Sarah Zhang
The Last Children of Down Syndrome
Prenatal testing is changing who gets born and who doesn’t. This is just the beginning.
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anisah_priyadi / getty The Surprise Hiding in the DNA of Pet Fish
Domesticated betta fish have evolved a sex gene not found in wild fish of their species.
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Timothy A. Clary / Getty The Era of Mass Vaccinations Is Ending
To reach the remaining holdouts, America’s approach to vaccine distribution is going hyperlocal.
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Getty / The Atlantic A Revolution Is Sweeping the Science of Ancient Diseases
The study of DNA from millennia-old bacteria and viruses is revealing new secrets about the plague and other epidemics.
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H. Armstrong Roberts / Getty / Katie Martin … We Are Turning COVID-19 Into a Young Person’s Disease
Even as cases drop among vaccinated Americans, the coronavirus still can spread among unvaccinated people—who will be disproportionately children.
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Katie Martin / The Atlantic The mRNA Vaccines Are Looking Better and Better
Concerns about blood clots with Johnson & Johnson underscore just how lucky Americans are to have the Pfizer and Moderna shots.
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The Atlantic You Probably Have an Asymptomatic Infection Right Now
No, not COVID-19. Many, many viruses can infect humans without making us sick, and how they do that is one of biology’s deepest mysteries.
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Holly M. Devine / Alamy What Killed These Bald Eagles? After 25 Years, We Finally Know.
A perfect confluence of events created a stealth killer.
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Jooeun Bae You Recovered From COVID-19. Now Your Coffee Smells Like Sewage.
The way back from smell loss is its own strange experience.
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Getty A Gruesome Feeding Frenzy in the Atlantic Ocean
A whale’s blubber is a feast for sharks, a natural end to—in this case—an unnatural death.
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Getty / Paul Spella / The Atlantic We Now Can See a Virus Mutate Like Never Before
Tracking the coronavirus’s evolution, letter by letter, is revolutionizing pandemic science.
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Fox Photos / Getty We’re Just Rediscovering a 19th-Century Pandemic Strategy
The first way to fight a new virus would once have been opening the windows.
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Getty / Mark Harris What If We Never Reach Herd Immunity?
Hitting the threshold might actually be impossible. But vaccines can still help end the pandemic.
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Michael Ciaglo / Getty What’s the Use of a Pretty Good Vaccine?
New vaccines are falling short of the spectacular expectations set by Pfizer and Moderna. The world still needs them.
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Nate Lewis The Victims Left Behind by Genetic Genealogy
An Atlantic analysis of more than 100 cases using this powerful new policing tool found only four involving a homicide with a Black victim.
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REUTERS/Flavio Lo Sc Why Kids Might Be Key to Reaching Herd Immunity
Children rarely get very ill from COVID-19. But there’s another reason to vaccinate them.
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Simoul Alva A Troubling New Pattern Among the Coronavirus Variants
The most concerning versions of the virus are not simply mutating—they’re mutating in similar ways.
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Getty / The Atlantic The Next Phase of Vaccination Will Be Even Harder
Getting vaccines to hospitals and nursing homes was supposed to be the easy part.
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Shutterstock / Getty / The Atlantic We Know Almost Nothing About Giant Viruses
An enigmatic group of microbes seems to have an unusual new ability.
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Craig F. Walker / Reuters What the Vaccine’s Side Effects Feel Like
The COVID-19 vaccine will make some people feel sick. But they’re not—that’s the immune system doing its job.
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Katie Martin / The Atlantic The Next 6 Months Will Be Vaccine Purgatory
The period after a vaccine is approved will be strange and confusing, as certain groups of people get vaccinated but others have to wait.
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