Sarah Zhang
The Fertility Doctor’s Secret
Donald Cline must have thought no one would ever know. Then DNA testing came along.
-
![]()
stilllifephotographer / Claudia Totir / Getty / Katie ... A Bold and Controversial Idea for Making Breast Milk
The obsession with breastfeeding has inspired a start-up to make human milk outside the human body.
-
![]()
Courtesy of Todd Hochberg A Photographer Has Spent 20 Years Documenting Stillbirths
For grieving families, the photos preserve the only memories they have of their child.
-
![]()
Katie Martin / The Atlantic How Hospitals Changed Their Approach to Stillbirth
Grieving patients are encouraged to see and hold their stillborn infants—and in some cases even bring them home.
-
For subscribers: The story of a new name
This is The Atlantic’s weekly email to subscribers—a close look at the issues our writers are watching, just for you.
-
![]()
Marc Guitard / Getty After 2,000 Years, These Seeds Have Finally Sprouted
Six date seeds as old as the Dead Sea Scrolls are now flourishing as trees on a kibbutz.
-
![]()
Thomas Peter / Reuters A Virus With a Deadly Boring Name
2019-nCoV isn't going to cut it long term.
-
![]()
Marco Bertorello / AFP via Getty How Did Humans Boil Water Before the Invention of Pots?
Roasting would have been easy. But re-creating the paleo way of boiling water requires a bit more imagination.
-
![]()
The Virus Buried in a 100-Year-Old Lung
Scientists have managed to sequence the genome of a measles virus that infected a 2-year-old girl who died in 1912.
-
![]()
Universal History Archive / Getty Images What Happens to Meat When You Freeze It for 35,000 Years
A gastronomic investigation of mammoth feasts
-
![]()
Arsh Raziuddin / The Atlantic Sleuths Are Haunted by the Cold Case of Julie Doe
A group of self-taught investigators is confronting the limits of using DNA and genetic genealogy to identify victims.
-
![]()
BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images The Disappearing Y Chromosome
It’s surprisingly common for men to start losing entire chromosomes from blood cells as they age.
-
![]()
Courtesy of Chuang Zhao Why Mammals Are So Good at Hearing (And Chewing)
Before an evolutionary breakthrough, the tiny bones of ears were part of the jaw.
-
![]()
Public domain A Hint About the Affliction That Kept Marat in the Bathtub
Ever since the French revolutionary’s assassination in a bathtub, doctors and scientists have wondered why he had to spend so much time in there to begin with.
-
![]()
MIranda Barnes What It Means to Name a Forgotten Murder Victim
Thirteen years ago, a young woman was found dead in small-town Texas. She was nicknamed “Lavender Doe” for the purple shirt she was wearing. Her real identity would remain a mystery until amateur genealogists took up her case.
-
![]()
Ron Wooten The Secret Identity of a Coyote-Like Creature
A photographer began shooting unusual-looking coyotes on Galveston Island. They turned out to be descended from a very rare wolf species.
-
![]()
Steve Ruark / AP An Invader’s Less-Than-Elegant Move From Water to Land
The much-maligned northern snakehead fish might be less menacing than it was made out to be.
-
![]()
Image courtesy of Norman Russell The Chickens That Are Surrogates for Rare Breeds
A new way to revive rare breeds—and perhaps even endangered birds—from frozen cells
-
![]()
Alain Nogues / Getty It’s Possible to Inherit More DNA From One Parent Than the Other
23andMe’s 4-million-person database reveals how many people are living with undetected chromosomal anomalies.
-
![]()
Jae C. Hong / AP The Messy Consequences of the Golden State Killer Case
Tools meant to reunite families are now being “used essentially to get families to put their members in jail.”
-
![]()
Courtesy of Holly Becker / The Atlantic A Woman’s AncestryDNA Test Revealed a Medical Secret
As a cancer patient, she had received cord-blood cells from an anonymous donor. The DNA from those cells led her to him.
