Featured
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Firing on all Neurons: The Human Brain Project
We’ve all heard of the Human Genome Project, seen the stringy chromosomes and animated nucleotides on the front pages of TIME and Newsweek. But most...
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The Coral Reef Corner
Coral reefs are some of the most complex, yet poorly understood, ecosystems on Earth. Their existence appears to stem from the ocean’s desire to remind...
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Year in Review: Top discoveries of 2014
If you sometimes feel as though you struggle to keep up with the pace of scientific developments, it’s not just your imagination. A study earlier...
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The Myth of Polyphemos: Not Seeing in 3D
In Homer’s Odyssey, the ancient Greece king Ulysses lost his way at sea. Among his many supernatural encounters was the Cyclops Polyphemos. He was a...
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Q&A with Elaine Fuchs
Skin has fascinated Dr. Elaine Fuchs for nearly four decades. After studying keratins, the major building blocks of epidermal cells, in her postdoc, she pioneered...
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Aspirin: the most profitable drug of all time?
Just over a hundred years ago, a little-known German pharmaceutical chemist named Felix Hoffmann wanted to do something to help alleviate his father’s rheumatism. He...
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Humans vs. Pathogens: The oldest parasites
One way Moses proved that he was a messenger of God was by turning his hand white with an affliction known as tzaraath and then...
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Coming Celestial Attractions
Next month ESA will attempt to place a lander the size of a shopping trolley on a comet travelling at 55,000 kilometers an hour. With...
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The Man Who Weighed the Earth
In 1798, the scientist Henry Cavendish published what would become a famous experiment. His setup involved a torsion balance (consists of a rod suspended by...
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The Neanderthal in us
If you have European or Asian ancestry, 1 to 4% of your entire DNA sequence may come from Neanderthals, resulting from interbreeding between modern humans...
