When a Mars Simulation Goes Wrong
A recent mission atop a Hawaiian volcano shows humans still have much to learn before they set foot on another world.
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Projects
Life Up Close
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Cornelia Li China Is Genetically Engineering Monkeys With Brain Disorders
A visit to a facility in Guangdong province, where researchers are tinkering with monkey brains in order to understand the most severe forms of autism
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Mayuko Fujino The Weird, Ever-Evolving Story of DNA
Carl Zimmer’s sprawling new book, She Has Her Mother’s Laugh, forces readers to reconsider what they think they know about genetics and heredity.
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Your Brain on Depression
An animated short film illuminates the neuroscience of depression.
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Tina Stallard / Getty How Pots and Pans Turned Us Into Creative Cooks
After harnessing fire, kitchenware is the most important invention to food as we know it.
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Axel Bueckert / Shutterstock A Landmark Study on the Origins of Alcoholism
By studying rats in a smarter way, scientists are finally learning something useful about why some drinkers become addicted and others don’t.
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Samuel Turvey / ZSL New Gibbon Species Discovered in a 2,200-Year-Old Royal Chinese Tomb
It’s extinct. Other gibbons might soon join it.
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Science Photo Library / Steve Gschmeissner / Getty The Mysterious ‘Jumping Gene’ That Appears 500,000 Times in Human DNA
Its segments make up 17 percent of our genome, but scientists are only just starting to understand what it does.
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David Grey / Reuters Can a Parent’s Life Experience Change the Genes a Child Inherits?
Inside the controversial world of epigenetics research
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Neil Orman / AAAS Why Would You Want a Prosthetic Hand That Feels Pain?
“After many years I felt my hand, as if a hollow shell, got filled with life again.”
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Matthew Busch / Getty / Jonathan Daniels / ... How the Carmakers Trumped Themselves
Automakers wanted rule changes. But not, they say, these rule changes.
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Nigel Dell / Getty Parasites Can Mind-Control Animals Without Infecting Them
In 2018, everything is a metaphor.
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Jim Lo Scalzo / Getty How Exactly Do You Establish a Space Force?
President Trump has directed his military advisers to create a sixth military branch devoted to the cosmos, but doing so may require an act of Congress.
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La Plata County Handout / Reuters Someone Flew a Drone Too Close to a Wildfire, Again
Firefighters in Colorado had to ground their aircraft for an hour.
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Social Media / Reuters It’s Not About the Raccoon
There’s an irony to all the love for Minnesota’s famous furry climber.
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Radio Atlantic: Being Black in America Can Be Hazardous to Your Health
Why do black Americans die earlier than white Americans? Staff writers Olga Khazan and Vann Newkirk join Matt and Alex to discuss how poverty and prejudice shorten African-American lifespans.
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Sophia Dagnello / NRAO / AUI / NSF Black Holes Really Know How to Savor Their Meals
Astronomers have detected the glow of a star being slowly devoured millions of light-years from Earth.
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Jamie Hall Fear of Humans Is Making Animals Around the World Go Nocturnal
Even non-threatening activities like hiking are changing creatures’ sleep cycles.
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Eric Isselee / Dmitrij Skorobogatov / Shutterstock / ... The Neuroscientific Case for Facing Your Fears
A new study shows that mice have to remember their phobias if they are to lose them effectively.
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Is Trump Ready for a Global Outbreak?
Should America experience a pandemic, the president’s tendencies toward nationalism may fuel the fire.
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Jonno Rattman The Next Plague Is Coming. Is America Ready?
The epidemics of the early 21st century revealed a world unprepared, even as the risks continue to multiply. Much worse is coming.
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NASA / JPL-Caltech / TAMU NASA Is Really Worried About Its Mars Rover
Will Opportunity survive a massive dust storm?
