Book Review: The Stuff We’re Made Of
Dan Levitt’s “What’s Gotten Into You” is a lively, deeply researched history of of how our...
People With Disabilities Deserve Better Health Care. We All Do.
Patients who need special accommodations struggle to find doctors that can adequately care for them. As...
For a Host of Vital Lab Tests, No FDA Oversight Exists
Laboratory-developed tests, which include diagnostic tests for everything from Lyme disease to autism, have long been...
After Decades of Drilling, Should Alaska Pay Climate Refugees?
As climate change continues to destroy the habitability of coastal communities, the question of who should...
For Children With Fetal Alcohol Exposure, A Gap in Support
While research-based dietary and behavioral interventions for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder have been available since the...
Book Review: Behind Wall Street's Huge Gamble on Cancer Drugs
“For Blood and Money” is Nathan Vardi’s thriller-like account of how private investors fueled the race...
Why Are We So Afraid of Nuclear Power?
Nuclear power has always been overshadowed by rhetoric: overpromising techno-utopians on one hand, and fearmongering doomsayers...
Criminologists, Looking to Biology for Insight, Stir a Racist Past
After a decades-long effort to bring biology back to the study of crime, the field of...
Severe Nausea During Pregnancy Often Goes Untreated
The nausea that comes with morning sickness is common in the first trimester of pregnancy, but...
Wanted (by Scientists): Dead Birds and Bats, Felled by Renewables
Biologists are creating a nationwide repository of winged creatures killed at wind and solar facilities. The...
Book Review: Of Squirrels and Deer and Other Beasts of Burden
In “Pests,” science journalist Bethany Brookshire explores our complex relationships with the creatures that invade and...
Google Search Has Nothing to Fear From ChatGPT
Some tech industry insiders have speculated that ChatGPT-style bots might revolutionize, or even replace, traditional internet...
Good Blood, Bad Policy: The Red Cross and Jim Crow
The Red Cross’s 1940s policy of racially segregating blood propped up notions of racial difference and...
Decades of Road Salting Is Polluting the Mississippi River
Across the U.S., freshwater sources are being polluted by dramatic increases in salt concentration. In colder...
Dirty Waterways May Alter Fish Behavior
Experiments show that some pollutants appear to hinder how fish socialize, while others appear to make...
Book Review: Tracing the Relational Roots of Happiness
What are the keys to wellbeing? Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz, the authors of ‘‘The Good...
The Lead Industry’s Continuing Influence and Its Consequences
Mirroring the tobacco industry’s tactics, the lead industry has raised doubt on scientific studies showing the...
Tracing the Flow of Forever Chemicals Into Waterways and Wildlife
Just as toxicological research pushes thresholds for safe exposure close to zero, the ubiquity of PFASs...
In Some Textbooks, Climate Change Content Is Few and Far Between
A recent study found that most college biology textbooks published in the 2010s contained less content...
In Kenya, an Epidemic of Children Hospitalized for Starvation
A hospital in Kakuma, Kenya, the site of one of the largest refugee camps in the...
Talking Truth and Fiction With ChatGPT
It’s clear that ChatGPT isn’t yet built for accuracy. Indeed, it makes things up when it...
Interview: Matthew Cobb on the Ethics of Genetic Engineering
In the book “As Gods,” biologist and historian Matthew Cobb explores the “dream and the nightmare”...
In Bioethics, the Public Deserves More Than a Seat at the Table
As science advances at an exponential rate, we’re faced with countless bioethical decisions that may change...
In a Famed Kenyan Game Park, the Animals Are Giving Up
Near the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro lies Amboseli National Park, famous for its abundance of wildlife...
The Steep Cost of Bio-Based Plastics
Bio-plastics, made from crops like corn, are hyped as a way to reduce the use of...
For Some Survivors, Polio Casts a Long Shadow
Patients with post-polio syndrome may struggle for years to find an explanation for their symptoms, only...
Book Excerpt: The Unknown Risks of Microplastics in Indoor Air
A growing body of research has found consistently high tallies of microplastic fibers swirling in the...
Doctors Seek to Bar Corporate Control of Health Practices
A group of emergency physicians and consumer advocates in multiple states are pushing for stiffer enforcement...
Race and the American Museum of Natural History
In New York’s acclaimed facility, the Hall of African Mammals is across the corridor from the...
Patients Admitted for Treatment Charged With Crimes Instead
An investigation found that at least 40 felony charges have been filed against 29 patients since...
Earth’s Orbit Is About to Get More Crowded
The military is preparing to launch a fleet of small, interconnected satellites to collect and transmit...
Book Review: Starry-Eyed Dreams of a Lunar Homecoming
Both aspirational and grounded in hard science, “Back to the Moon” is astrophysicist Joseph Silk’s impassioned...
Why Climate Science Shouldn’t Forget to Factor in Brain Health
Scientists agree that climate change will compromise almost every aspect of global health. Why then isn’t...
Experts Debate the Risks of Made-to-Order DNA
The U.S. imposes few security regulations on synthetic DNA providers. It’s perfectly legal to make a...
For Those With Sickle Cell Disease, Inequities in Fertility Care
Sickle cell disease, a disorder that causes blood cells to become misshapen, can lead to strokes,...
In the Horn of Africa, a Climate-Fueled Food Catastrophe Looms
In the Horn of Africa, nearly 26 million people are facing extreme hunger due to climate...
The Philanthropic Wellspring of Modern Race Science
Wickliffe Draper invested his inheritance to defend what he saw as one of the most important...
Race Is a Biological Fiction, and a Powerful Reality
By now, the science is clear: there’s no biological basis for race. But race as a...
A Crude Tool: Race and Breast Cancer Research
Researchers and clinicians still rely on race as a vague stand-in for intertwined strands of social...
Q&A: Jonathan Kahn on New Frontiers in Racial Profiling
First used in Europe in the Netherlands in 1999 to determine the biogeographic ancestry of a...
Can Standardized Testing Escape Its Racist Past?
Critics say standardized tests cannot escape their roots in eugenics and segregation. Supporters argue it’s not...
The Complicated Quest to Decipher Human Difference
The socially constructed racial categories we’ve inherited are only crude and highly imperfect maps of biological...
Confronting the Ghosts of Science Past
Conversations about famed scientists who held troubling views on race often devolve into acrimonious circuses of...
Long Division: The Persistence of Race Science
Enlightenment-era thinkers endorsed crude notions of racial categorization, giving them the sheen of scientific authority. Although...
Field at a Crossroads: Genetics and Racial Mythmaking
Many geneticists are currently weighing the societal risks of their work and confronting an unsettling possibility:...
Book Review: Exploring the Ocean to Find Queer Survival and Joy
In the linked essays in “How Far the Light Reaches,” science writer Sabrina Imbler investigates the...
What the World Can Learn from Brazil’s Shifting Stance on Science
When I visited the country as a Ph.D. student years ago, I was struck by the...
An Autopsy After Stillbirth Can Provide Crucial Answers
After a stillbirth, some doctors do not offer patients postmortem exams, and some patients decide against...
In the West, Will Pink Snow Make Droughts Worse?
This summer, researchers from around the country crisscrossed the mountains of Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Utah, and...
With Stool Testing, Fewer Americans May Delay Colon Screening
Although colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death for both men and women...