The powerful new technology known as CRISPR lets researchers edit the book of life. Rhea Datta champions its medical and agricultural uses, but wonders if we can trust science and business to act in humanity’s best interests.
Read MoreThe new age of genetic testing is long on information, Evelyn Litwinoff finds, but still short on knowledge.
Read MoreAaron Katzman gets in touch with his (and everyone else's) emotions.
Read MoreWhat will your family do with you when you die? "Modern Death" gives Anastasia-Maria Zavitsanou a new perspective.
Read MoreDarwin's "On the Origin of Species" arrived in an America poised for civil war. Angelika Manhart explores its impact.
Read MoreOur contributors hail from all over the sciences — and all over the world. We’ll share what brought us to science, why we stay, and what makes us (occasionally) want to run away. There will be eureka moments, scientific screw-ups, advice to youngsters, peers, and elders, as well as whimsical stories about space exploration, fruit fly cognition, and how a neuron can live its best life.
Something wasn’t right. Every time I pressed the button, the computer responded twice, spitting out two lines of text instead of one. I triple-checked my code, confirming that I had only written one command for the computer to display the words “button pressed.” So, what then? Was I accidentally pressing the button twice, somehow? The […]
Read MoreWhen did I know I wanted to be a scientist? I am searching for a past moment, a milestone or a conversation in my head that made me feel like this, but I couldn’t find one. Childhood I was a curious kid. I was curious about nature, animals, as a lot of kids are. […]
Read MoreI never knew I wanted to be a scientist. When I was a child, I voraciously read and, more than that, watched. Listened. For large swaths of time, too, I did nothing. (But stillness is not idleness.) I would sit in silence and inspect my own mind. Instead of disassembling radios (like Richard Feynman), or […]
Read MoreThe serene atmosphere of the lab had been all but brought to a halt by a most extraordinary rumor concerning the current state of Miniprep efficiency. While it is common knowledge that the Miniprep is a most basic technique of using chemical components from a kit to extract circular DNA from bacteria, it is not […]
Read MoreMinutes into the defense, it became clear to me that the time-honored tradition of Dissertation Defense is not taken seriously by anybody except, of course, the candidate. Let me explain. I knew that, at least in the Lone Star State1, this cruel and ritualistic form of hazing always happened behind the closed doors of a […]
Read MoreThe phrase “scientific community” gets thrown around a lot. But the thing is, it really is a community. We don’t just rely on each other professionally. We form friendships and maintain relationships, even across national borders, and across oceans. We have our own culture, with its particular value system. We have our own history, our […]
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