘A Cold Welcome’ examines how the Little Ice Age and other climatic and geographic factors shaped colonial history.
- Tech
When it comes to self-driving cars, what’s safe enough?
Even as unmonitored self-driving cars take to the streets, there’s no consensus about how safe is “safe enough” for driverless vehicles.
- Science & Society
A new map exhibit documents evolving views of Earth’s interior
"Beneath Our Feet" puts maps on display to show how people have envisioned and explored Earth’s subsurface.
