Chattering teeth, human hands gesturing, and people working

Dating Apps Are Intensifying Online Partisanship

Some social scientists argue that dating and mating patterns may be the real drivers of polarization.
Three spoonfuls of red microplastic on a green background.

We Consume a Spoonful of Plastic a Week

You've heard about all the microscopic plastic in our water supply. But did you know there are ways to limit how much you ingest?
Brain organoid

Is It Ethical to Grow a Brain in a Petri Dish?

Brain organoids could be the key to understanding brain diseases, which is why we should think carefully about how far we are prepared to take them.
Two people gathering seeds

Can Crops’ Wild Relatives Save Troubled Agriculture?

Cultivating a limited number of crops reduced the genetic diversity of plants, endangering harvests. Seed collectors hope to fix it by finding the plants’ wild cousins.
Several lab mice in a container

An Epidemic of Retractions

Nicolas Chevassus-au-Louis's new book, Fraud in the Lab, offers some tough love for the scientific community.
A Red Cross nurse wearing a face mask, c. 1918

The 1918 Parade That Spread Death in Philadelphia

In six weeks, 12,000 were dead of influenza.
A new lava stream cascades into the ocean at the former lava delta site in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.

Volcanic Ecosystems in the Deep Ocean

Undersea volcanoes, like Hawaii's Kīlauea, foster diverse ecosystems in an environment far from sunlight—and as acidic as lemon juice.
Antechinus stuartii

Death and Mating

Semelparous organisms reproduce exactly once in a lifetime.
A man looking at land affected by drought

Climate Change and Syria’s Civil War

Some scholars and scientists are calling climate change the invisible player in Syria's ongoing civil war. But is that too simplistic an explanation?
Aeroplankton

Aeroplankton: The Life in the Air We Breathe

Just as the ocean is full of plankton, the air we breathe teems with microorganisms.