Ed Yong
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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Graham Beards / Wikimedia How Viruses Cooperate to Defeat CRISPR
Some weaken their hosts’ immune systems by sacrificing themselves in kamikaze fashion, paving the way for successful infections later.
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Kaeli Swift Crows Sometimes Have Sex With Their Dead
It can get aggressive.
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Ernesto Benavides / Getty Even More Evidence for the Link Between Alzheimer’s and Herpes
Several new studies have rejuvenated a long-dismissed idea that links the common brain disease to the viral infections.
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Nick Graham How Rats Remake Coral Reefs
By eating seabirds, the rodents weaken the flow of nutrients into the oceans, endangering coral reefs and the fish that live there.
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Ryan Somma / Flickr / Katie Martin / ... The New Story of Humanity's Origins in Africa
Several new discoveries suggest that our species didn’t arise from a single point in space. Instead, the entire continent was our cradle.
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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters The Original American Dogs Are Gone
The closest living relative of the precolonial canines isn’t even a dog. It’s a contagious cancer.
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Michael Hutchinson Spiders Can Fly Hundreds of Miles Using Electricity
Scientists are finally starting to understand the centuries-old mystery of “ballooning.”
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Mackenzie Mathis A Game-Changing AI Tool for Tracking Animal Movements
Scientists are already using it to study octopuses, electric fish, surgical robots, and racehorses.
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Paul Gilham / Getty Images How One Number Could Change the Lives of People With a Rare Disorder
People with Angelman syndrome now have their own unique medical code, which will make it easier to track and study the condition.
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Ed Yong The Smithsonian Had To Dig Up Their Dinosaurs Again
As their famous fossil hall enters its final year of renovation, the museum is having to re-excavate some of its decades-old specimens.
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Lucas Jackson / Reuters The Male Echo Chamber of Political Twitter
The men who cover Washington’s politics have a greater audience than their female peers, and largely use that audience to talk to, and amplify the voices of, other men.
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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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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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Nigel Dell / Getty Parasites Can Mind-Control Animals Without Infecting Them
In 2018, everything is a metaphor.
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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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Katja Schulz / Flickr How to Tame a Zombie Fungus
Cicadas have repeatedly turned the infamous cordyceps fungi into indispensable allies.
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Mike Hutchings / Reuters Trees That Have Lived for Millennia Are Suddenly Dying
The oldest baobabs are collapsing, and there's only one likely explanation.
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Daniel Becerril / Reuters The Tipping Point When Minority Views Take Over
A new study says that small groups can overturn established norms if they reach a critical mass of 25 percent.
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Jonathan Webb Moving Animals to Safe Havens Can Unexpectedly Doom Them
Endangered creatures that are relocated to islands for protection can quickly lose their fear of predators.
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Gene Blevins / Reuters Bacteria Survive in NASA’s Clean Rooms by Eating Cleaning Products
Their abilities could make it harder to stop Earth microbes from contaminating other worlds.
