Stuck in the Midden with You
To paraphrase an old adage, one species’ garbage is another’s bounty (of research material). Refuse sites called middens can be as simple as a single household’s outdoor pit, or an...
When Cancer Spreads between Species
If you’re a multicellular organism (and you are), you’re at some risk to get cancer (with very few exceptions). The disease is both simple (uncontrolled cell proliferation) and exceedingly complex...
What’s in a (Planet) Name?
January 1, 2020 will be the first anniversary of the spacecraft New Horizon’s visit to Arrokoth, a minor planet 4 billion miles away from ours—the farthest object ever visited by...
We’re Living in a Post-Antibiotic World
On November 13, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a 148-page report on antibiotic resistance in the U.S., and the threat it poses to us. It presents...
Smart Toilets: The Jetpack of the Bathroom
On first read, “smart toilet” may sound oxymoronic, but with the advent of receptacles that can play music, warm their seats, double as bidets, and even adjust themselves for elderly...
Cornel West: Neoliberalism Has Failed Us
...got William Barber and Liz Theoharis leading the poor people’s campaign during the Trump years, but the issue of focusing on poverty is something that ought to hold across the...
How Forensic DNA Evidence Can Lead to Wrongful Convictions
...forensic science in the administration of criminal justice is due in no small measure to the meteoric rise in DNA profiling,” wrote the law professor Liz Hefferman in a 2008...
Glenn Ligon’s “Blue Black” Exhibits the History of Race in America
...race in differing ways—sometimes overtly and other times more covertly, as in Warhol’s portrait of Elizabeth Taylor, Liz #4, which really emphasizes her whiteness. The themes addressed in the show...
Sundials, Sentiments, and S-Town
S-Town, the record-breaking podcast released on March 28th to a wave of critical acclaim and (some concern), was envisioned by its creators to be a podcast as novel. Host &...