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Keith Bedford / Reuters The Ethics Issue Blocking Organ Transplant Research
Doctors have a short window of time to experiment on brain-dead donors to improve procedures—and that's if they can get permission.
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Gordon Rodda / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service When the U.S. Military Came to Guam
The island’s wildlife has been a casualty of the military presence.
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Courtesy of eGenesis Genetically Engineering Pigs to Grow Organs for People
Scientists announce the birth of 37 pigs gene-edited to be better for human transplant.
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York Minster Sampling DNA From a 1,000-Year-Old Illuminated Manuscript
Genetic analysis could revolutionize the study of medieval books.
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Courtesy of Doug Gann / Archaeology Southwest How a Backhoe Operator Found 3,000-Year-Old Footprints in Arizona
An “artist with a backhoe” details the tricks of his trade.
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BBC Teach / YouTube A Kerfuffle About Diversity in the Roman Empire
How a children’s cartoon ignited a debate about skin color in Roman Britain, and what it has to do with genetics
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Gregory Bull / AP The Alaskan Hunters Teaching Scientists About Whales
Utqiaġvik, Alaska, is one of the only places where whale anatomists can get specimens for research.
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Bettmann / Getty Images Blowing Out Birthday Candles Increases Cake Bacteria by 1,400 Percent
But it’s okay, really!
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Jeannette Rose Photography / Getty Why People Have Out-of-Body Experiences
A new study links abnormalities in the inner ear to a predisposition for such sensations.
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Courtesy of Helix How Do You Know When a DNA Test Is B.S.?
A company called Helix wants to sort through the pseudoscience in DNA tests, but it has its critics, too.
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Kim Kyung Hoon / Reuters Half of All Plastic That Has Ever Existed Was Made in the Past 13 Years
Plastic production is rapidly accelerating, according to an ambitious new paper—but only 9 percent of it gets recycled.
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Courtesy of Earth Observatory of Singapore This Cave Holds a Spectacular Record of 5,000 Years of Tsunamis
A layer cake of bat poop and sand reveals the history of tsunamis in the Indian Ocean.
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Spencer Platt / Getty Why Are There So Many More Species on Land When the Sea Is Bigger?
Most of the Earth’s surface is ocean. Life began there. But marine life accounts for only 15 percent of the world’s species.
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Courtesy of E. Smith Why Do Corals Glow in the Dark?
A new study suggests they use fluorescence for photosynthesis.
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Dean Conger / Getty Images How the Qatar Crisis Shook Up the World's Supply of Helium
The country provides 25 percent of helium used on Earth.
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Brian Killigrew / AP Grand Canyon Gives In to Creationist Suing for Religious Discrimination
The park will now allow Andrew Snelling, a young-Earth creationist geologist, to collect rocks for research.
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NIAID Antibiotic Resistance Is Lurking in The Environment
Immunity to a last-resort antibiotic can develop in bacteria that haven’t been exposed to that antibiotic.
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F. A. Murphy / CDC A Clever New Way to Predict Next Year's Flu
A study suggests an unusual strategy to make vaccines more effective.
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Vincent Kessler / Reuters The EPA Quietly Approved Monsanto's New Genetic-Engineering Technology
It’s the first time RNA interference will be used to kill insect pests.
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Lisk Feng What Mormon Family Trees Tell Us About Cancer
By searching the church's famed family trees, scientists have tracked down a cancer-causing mutation that came west with a pioneer couple—just in time to save the lives of their great-great-great-great grandchildren.
