Feature
- Health & Medicine
Controlling nerve cells with light opened new ways to study the brain
A method called optogenetics offers insights into memory, perception and addiction.
- Health & Medicine
Solving mysteries of reproduction helped make parenthood possible for millions
Over the last 100 years, research has shed light on where we come from — how a single fertilized egg manages to develop into an organism that is unique, complex and most decidedly human — and technology has helped spur the process.
- Science & Society
How science museums reinvented themselves to survive the pandemic
The pandemic forced science museums to reach out to their communities, and some built a wider following.
- Health & Medicine
A repurposed TB vaccine shows early promise against diseases like diabetes and MS
The potentially helpful effect of the BCG vaccine on type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases is beginning to make sense.
- Archaeology
To find answers about the 1921 race massacre, Tulsa digs up its painful past
A century ago, hundreds of people died in a horrific eruption of racial violence in Tulsa. A team of researchers may have found a mass grave from the event.
- Climate
Climate change disinformation is evolving. So are efforts to fight back
Researchers discuss effective ways to counter the changing tactics of climate denial.
- Science & Society
Vaccine hesitancy is nothing new. Here’s the damage it’s done over centuries
Pockets of people have railed against vaccines as long as the preventives have existed.
- Science & Society
How to detect, resist and counter the flood of fake news
Misinformation about health is drowning out the facts and putting us at risk. Researchers are learning why bad information spreads and how to protect yourself.
- 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?
