Society

After the Madness—Pandemic Silver Linings in Bioscience

Will the frenzied rush to understand and treat SARS-CoV-2 bring longer lasting benefit to the world of scientific research and medicine?

By David Ewing Duncan

The Perfect Orgasm

What would a sex toy that anticipates your every whim be like?

By Lux Alptraum

Plastic-Eating Microbes to the Rescue?

Nature breaks everything down—eventually. It’s time to accelerate the process.

By Grace Rubenstein

The Real Way Science Empowers Us

Seeing the universe as it is gives us strength rooted in humility.

By Eliot Peper

Who Says You Need Permission to Study Yourself?

Sara Riggare can’t finish her PhD because an ethics committee says she needed their approval first.

By Emily Mullin

This Artist Shows Why Science is Too Important to Be Left to Scientists

Lucy McRae provokes us to vividly imagine alternate futures.

By Gemma Milne

The Limits of Computers That Read Our Minds

A professor in China builds a brain-machine interface that keeps humans fully in charge.

By Yiting Sun

Who Will Be the Google of Genomics?

The first company to offer whole genome sequencing for free can build the most valuable advertising engine in the world.

By Andrew Hessel

Young Biodesigners Unveil Clever Ideas for a Cleaner World

Student competitors turn jellyfish, microorganisms, and even hair cells into useful things.

By Amanda Schaffer

Where’s the Killer App for Menopause?

Women suffering from hot flashes try to find relief in a device that wasn’t designed specifically for them.

By Julia Faith Sklar