Your DNA Is Not Your Culture
A Spotify playlist tailored to your DNA is the latest example of brands cashing in on people’s search for identity.
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Projects
Life Up Close
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Chloé Bulpin Mysterious Glowing Clams Could Help Save the Planet
The world’s largest mollusks are experts at turning sunshine and algae into fuel.
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NASA The 150-Year Mission to Reforest Puerto Rico
One year after Hurricane Maria, community efforts to replace trees downed by the storm reflect optimism about the island’s future and a focus on sustainability.
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Jonathan Drake / Reuters Will It Ever Stop Raining?
Cities across the country smashed rainfall records, thanks to a set of factors.
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JAXA The Best-Ever Photos of an Asteroid’s Rugged Terrain
A Japanese mission has captured mesmerizing views of a distant space rock.
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Karl Tapales / Getty No One Knows Exactly What Would Happen If Mosquitoes Were to Disappear
A four-year experiment sets out to study the ecological consequences of a bold scheme to end malaria.
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Baz Ratner / Reuters The Underestimated Reliability of Oral Histories
Not only written narratives have stood the test of time.
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The Hidden Artists in Bugs
A reclusive painter reveals how his obsession with insects led to a unique artistic discovery.
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ESA The Milky Way Is Still Feeling the Effects of an Ancient Encounter
A close flyby with a small galaxy hundreds of millions of years ago sent ripples through our own that astronomers can still observe today.
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JPL / NASA SpaceX’s Moon Trip Is the Ultimate Artist Residency
The proposed lunar voyage is the latest in a long tradition of dispatching creative thinkers to extreme environments.
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Asmaa Waguih / Reuters Geologists Are Feuding About the Collapse of Civilization
The year’s most acrimonious scientific fight is a mega-drama over a mega-drought.
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Ilya Bobrovskiy / Australian National University A 558-Million-Year-Old Mystery Has Been Solved
Scientists have finally confirmed that a weird ribbed oval called Dickinsonia is an animal.
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Thomas Kleindinst What Ecstasy Does to Octopuses
Despite their wacky brains, these intelligent animals seem to respond to the drug in a very similar way to humans.
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JPL / NASA NASA’s Beloved Mars Rovers Are Having a Rough Year
One was felled by a dust storm. And now the other has been sidelined by a technical glitch.
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Thomas Mukoya The Three Major Cartels Behind the Downfall of Africa’s Elephants
DNA from dung and tusks helped expose the three major groups behind most of Africa’s ivory smuggling.
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Yves Forestier / Getty Wiping Out the Brain’s Retired Cells Prevents a Hallmark of Alzheimer's
A study in mice hints at a new approach for thwarting neurodegenerative diseases—but many questions remain.
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Gregory Adams / Getty A Man Says His DNA Test Proves He’s Black, and He’s Suing
A case in Washington questions how the government defines race.
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Mike Segar / Reuters What Is 13,000 Feet Tall, Millions of Years Old, and Spews Out Ice?
Scientists are searching for a mysterious kind of volcano on the dwarf planet Ceres.
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Katie Martin / Emily Jan / The Atlantic The Problem Sunscreen Poses for Dark Skin
Certain ingredients are pushing people of color away from good skin care.
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Carlo Allegri / Reuters The Genes That Never Go Out of Style
Fifteen years after the Human Genome Project, scientists are still mostly studying genes that have already been well studied.
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Chris Carlson / AP SpaceX Will Send a Japanese Billionaire to the Moon—And He’s Taking a Bunch of Artists With Him
The spaceflight company said Monday it would take Yusaku Maezawa on a historic trip in 2023.
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Jonathan Drake / Reuters For Millions, Florence 'Has Never Been More Dangerous'
North Carolina's governor warned that inland residents now face life-threatening hazards.
