Can Fiction Really Spark Suicide?
The Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why is so powerful—and so controversial—it's sparked a national debate about teenage suicide.
Grief? There’s an App for That.
Would you want to be able to talk to a loved one after they'd passed away, knowing it wasn't really them? Would it help? Would it hurt?
Antarctic Ice Reveals Temporary Side Effect of Carbon Pollution: Happy Plants
The rate of photosynthesis has increased dramatically over the past century. Plants have been shielding us from some of the effects of climate change.
Can Bacteria Improve the Water We Drink?
Municipal water treatment just got easier, cheaper, and more efficient. And it's all thanks to an unlikely helper: bacteria.
To Kill a Maltese Bird
The Mediterranean island nation of Malta is the scene of migratory bird massacres twice a year. Why do they continue to do it?
How to Lose a Pyramid
Archaeologists recently discovered evidence of a long-lost pyramid dating to the thirteenth dynasty of Egypt’s Old Kingdom. How does a pyramid get lost?
How Early Adopters Take Charge of Their Tech
Being an early adopter isn't about how quickly you snap up the latest smartphone. We can all be early adopters in the more meaningful sense of tech mastery.
The Strange Genetic Trick of the Cephalopods
What makes cephalapods like octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish so intelligent? The answer might be in the way they can edit their own RNA as they go.
The Ongoing Practice of Female Genital Mutilation
Female genital mutilation seems totally foreign to the U.S., but versions of the long-outlawed surgery have seen a recent resurgence.
The Statistics of Coin Tosses for Theater Geeks
At the beginning of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a coin toss lands as heads 92 times in a row, the odds of which are a mere 1 in 5 octillion.